Chips › Sound & audio › PC audio › AdLib (OPL2)
AdLib (OPL2)
1987
AdLib's 1987 FM-synthesis sound card built on Yamaha's OPL2 chip, the first widely supported PC music standard.
Emulators
| Emulator | Type | License | Site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boxer | downloadable | GPL-2.0 | Website ↗ |
| DOSBox ECE | downloadable | GPL-2.0 | Website ↗ |
| DOSBox Pure | downloadable | GPL-2.0 | Website ↗ |
| DOSBox Staging | downloadable | GPL-2.0 | Website ↗ |
| DOSBox-X | downloadable | GPL-2.0 | Website ↗ |
| Fake86 | downloadable | GPL-2.0 | Website ↗ |
| MartyPC | both | MIT | Website ↗ |
| PCem | downloadable | GPL-2.0 | Website ↗ |
| XTulator | downloadable | GPL-2.0 | Website ↗ |
| em-dosbox | online | GPL-2.0 | Website ↗ |
Reference & documentation
External technical references for programming AdLib (OPL2) and for writing emulators.
| Resource | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Yamaha YM3812 OPL2 Application Manual (LSI-2438124) ↗ | Datasheet | Primary Yamaha manual: registers, block diagrams, timing |
| Yamaha YM3812 datasheet (ardent-tool) ↗ | Datasheet | Alternate scanned YM3812 datasheet copy |
| AdLib/Sound Blaster FM chips: timers and interrupts ↗ | Interrupt list | Timer 1/2 registers and IRQ status byte |
| OPL chip register reference - Shikadi ModdingWiki ↗ | Memory map | Full register/operator-to-channel mapping tables |
| Yamaha YM3812 OPL2 Application Manual (LSI-2438124) ↗ | Pinout | Official pin assignments and package diagram |
| Programming the AdLib/Sound Blaster FM Music Chips (Jeffrey S. Lee) ↗ | Programming | Canonical OPL2 register-by-register programming bible |
| ArduinoOPL2 in-depth OPL2/OPL3 programming guide ↗ | Reference | Detailed register reference with F-num/block math |
| Testing YM3812 register-write timing on the C64 ↗ | Reference | Measured address/data write cycle timing analysis |
| AdLib / OPL2 / YM3812 internals - yehar.com ↗ | Source | Reverse-engineered ROM tables, DAC, envelope algorithms |
| Nuked-OPL3 cycle-accurate emulator (covers OPL2) ↗ | Test suite | Bit-perfect reference emulator for conformance checking |
| OPLx OPL2 programming and tools index ↗ | Tool | Trackers, players, editors and format docs |