The YM2151, aka OPM is an eight-channel four-operator sound chip

Sound chip

A sound chip is an integrated circuit designed to produce sound . It might be doing this through digital, analog or mixed-mode electronics...

. It was Yamaha's first single-chip FM synthesis implementation, created originally for the Yamaha DX series of keyboards

Musical keyboard

A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument, particularly the piano. Keyboards typically contain keys for playing the twelve notes of the Western musical scale, with a combination of larger, longer keys and smaller, shorter keys that repeats at the...

.

It was also used in arcade games, starting with Atari's

Atari

Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...

 Marble Madness

Marble Madness

Marble Madness is an arcade video game designed by Mark Cerny, and published by Atari Games in 1984. It is a platform game in which the player must guide an onscreen marble through six courses, populated with obstacles and enemies, within a time limit. The player controls the marble by using a...

, and later being licensed for use by many other companies including Sega

Sega

, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...

, Konami

Konami

is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...

, Capcom

Capcom

is a Japanese developer and publisher of video games, known for creating multi-million-selling franchises such as Devil May Cry, Chaos Legion, Street Fighter, Mega Man and Resident Evil. Capcom developed and published Bionic Commando, Lost Planet and Dark Void too, but they are less known. Its...

, Data East Pinball and Namco

Namco

is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...

, with its heaviest use in the late 1980s, as well as in Sharp X1

Sharp X1

The X1 is a series of home computer released by Sharp Corporation from 1982 to 1988. It was based on a Z80 CPU.Despite the fact that the Computer Division of Sharp Corporation had released the MZ series, suddenly the Television Division released a new computer series called the X1...

 and Sharp X68000

Sharp X68000

The Sharp X68000, often referred to as the X68k, is a home computer released only in Japan by the Sharp Corporation. The first model was released in 1987, with a 10 MHz Motorola 68000 CPU, 1 MB of RAM and no hard drive; the last model was released in 1993 with a 25 MHz Motorola 68030...

 home computers.

This chip was used in some Yamaha budget electric pianos, such as the YPR-7/8/9.

Finally, the chip was used in the Yamaha SFG-01 and SFG-05 FM Sound Synthesizer Units. These are expansion units for MSX

MSX

MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...

 computers and were already built into some Yamaha MSX

MSX

MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...

 machines like the CX5-M

Yamaha CX5-M

The CX5-M is a MSX-system compatible computer with a built-in eight-voice FM synthesizer module having built-in MIDI capabilities, stereo phono outputs and an input for a purpose-built four-octave keyboard. It was produced in the mid-1980s.-Specification:...

. It provides the FM synthesizer with stereo output jacks, MIDI ports and a connector for an external keyboard. Note that at least some SFG-05 modules contain a YM2164

Yamaha YM2164

thumb|right|Yamaha YM2164YM2164, aka OPP , is an FM synthesis sound chip developed by Yamaha, related to Yamaha's YM2151. It was used in various MIDI-based synthesizers, including the Yamaha DX21, DX27, DX100, SFG-05 and FB-01, along with the Korg DS-8 and 707...

 chip.

It was paired with either a YM3012

Yamaha YM3012

The YM3012, aka DAC-MS, is a floating point digital-to-analog converter chip developed by Yamaha. It generates stereo analog output from dual serial input, the sound data containing a 10-bit mantissa and 3-bit exponent. It was notably used alongside the YM2151.- References :*...

 stereo DAC

Digital-to-analog converter

In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter is a device that converts a digital code to an analog signal . An analog-to-digital converter performs the reverse operation...

 or YM3014

Yamaha YM3014B

thumb|YM3014BThe YM3014B, aka DAC-SS, is a floating point digital-to-analog converter chip developed by Yamaha. It generates one analog output from a single serial input, the sound data containing a 10-bit mantissa and 3-bit exponent. It was featured alongside many Yamaha sound synthesis chips,...

monophonic DAC.

It has also recently been included in the upcoming Atari 7800 expansion module to extend the capabilities of the Atari 7800 console to include Arcade sounds.