AY is the nickname of the AY-3-8910 programmable sound generator family. The Amstrad CPC sound processor is more exactly the AY-3-8912.
This chip was very popular and was used in a lot of machines.
[[MSX]], [[ZX Spectrum]], [[Atari| Atari ST]], [[Oric]]... all used chips from this family (sometimes it was the YM variant instead of AY...). The YM variant differed only in the hardware envelopes where it used 32 steps compared to 16 steps for the AY.
[[MSX]], [[ZX Spectrum]], [[Atari]]... all used Chips from this family (sometimes As a result it is still quite popular in the YM variant instead of AY..actual Chip Tune movement as a vintage sound processor.)
As a result it is still quite popular in the actual Many [[Chip Tuning movement as a vintage sound processorTune]] sites include AY files.
Many Chip Tuning sites include AY files and scene. HalasAlas, the [[ZX Spectrum]] is more often used as reference. But a huge library is available.
==Amstrad Plus specificity==
The Amstrad Plus range include DMA sound channels.This offer extra capabilitiesEach HSYNC, 1 instruction per active DMA channel is read. Each channel executes an instruction which allowed looping and extra bugs toosending data to AY registers.Each DMA channel is effectively an AY register playlist and once started is executed without CPU intervention.It was meant to reduce the strain on the CPU. This feature offered extra capabilities including 15 kHz sample playback.
==Technical references==
*[[Datasheet AY-8913]] on CPCwiki.
*[[Media:GI_AY-3-8910_Feb-1979.pdf|General Instrument AY-3-8910/8912 Datasheet (1979)]]
*[[Media:AY-3-891x_-_Technical_Specification.pdf|General Instrument AY-3-891x Technical Specification]]
== Chip tune ==
Check the [[Chip Tune]] page.
==LinksEmulators ==*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Instrument_AY-3-8910 Wikipedia's opinion on the matter...]
Many emulation software does exist in order to play chiptunes from AY-YM on you modern machines.
* ZX spectrum computer sound chip emulator :[http://bulba.untergrund.net/emulator_e.htm there!]
* Project AY at worldofspectrum.org [http://www.worldofspectrum.org/projectay/ayplayers.htm there!]
* Arkos Tracker to compose tunes for CPC on modern PCs : [http://www.julien-nevo.com/arkos/tools.html there!]
== Peripherals ==
* a lot of projects using tools such as [[Arduino]] hardware would include AY chips, as those are widely well known and iconic of so many old school computers... and quite easy to connect on electronic circuits.
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* [[PlayCity]] : a modern card (2014) that can enable to add 2x AY compatible chips to add 2x3 soundchannels, those AY can have their clokcing set in various frequencies and would benefit from some extra compinents advantages so they don't use that much CPU from the CPC.
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==Links==
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Instrument_AY-3-8910 Wikipedia's opinion on the matter...]
==Some Chip Tunes sites==
*[http://ay-riders.speccy.cz/ The AY riderz] a "famous" Speccy music group.
*[http://www.creamhq.de/ymrockerz/ YM rockerz...] the same concept, but with the YM, so the Atari version.
*[[Categoryhttp:Hardware]//ultrasyd.free.fr/ ultrasyd.free.fr]Ultrasyd's Website. [[Category:Music and sound| ]][[Category:Electronic Component]][[Category:CPC Internal Components]]