A hardware replica of the Gravis Ultrasound Plug and Play ISA sound card includes complete KiCad design files, PCB layout, sample ROM, and reverse-engineered GAL logic for retro hardware enthusiasts.
An open-source hardware project has recreated the classic Gravis Ultrasound Plug and Play (PnP) ISA sound card from scratch providing designers and vintage computing experts the blueprints for building a replica. The project, known as Beavis Ultrasound, provides access to KiCad schematics, PCB layout, sample ROM, reverse-engineered GAL logic, assembly instructions, and associated design files via its publicly accessible GitHub repository.
This kind of hardware recreation does not emulate the hardware in software or replace hardware functions with substitute components, unlike many other reproductions but aims to reproduce the original hardware as faithfully as possible. The reverse-engineered GAL logic replicates the functionality of the IDE CD-ROM interface that was present in the original Gravis Ultrasound PnP sound card.
However, the goal of the project is a faithful hardware-level reproduction rather than an approximate implementation. The project also requires the original AMD AM78C201 InterWave audio processor, which is now out-of-production and available only as old stock or on the second-hand market. Moreover, the developer mentions that the board has not been fabricated or tested yet and advises users to build this board at your own risk.
By publishing the complete schematics and board design files, this project allows engineers to examine, modify and reproduce the historically interesting ISA sound card without losing any design information. Availability of the open source hardware schematics, PCB layout and programmable logic implementation will be useful for the reverse engineering of this type of hardware.
The project is more engineering-oriented than many other hardware reproductions and demonstrates how open-source technologies can help preserve classic hardware designs.
