Notes from inside the Kronos - Part II: The OMAP (NKS4)

The AM1806B is connected to the Kronos' PC as a USB 2.0 Device. It is used as an I/O helper for the PC with (at least) the following tasks:

• LCD Display Interface - the OMAP exports it's display interface via USB to the PC where one of KORG's proprietary drivers installs it as a framebuffer device. So the contents you see on the display are (except for the startup screen) rendered by the PC and sent to the OMAP via USB.
• Touch Screen Interface
• Audio Interface(s) and audio mixing / routing
• MIDI Interfaces(s)
• Interface to the PSOC which handles the mechanical user interface
• Interface to the Security IC
• USB Device Interface (The Kronos' USB Host Ports are provided by the Intel Mainboard)
• Effects processing. Probably the OMAP handles the IFX and MFX (to be confirmed...) there is no effect processing on the OMAP. All effect processing is done on the PC.

So, one could say, that the OMAP is a very fancy sound card for the Kronos' Intel mainboard - nothing more - nothing less. There is a software update available from KORG which probably contains the OMAPs firmware.

The OMAP is often referred as "NKS4".