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Looking for NOS parts (C140)

Technical discussion which is not directly related to VGM files. Talk about Hardware and Software.

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  • Maxtreme Offline
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Looking for NOS parts (C140)

Post by Maxtreme »

Hi I'm looking for a Namco C140 sound chip (used part is ok, NOS would be great - it was used in Namco NA-1/NA-2 back in the days)! Any feedback how to get at least one would be helpful.

Best greetings from germany!
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Post by ctr »

Go on ebay and look for old arcade PCBs. Expect to pay a lot of money though. Also the NA-1/NA-2 chip (C219) is not compatible with C140.

I'm not sure exactly why you want this chip. If it is to repair an old PCB, you're screwed (you will need to buy another PCB to salvage), if it is to make a VGM player, I think there are better solutions.

Edit: saw your other post. You do not need a C140 chip for your MIDI synth. This is a PCM chip, you can get pretty much the exact same sounds from any other PCM chip (I'd suggest the OPL4) with the same samples.
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Post by Maxtreme »

Thanks! I'm currently using PCM-codec ICs to circumvent the necessity of actually having either the C140 or a OPL4 chip. I thought about the OPL4 also. Since there is no supplier for both, I'll maybe spend 60 € to get an OPL4 soundblaster from ebay for sacrifice. If you have any supplier please let me know :-)

Did maybe someone try a MCU implementation of the MAME library or to reverse engineer the hardware using a FPGA before? Similar stuff has been done in the past for the YM2610.
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Post by ctr »

Maxtreme wrote:Did maybe someone try a MCU implementation of the MAME library or to reverse engineer the hardware using a FPGA before? Similar stuff has been done in the past for the YM2610.
I don't know. Actually i would say almost definitely no for this chip in particular, but of course it is possible. But why use an FPGA when you can do the same with an MCU. All you'll need is a lot of RAM for the samples and enough processing power to mix the samples. This chip doesn't even have any fancy effects, it's just a very basic PCM player (with a low sample rate too, 20khz on real hardware, that's also another reason not to use an actual C140)
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Pinout Namco C352

Post by Maxtreme »

Hi does anyone have the datasheet or at least a pinout diagram for the Namco C352 chip used in Namco system 12? I tried to reconstruct it by pcb, but there pins of unknown purpose. Thanks in advance.
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Post by ctr »

There is no such information available.
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