From: fs_potte@rcsw91.rcvie.co.at (Martin Pottendorfer) Subject: Re: Looking for VLB ET4000 video cards Date: Wed, 28 Jul 1993 08:42:07 GMT
In article <1993Jul12.015803.11392@dg-rtp.dg.com> welshm@dg-rtp.dg.com (Matt Welsh) writes:
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From: welshm@dg-rtp.dg.com (Matt Welsh)
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Date: Mon, 12 Jul 93 01:58:03 GMT
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Hello, i'm shopping for an ET4000 VLB video card, specifically
for use with XFree86 on Linux. There seem to be several types of
these cards going around, and I'm just trying to gather data on
the different types. I'm quite clueless about hardware...
Well, i'm no expert, but i can tell you my experiences with ET4000 and
VLB and XFree86 on Linux.
The most common I see is a standard ET4000, 1Mb RAM, 1024x768 with
32K colors. I assume this is an 8 bit card and supports 256 colors
simultaneously. Correct?
As far as i know there are no 8 bit cards on the market today. if you
say that the the card support 32K colors it does support this amount
of colors, but the resolution is (at least with 1Mb RAM) restricted to
maximal 800x600. BUT ! 32K colors aren't supported by XFree86 at all,
so if you want X on Linux you have to be satisfied with 256 colors.
The new vgalib under linux should support the hi-color modes (=32K
colors, 64K colors) (haven`t tried it yet!); Dos supports these modes
as well, if you have a VESA-driver for the card (in most cases these
drivers are delivered with the card).
The normal ET4000 is not capable of addressing more than 1MB Ram so
the limit of these cards is (256color mode) 1152x900.
I've managed to get this resolution running on my ET4000 VLB card, but
it uses only 62Hz refresh rate, which is not really good for working.
Some of the ads say this is VLB, others
do not. I presume there is a VLB version of the card, in addition
to a non-local bus version.
Yes.
There is also the "Tseng Labs Max2" which runs 1280x1024, with 16
million colors, 1 Mb RAM. I don't even know if this is ET4000 chipset
or not, or if it's VLB. What is this card?
Well, first of all i must say that i don't know the "Tseng Labs Max2",
but i can`t imagine a true-color (16M colors) resolution of 1280x1024
with only 1MB RAM. normaly you need about 4Mb RAM (1280*1024*3) to
display 1280x1024 in true-color,.... but maybe there's a kind of
on-line compressing ... :^)
So the limit for a 1MB card and true-color is 640x480.
I've also seen references to a "High Color" option on the ET4000 cards,
but I'm not sure what these are, either. Ads in Computer Shopper aren't
very informative. :)
High Color modes are modes with 32K or 64K colors at the same time.
Most modern cards with an ET4000 support these modes (at least via the
VESA interface)
In short, I'm looking for VLB ET4000 cards supported by Linux, and would like
to get the highest res and colors possible. Are any of these cards 24-bit?
If you want to use X you are restricted to 256 colors, but you can go
up to 1152x900 (1MB RAM).
As stated the vgalib supports High Color and true-color, but i haven`t
seen applications using the vgalib ... except the demo. But if you
want to program graphics this would be an alternative.
Any help is greatly appeciated. Info on other cards besides the
Tseng Labs which use the ET4000 would be appreciated as well.
I'm using a VLB card called "Color Designer" (appearently no-name!) which
uses an ET4000 with 1Mb Ram. (processor: 486DX2/66) This card supports
High Color modes, and true-color up to 640x480
Under X i can use several 256 color modes (1152x900 62Hz, 1024x768
76Hz, 992x744 82Hz, ...) and i'm quite happy with these modes.
Since i'm hacking on a raytracer under DOS (sorry, the linux port is
in work!!) i use the true-color mode only under DOS. But soon ...
Thanks,
mdw
Matt Welsh, mdw@tc.cornell.edu, welshm@dg-rtp.dg.com
Radioactive decay ain't what it used to be.
hope it helps,
martin