VOGONS


First post, by brassicGamer

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Hi everyone. I've been at it again researching one particular piece of hardware too much. Following the Everything You Wanted To Know About Tualatin article, I've done a deep-dive into AGP on my blog.

Does anyone else have a weird obsession with wanting to know what the first ever of something was? In some cases it's really obvious (like 'first Intel CPU') because others have already documented it, while with some topics it takes a little more effort. With some it would probably be impossible (e.g. trying to work out the 'first production VLB motherboard', for example). AGP is something that was possible because the relevant information can be found on the Internet Archive. Before writing this, I couldn't find any definitive answers on what the very AGP graphics cards were because, like with so many things, many people don't use specific dates or sources. Too many "one of the first" statements but nothing definitive. So I did the work and this is what I found:

The first draft of the AGP 1.0 specification was published in December 1995, with the final draft released on 31 Jul 1996.

  • The first AGP-based graphics chipset to be produced was the Cirrus Logic Laguna3D-AGP, which was first sampled on 3 Feb 1997.
  • Most other manufacturers demonstrated 'working' hardware at Intel's Platforms for Visual Computing Day on 24 Mar.
  • Production hardware from ATI, Cirrus Logic and NVIDIA was announced to coincide with Intel's 440LX chipset being available, so these were the 'first' production cards.
  • ATI is the unofficial 'winner', as its 3D Rage Pro was the only chipset to be AGP 2x capable on release.

From all the information I've read (and there's a lot of it) these are definitive statements but, obviously, if anyone else has some first-hand experience or original sources that can prove otherwise, I would love to know.

Check out my blog and YouTube channel for thoughts, articles, system profiles, and tips.