Chips › Sound & audio › FM synthesis › Yamaha YM2612 (OPN2)
Yamaha YM2612 (OPN2)
1988
Yamaha's OPN2 six-channel FM sound chip, the distinctive voice of the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis.
Machines
Emulators
| Emulator | Type | License | Site |
|---|---|---|---|
| BlastEm | downloadable | GPL-3.0 | Website ↗ |
| DGen/SDL | downloadable | BSD-2-Clause | Website ↗ |
| Exodus | downloadable | MIT | Website ↗ |
| Genesis | online | Non-commercial (Genesis Plus GX) | Website ↗ |
| Genesis Plus GX | downloadable | Non-commercial | Website ↗ |
| Gens | downloadable | GPL-2.0 | Website ↗ |
| Gens KMod | downloadable | GPL-2.0 | Website ↗ |
| Gens/GS | downloadable | GPL-2.0 | Website ↗ |
| Kega Fusion | downloadable | Freeware | Website ↗ |
| PicoDrive | downloadable | MAME | Website ↗ |
| Regen | downloadable | Freeware | Website ↗ |
| Sega 32X | online | Non-commercial (PicoDrive) | Website ↗ |
| Sega Mega-CD | online | Non-commercial (PicoDrive) | Website ↗ |
Reference & documentation
External technical references for programming Yamaha YM2612 (OPN2) and for writing emulators.
| Resource | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Yamaha YM2612 Datasheet (PDF) ↗ | Datasheet | Original Yamaha datasheet PDF, pinout and timing |
| VGM File Format Specification (vgmrips) ↗ | Format | Register-log format; SN76489 clock and write commands |
| YM2612 - MegaDrive Wiki ↗ | Memory map | Full register map plus undocumented $2C behavior |
| YM2612 - Video Game Music Preservation Foundation ↗ | Pinout | 24-pin DIP pinout table and specifications |
| YM2612 Register Reference - Plutiedev ↗ | Programming | Modern annotated register-level programming guide, clock-corrected |
| Sega Genesis Technical Manual - YM2612 section ↗ | Reference | Canonical Sega manual YM2612 register documentation |
| ymfm OPN family GeneralInfo ↗ | Reference | Aaron Giles OPN architecture and implementation notes |
| sauraen/YM2612 VHDL reverse engineering ↗ | Reference | Documents architecture and undocumented YM2612 features |
| Nuked-OPN2 (die-shot OPN emulator) ↗ | Source | Cycle-accurate OPN2 sister-chip from die reverse-engineering |
| YM2608-LLE transistor-level emulator ↗ | Source | Very low-level die-shot YM2612/YM2610 emulator |
| JT12 Verilog FM sound core ↗ | Source | FPGA-accurate Verilog YM2612/YM3438 implementation |