Sound Semiconductor Releases New VCO Chip

Sound Semiconductor has announced an addition to its family of Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) integrated circuits. They say that the SSI2131 offers basic VCO functionality with buffered triangle, sawtooth, and variable-width pulse outputs. They tell us that, like the previously introduced SSI2130 VCO, special care was taken to provide unprecedented levels of temperature stability, exponentiality, and waveform integrity but in this case the on-chip mixer, sine shaper, and through-zero components were omitted. The result is a modern, high-performance basic VCO that is extremely easy to use.

Offered in a 16-pin small-outline DIP package, only a handful of external components are necessary. Like the SSI2130, exponential setup is easily accomplished by use of fixed-value resistors for less demanding applications, and manual or CPU calibrated for exponential conformance to one cent over a ten-octave range. Both soft and hard sync are available.

Pricing is $1.40 at 1k pieces, with samples available now to qualified OEM's. Production stock will be available by late February; at that time hobby and DIY enthusiasts will be served through Sound Semiconductor's growing network of authorized resellers.

Derek Bowers, designer of the SSI2130 and SSI2131, told us, "Ever since building my first synthesizer in college I've been imagining this VCO project. I'm really happy with results of these developments."

More information:

• www.soundsemiconductor.com

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