“A Dynamically Configurable Audio Synthesizer” by Jungleib, Smith, Roach, Kurzawa, and Fitzgerald assigned to Intel.

19940901 Intel sends Sj to Pitch Microsoft; Heidi Breslauer.
They did not at all like the idea that our VxD had control over the CPU’s main interrupt.

19940801 94 NSP Promise and Failure

19940801 Intel/IAL NSP business & port

19940612 Seer complaints about ICS nonsales, Intel inattention.

PC Week

19940316 Intel Development Extension #4: Unified sound bank and editor, Pentium optimization, reverb.

19940201 Intel sends SJ to pitch Creative (Sorkin)

19940218 Intel Development extension #3: Support OEM Licensing.

New Media confirms sound cards disappearing.

19931215 Intel Development Extension #2:

Port to Wave output. As predicted, writing to Windows 3.1 audio services exposed the impossibility of working under the Microsoft audio system.

A key reason Satie worked, is that it worked OUTSIDE of windows. Intel’s Advanced Technology group (Bob Davies) had given us a slim 32-bit VxD-Virtual Device Driver (when 16-bit was the MS legal limit), that gave us control over the CPU’s Interrupt. As long as we were polite, this gave us a constant 11-millisecond cycle of processing opportunity, and abundant memory space in which to do it.

This law-breaking VxD proved to be the ticking time bomb that set off the NSP wars. We were aware of the implications and ever so willing to flout Microsoft, in pursuit of the importance and relevance of the work to synthesis itself.

Perhaps that is in part why—we later learned—Intel deliberately sought for the work “a West-coast group of Birkenstocked hippies.” (And why in all pictures from that period you’ll find me dressed for that role.)

Seer Systems delivers to Intel the first GM software synthesizer, for 486DX (integer-class) cpus.

Music-Driven Allocation patent claim assigned to Intel

19930827 Intel Development extension #1: Added pitch variables, modulation.

19930716 Variable Synthesizer Resource Allocation patent claim assigned to Intel