Multiple VLB video cards in one system

Multiple VLB video cards in one system - possible?

Topic actions

Post a reply

First post, by iulianv

Posted on 2012-11-30, 15:27

iulianv Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 275
Joined: 2011-01-31, 17:00
Location: Bucharest, Romania

A few days ago I got five VLB video cards, in addition to the four I already had. While wondering what I'm going to do with that many cards, I remembered that there is software (like UltraMon for example) that can take advantage of more than one PCI video card in the same system in order to create a multi-monitor setup.

My question is: is such a configuration possible with, say, two VLB video cards in the same computer?

Reply 1 of 7, by Jorpho

Posted on 2012-11-30, 15:53

Jorpho Offline

Rank l33t++

Rank: l33t++
Posts: 8168
Joined: 2003-02-14, 19:50
Location: Canada

I'm a little unclear on why you would want to do that, as I reckon the number of programs that one would want to run on a 486 that could use multiple monitors must be vanishingly small, and those that exist probably have specific system requirements. Maybe some of Borland's compilers?

Did you have something in mind?

Reply 2 of 7, by iulianv

Posted on 2012-11-30, 16:11

iulianv Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 275
Joined: 2011-01-31, 17:00
Location: Bucharest, Romania

No, nothing in particular, just as an experiment... for example, if I remember correctly, old releases of AutoCAD (11, 12) allowed for text on one monitor and graphics on another.

Reply 3 of 7, by megatron-uk

Posted on 2012-11-30, 16:37

megatron-uk Online

Rank Oldbie

Rank: Oldbie
Posts: 1799
Joined: 2010-09-07, 10:53
Location: UK

I can't see how - the VGA bios on each would conflict, as they'd all try and be at the same location. Don't they also require a specific interrupt?

My collection database and technical wiki:
https://www.target-earth.net

Reply 4 of 7, by luckybob

Posted on 2012-11-30, 17:52

luckybob Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 4834
Joined: 2009-04-30, 04:43

megatron-uk wrote:
I can't see how - the VGA bios on each would conflict, as they'd all try and be at the same location. Don't they also require a specific interrupt?

most VLB cards i've seen have options to set an unique IRQ. Thats about as far as I've seen it.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Reply 5 of 7, by Anonymous Coward

Posted on 2012-12-01, 06:15

Anonymous Coward Offline

Rank l33t

Rank: l33t
Posts: 4833
Joined: 2008-03-20, 05:37
Location: Shandong, China

The way you can do this is if you have a card that allows you to disable the VGA core. Elsa Winner 2000 may be able to do this, but I wasn't able to get it to work. Probably because I was using two mismatched cards.

"Will the highways on the internets become more few?" -Gee Dubya
V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 6 of 7, by JaNoZ

Posted on 2012-12-01, 07:29

JaNoZ Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 454
Joined: 2012-09-30, 19:46
Location: Netherlands

What beautifull cards do you have on vlb?

Reply 7 of 7, by iulianv

Posted on 2012-12-01, 08:51

iulianv Offline

Rank Member

Rank: Member
Posts: 275
Joined: 2011-01-31, 17:00
Location: Bucharest, Romania

Well, they are not so special (mostly Cirrus Logic) - I have photos for four of them here: https://sites.google.com/site/iulianvshw/

The five I got recently are four Cirrus Logics (3*5429, 1*5426) and one Trident - after testing them I'll take phots of the ones worth keeping (the ones that work, that is 😀)...

Go to top of page Go to top of page

Back to General Old Hardware

Main menu

Common searches