PRINCIPLES
OF OPERATION
The
K-I002-Z
I Bit Aud'io
System
consists
of
three dist'inct
sections.
The
8
bjt digital-to-analog
converter
(DAC)
accepts an 8 b'it b'inary input from the
user
port
on
the
PET
and
produces
a
DC voltage
d'irectly
proportional
to the
unsigned
binary value of the
input. The
6-po1e lowpass filter blocks
all sanpling
di
stortion
frequencjes
above
approx'imate'ly
3.5kHz. Thi
s
f il ter
j
s necessary
f
or
clean sounding
music from the
DAC. The audio
power
anp'lifier
boosts
the filter
output signa'l
to the level required
for drjv'ing a speaker. The
CB2
pin
on
the
PET
user
port
is also tied'into the
anplifier circuitry. A
volume
control determines
the
gain
of
the amplifjer
and
thus
the volume of
the
sound reproduced'in the
speaker. In order for the board to
operate solely from
a
s'ing1e 5 volt
power
supply,
several
jnnovative
circujt techn'iques
have
been incorporated.
Looking at
the
DAC
sectjon
first
(1eft portjon
of
the
schematic
draw'ing),
it
is seen
that
the
weighted
resjstor
method of conversion is used.
The
Clv1OS
buffers
in Ul
and
U2 make
very
good
analog
switches
which switch thejr outputs between
exactly
lfound
and
exactly
the
supp'ly voltage
(+5
volts)
jn
response to the input
s'igna1.
The
only error
in thjs
switching act'ion
is
a
f inite
output impedance of
approximatel
y
200 ohms. Ctvl0S buff
ers,
rather
than
i nverters, are used because
the
two stages of
"gain"
internally
assures complete switching of
the output
even
jf
the
input
swings less than 5
volts.
The DAC network
produces
an output vo'ltage
d'irectly wi
th
a source
impedance
of approximately
6.25K. tl'ith
al
I
zeroes
input,
the output is zero
volts; with all ones
input, the
output
is 5
volts.
Loading
the
output
has no
effect on
ljnearity but it
will
reduce the
s'igna'l swing.
In order to
insure
accurate, monotonic
performance
of
the DAC, the most
si
gn'if
jcant
bit
js
actually
f
our ClvlOS
gates
and
four 51K res'istors in
parallel
whjle
the next most sign'ificant b'it is two in
paralle'I.
The remain'ing
b'its
are
single
gates
sjnce
the
ratio of the wejghting resjstors to the
gate
output
'impedance
is
large
enough
to ignore.
By
using
para'l'lel
and series combinations
of
51K
resistors for the most
sjgnificant
5
bits,
jt'is
possible
to
use
relatively
jnaccurate
res'istors
in the DAC
and still achieve
1/4 LSB linearity wh'ich
js
about
.4.
This'is due to statistjcal averag'ing
among
the resistors,
particularly
the
critical most
significant
b'it. Even
so,
factory assembled units have
had the 51K
resjstors
matched to w'ithin 1%. Although the
more common
R-ZR
res'istor
ladder
network could have
been
used, more resjstors would have been
required to
get
the
sane
degnee
of statist'ical match'ing.
An integrated
circuit
DAC
was
not
practical
sjnce
all that are currently ava'ilable require a
negative
supply voltage
for
either
the
DAC
itself
or
for
a current-to-voltage
converter
operational
anplifier.
Note
that the 5 volt
power
supp'ly
is fjltered and used as a
reference
for
the
DAC.
Wh'ile small anounts
of
noise
are
fi'ltered
out, 60Hz ripp'le on
the 5
volt
supply
is
I
jkely
to
result
in
hum
from the
speaker.
The filter
c'ircu'it is where things start
getting
unconventional.
The f ilter
actually
consists of
three.two-po1e
stages connected
'in
cascade.
Each section
js
a
resonant lowpass filter,
'i.e.,
the response
curve
may
peak
somewhat
just
before
cutoff .
t^lith
proper
sel ection of section cutoff
frequenci es and
Q
f
actors
(peaking),
a very nearly
flat
passband
and sharp
cutoff
is
obtained.
Passband
ri
pple
'is
less
than .5dB and
the
cutoff slope
is such
that
30dB attenuat
jon 'is
obta'ined
at
just
1.35 tjmes the
cutoff
frequency of 3.5kHz.
Note
that the
5
volt
sw'ing of the
DAC
'is
reduced
to
about
2,5 volts through
the
filter by virtue of
the
22W,'input
resistor to
the f irst
fjlter
stage.
Each filter
sectjon'is
implsnented as a
biquadratic
fjlter which
consjsts
of
an
invertjng
surnming amplif
jern
d
leaky
inteE"fEEb7i-ffi? an
ideal
integrator all
connected'in a
1oop. Although three operational anplifiers
are
required
for
the
ci
rcu'it,
'its
advantages are
many. In
parti
cul ar,
hi
gh
Q
f
actors are
possi
bl
e
wi
th
modest
anpf
ifier
gain.
In addjtion, sensjtivity of the response curve
to
component tolerance'is
very
1ol. These
characteristics allol
the use of
linearly
bjased
Cl{S
gates
as
jnverting
operational anpf
if iers.
Perf
ormance
of the
f ilter
using
the
CtflS
gates
'is
indist'inguishable from the
performance
using
true
op-anps
such
as
the
741.
See
the
National Semiconductor
CISS
data
book for
more
jnformation
on
linear
CIOS applicat'ions.
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