From: becker@super.org (Donald J. Becker) Subject: Re: ET4000 chipset? - Where?? Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1993 21:14:51 GMT
In article <C283B8.ICL@world.std.com> jhallen@world.std.com (Joseph H Allen) writes:
>In article <1993Feb9.194441.10992@hellgate.utah.edu> bangell@cs.utah.edu (bob angell) writes:
>>I am thinking about replacing my trident 8900c /1 Meg with an ET4000
>>chipset board .... what brands have the ET4000 chipset (BocaSVGA boards
>>used to have them, but now they carry the cirrus chipset) that would
>>be useful??
>>
>>thanks,
>
>I got mine from JDR Microdevices (800)538-5000. Just ask the salesperson
>for an ET-4000 based display card with 1MB ram. They cost about $120.
>The latest version of the card they sell has the 16M color ramdac on it, no
>extra charge (not that the software supports it...).
I've had good luck with the following vendor. This description is
many months old (and long-time c.o.l. ready have probably seen it more
than once), but I'm very happy with this board and it'll tide me over
until the "Right" video board comes along.
Donald Becker becker@super.org
Supercomputing Research Center
17100 Science Drive, Bowie MD 21114 301-805-7482
________________ Written in the Sept '92 timeframe
I purchased what I believe to be the lowest-priced priced ET-4000 card
available. The advertisement was from the September Computer Shopper
(and a few issues since). It cost $89 +$2 credit card charge + $4
shipping = $95 total. I ordered from "PIOTECH", the "East Coast" part
of the ad, but they get the boards from the CA address so if you are
left-coast you might as well order from there.
We later ordered four more (Linux systems I was putting together for friends),
but those cards were slightly different than mine. The highest dot-clock
rate reported by XFree86 was 65 Mhz, and they didn't have the weird lower-case
'L' in the default font.
[ Locally, we've purchased at least two more.]
Features:
ET4000, HiColor (15/16 bit color), 1M memory.
It's under $100.
Physical
The box is multi-color printed and titled with an barely-readable
script font. It comes with a 3/8" thick manual covered with the same
tree/leaf-like motif, the foam-surrounded board, and package of three
disk, two labeled 4MAX. No address or company names appear anywhere.
There are several references to the "ET4000 data book available from
your dealer".
The board is a 16 bit ISA with 8 256Kx4 DRAMs in sockets, a surface
mounted ET-4000, one socketed EPROM with a silver label stating ET4000
HiColor, one other socketed ROM-like chip (the RAMDAC?), a 50.000Mhz
crystal and a small number of glue logic DIPs. There is one DBc15
video connector on the panel, and no other connections (e.g. "feature
connector").
Logical
The board reports itself as a "Tseng Labs ET4000 with 1024K 2/1/92" at boot
time, or something close to that text. It comes with MS-DOS software,
including the usual set of test and utility programs, a font editor
and loader, several fonts, and drivers for various MS-DOS software
packages. I run Linux and X, so this didn't matter to me.
Comments
The package I received was not shop-worn, but it might have been a
return. The card-edge connectors were well marked and the manual had
a penned-in arrow to a warning on one page. The third disk in the
included software was a generic disk with a small green dot
hand-marked with "win 3.1". This disk had (obviously) Windows 3.1
drivers on it. Perhaps someone was just trying to do me a favor by
including a later release of the drivers.
I have only one real problem with the board under XFree86. Flipping
through resolutions (using ctl-atl-+) occasionally loses foreground
and background colors of the first resolution only. I blame society...uhm,
I mean XFree86, but it might not be...
[Yup, seemed to be an early XFree86 problem.]
I've run the board at 1152x900 80Mhz, but sometimes I get "sparklies". The
ET4000 chip is only rated to 65Mhz, so that's I'm pushing the board a little.
The image is fine at 1024x768 72Mhz.
[Some of the later boards only had clocks to the rated 65Mhz.]
Ordering info
The description was
Tseng Labs ET4000 Hi-color Card,
32,768 colors, 1M $89 (cash +$2 for credit card, +$4 shipping)
they also sell a NCR board w/ 2M for $125. It was tempting, but
X386 doesn't support it.
I bought from
PIOTECH (908) 545-8676 ("east coast" -- some place in NJ)
call M-F until 5:30PM EST
they also advertise
"mid-west" CompuLAN Center (214) 241-7858
"west coast" JDL Inc (800) 685-8088 order-only
The distributor is
PLUSTEK USA Inc.
3350 Scott Blvd, Bldg. 46
Santa Clara, CA 95054
408-980-1234
technical support (get the way-cool Cal. dude) 408-980-5183
"in Canada call 416-677-2918"
Terms are the usual for cheap mail order:
%15 restocking for returns
no refund after 30 days
no refund of shipping and handling
-- Donald Becker becker@super.org Supercomputing Research Center 17100 Science Drive, Bowie MD 21114 301-805-7482