VOGONS


First post, by retardware

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DSCN8776.jpg

Sorry for asking, but I could not find any images of it on the Web...

Reply 2 of 12, by retardware

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Wow, thanks Darry!

Now I know that the LED is the "Self-test LED", which is at the back of the card and lights up red about 3 seconds after turning on the computer.
Sadly, there is no output on the attached VGA monitor.
Maybe some bad switch or jumper setting? I have to go to bed, will check that out tomorrow. Thanks again for the link!

Reply 3 of 12, by retardware

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HEUREKA IT WORKS 😀

Thank you again Darry... the link you gave me showed me how to set the DIP correctly.
And now the card starts up fine, the self-test led glowing green, and with output on two monitors.

It's the 1MB version, not the "big" 4MB one, though.
But I don't think that takes away much of its "coolness factor" 😁

Reply 4 of 12, by elianda

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@retardware: Good to see that my page helped 😀

Just to add: I have some pics where the card is installed in a system:
http://retronn.de/imports/computer_overview.html
(The very first 486DLC)

I set the DIPs to use it in one screen operation with a second graphics card as main (DOS) where it switches between main and TIGA on demand.

Retronn.de - Vintage Hardware Gallery, Drivers, Guides, Videos. Now with file search
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Reply 5 of 12, by 386_junkie

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Hey guys!

Thanks for the thread and follow-up posts.

I too have this card, which I bought NOS (unsure if true) with original box and driver disks/manuals etc. The card even came with two TMS34020 DSP's, but unfortunately not the DRAM and the sockets are empty.

These DRAM slots are very strange as they look like DIP sockets to take a DIL IC... and most DRAM I have seen and use comes in DIP-18/DIP-20 form... not 28 pin per IC, unless it comes in the ZIP form of DRAM, but it does not look like these sockets can accommodate.

Has anyone information on this instruction RAM? I will go through the manual again, but I do not recall there being much mentioned of the specific DRAM type.

Thanks in advance.

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

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Reply 6 of 12, by retardware

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@386_junkie

Which chips do you refer to?
Maybe just say which of the sockets you mean?

And, could you maybe check whether the CD you have contains other, possibly newer drivers than those on @eliandas site?

Reply 7 of 12, by elianda

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The drivers I have on the ftp are recovered from archive.org.

However an image of the CD would really be useful as I could not recover a few files where archive.org did not had a copy. Maybe the CD still has it?

Framebuffer RAM:
M5M442256AL -8
2322E01 -8
G1

Instruction RAM:
MCM514256AZ80
UJJ AC

Acumos VGA RAM:
MCM514256AZ80
UJJ BE

Updated my pages as well with that info and datasheets.

Anyone has infos whether the free socket is for a second TMS34020 DSP or a TMS34082 FPU ?

edit: Guessing from the error message text file it should be a TMS34082 FPU and it requires additional SRAM.
I also got the recent demo program from Geekdot running with the rotating blue grid cube.

Retronn.de - Vintage Hardware Gallery, Drivers, Guides, Videos. Now with file search
Youtube Channel
FTP Server - Driver Archive and more
DVI2PCIe alignment and 2D image quality measurement tool

Reply 8 of 12, by elianda

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Does anyone know how to create the RLM files (relocatable loadable modules) for the TIGA cards to add own draw primitives?

Retronn.de - Vintage Hardware Gallery, Drivers, Guides, Videos. Now with file search
Youtube Channel
FTP Server - Driver Archive and more
DVI2PCIe alignment and 2D image quality measurement tool

Reply 9 of 12, by retardware

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Finally having the time to install all the stuff on a test rig with w. 3.11.
Just in case, I noticed that the installer files in the GXIINST115 do not work as they are named.
Best way to make install succeed is to copy the dir into a temp dir, do a ren _*.* #*.* then a ren *.??_ *.??# then followed by subst a: c:<yourtempdir> and finally running a: then install.exe

Then I wondered why the #9gxi program didn't display... it turned out that for some reason the lower VGA connection outputs the VGA signal and the upper one the TIGA signal.

And now I am running the Demo at 1152x870 in truecolor 24bit.. Just insane if one considers the age of the card.
But the display is somewhat distorted. I hope it is because of the LCD interpolation... will investigate that.

<tbc>

Reply 10 of 12, by elianda

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In the config program is an option to switch between single monitor / dual monitor use.

Retronn.de - Vintage Hardware Gallery, Drivers, Guides, Videos. Now with file search
Youtube Channel
FTP Server - Driver Archive and more
DVI2PCIe alignment and 2D image quality measurement tool

Reply 11 of 12, by retardware

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Thank you again @Elianda!

I just did some testing, and found the reason for which was wrong.

DSCN9353.jpg

When displayed in 1152x870x24, it looks like shown above.
Distorted and with a white bar in the middle right section.
The card for some reason seems to support only 1024x768 in 24bit, exactly as your article wrote.

A close-up photo shows the nature of the distortions:

DSCN9355.jpg

Seems the software allows to select unsupported modes:

DSCN9352.jpg

Anyway the fact that all modes except that one described above work fine, and the status display shows this...

DSCN9350.jpg

...and that...

DSCN9351.jpg

...indicate to me that it is indeed a GXiTC card and no GXI card, as the label on the box indicated 😀
So its the "big" version 😀

As it is not a video card suitable for retro gamers like me, I'll sell it on a well known auction site 😀 And get a Spea Mercury instead 😀 (thank you again @Elianda for crucial information regarding my vga needs, and your site!)

Reply 12 of 12, by 386_junkie

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retardware wrote:
@386_junkie […]
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@386_junkie

Which chips do you refer to?
Maybe just say which of the sockets you mean?

And, could you maybe check whether the CD you have contains other, possibly newer drivers than those on @eliandas site?

I was referring to the 28-pin DIL sockets beside the co-processor socket. I previously thought they were for some kind of DRAM but have since learned that they are for SRAM... accessed by the TMS34082.

So looking at the card, the data path goes .... SRAM<--->TMS34082<--->TMS34020

Online I read that the TMS34082 can use upto 512Kb, but I am not so sure. The only SRAM I can think this to be over 28-pin DIL IC's is (128K x 32 bit) i.e. four IC's of 32k x 8 bit SRAM... which over the four IC sockets gives 128Kb.

What are everyone else's thought's?

Brought the card out earlier from store and will upload the drivers from the floppies.

Compaq Systempro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ Compaq Junkiepro; EISA Dual 386 ¦ ALR Powerpro; EISA Dual 386

EISA Graphic Cards ¦ EISA Graphic Card Benchmarks