Adlib Gold SPU

The Adlib Gold cards were based on a proprietary 12-bit stereo hardware that included an OPL3, YMF, and YMZ chips. It could be upgraded to surround sound. It was backwards compatible with OPL2 sound cards.

Yamaha's OPL3 chip was used in the also used in the Sound Blaster 16. Adlib and Creative Labs were racing to get their card to market first. All the chips provided by Yamaha to Adlib initially failed. None of the chips provided by Yamaha to Creative Labs were defective. Yamaha provided nothing but non-defective chips to Adlib after Sound Blaster 16 was being sold. This seems extremely suspicious. Adlib went bankrupt the same year the Adlib Gold card reached the market.

There was an IBM Microchannel version of the Adlib Gold card that never made it to market.