Just wondering how these photos could help you? 200sbi card has 8 layers, maybe 10, a lot of traces on the inner layers. Almost all traces on outer layers are covered by ic chips. You need to ask all scanned layers of this board. Or complete schematic.

I like the enthusiasm but starting out with a project this big you're likely going to be frustrated really soon and just abandon everything.
Why not start things off with your own OPL sound card design or something similar?

Doornkaat wrote on 2021-02-25, 20:51:

I like the enthusiasm but starting out with a project this big you're likely going to be frustrated really soon and just abandon everything.
Why not start things off with your own OPL sound card design or something similar?

I don't plan on completing this anytime soon. I will likely do this within the next 5-10 years. I just really want to know what chips I need to get first (I already know the ram, Voodoo 2 TMUs & FBIs, and the ICS DAC). I will worry about the connections, capacitors, and resistors later.

Doornkaat wrote on 2021-02-25, 20:51:

I like the enthusiasm but starting out with a project this big you're likely going to be frustrated really soon and just abandon everything.

This 200sbi card is not much complex on its main part, 2 voodoo2 in sli and pci-pci bridge. Easy to replicate. But the left side of the board is quite complicated, hard to understand all that logic for the mercury brick connection. It has some cpld chip which scrambles/descrambles something. But if anyone has abilities to make a drivers from a scratch for this thing, all that i mentioned not worth a penny.

anthony wrote on 2021-02-26, 12:35:

Doornkaat wrote on 2021-02-25, 20:51:

I like the enthusiasm but starting out with a project this big you're likely going to be frustrated really soon and just abandon everything.

This 200sbi card is not much complex on its main part, 2 voodoo2 in sli and pci-pci bridge. Easy to replicate. But the left side of the board is quite complicated, hard to understand all that logic for the mercury brick connection. It has some cpld chip which scrambles/descrambles something. But if anyone has abilities to make a drivers from a scratch for this thing, all that i mentioned not worth a penny.

I'm not worried about the price. As stated, this will probably be something that I work on for a few years. I like a good challenge, and considering I may have the parts ready in college (starting next fall), I may have access to special equipment needed for its creation. I would also use this hardware for my upcoming game engine, which may take several years.

To add on to what you said anthony about the left side of the 200SBI, I notice that on a few of the other Quantum3D cards, I see a chip from DIGITAL "21-43925-02" (dc1030e). I see this on the 200SBI, the 200SB, and the X-24 (may be on a few others too). However, I cannot seem to find these on any Voodoo 2 reference boards. From what lackluster information I can find on the chip (I can't find any datasheets on this specific chip; please send them my way if you find them), it was a microcontroller of some sort. Is it possible that this chip is mainly responsible for the SLI interface? I'm pretty sure that that the ICS GENDAC is used for the VGA signal, but don't know what the 21-43925-02 or the other small chips do (I can only imagine the small ones are for simple circuit logic).

The Digital marked IC is a PCI to PCI bridge. You don't have to use exactly that one. The ICS ICs are RAMDACs used for VGA output and also clock back the 3dfx ICs.

sdz wrote on 2021-02-26, 16:32:

The Digital marked IC is a PCI to PCI bridge. You don't have to use exactly that one. The ICS ICs are RAMDACs used for VGA output and also clock back the 3dfx ICs.

Oh ok, that makes much more sense now. Thanks for the info. I will probably try to source a different chip that has more information on it.

Firstly, Does anyone know if there is any readily available 125mhz EDO RAM at 25ns or less from surplus chip sellers (preferably silicon magic, but any other will work)? I can find 100mhz ram at 25ns, but not 125mhz RAM at 25ns.

Secondly, what is the main chip under the green heatsink under the AA module? I can't seem to find any good pictures of the risers or the AA module, especially on both sides.

I too would like to find some 125MHz EDO ICs. Only 100-110 seem to be available.
The main IC under that heatsink is an FPGA.

sdz wrote on 2021-02-26, 17:24:

I too would like to find some 125MHz EDO ICs. Only 100-110 seem to be available.
The main IC under that heatsink is an FPGA.

I will probably have to write my own code then for the AA module, which wouldn't be bad, since I have custom SLI algorithms planned. Hopefully old FPGAs (or FPGAs at slower clock speeds) are cheaper then modern ones 😐

Also, do you know what the FPGA's specs are? Like mentioned in one of the above posts, I cannot find any information about the AA-module or riser cards, aside from the fact that they exist and are needed.

Fpga on a aa module is spartan 6, if i remember correct. Have strong doubts that 3dfx voodoo2 chipset is able to operate on clocks faster than 110mhz.

Old FPGAs are not supported in current versions of Vivado/ISE/Quartus etc, which means you'll probably need to find a license (or maybe even a dongle) for the old tools, and run the thing in a VM. A cheap Spartan 7 is most likely up to the task, and you can use the free version of Vivado.

The FPGA on the AA module has the following markings: XCS20 PQ208CKN9845 .

sdz wrote on 2021-02-26, 18:00:

Old FPGAs are not supported in current versions of Vivado/ISE/Quartus etc, which means you'll probably need to find a license (or maybe even a dongle) for the old tools, and run the thing in a VM. A cheap Spartan 7 is most likely up to the task, and you can use the free version of Vivado.

The FPGA on the AA module has the following markings: XCS20 PQ208CKN9845 .

So far, I am getting results on the Xilinx Spartan XCS20-3PQ208C. I assume this is correct, considering its clock speed of 125mhz, its low 12.5kb/s memory, and other era-correct specs.

The "3" most likely is the speed grade, which isn't usually written on the package.

Ok, so I found a bunch of 3Dfx datasheets here http://ohwc.narod.ru/video/3dfx.html, but cannot find any pinout information of the 3Dfx chips themselves, at least not in a diagram. Could someone point me in the right direction for finding them?

No available datasheets for the voodoo2 chipset. You have to make pinouts by yourself.

anthony wrote on 2021-02-28, 07:20:

No available datasheets for the voodoo2 chipset. You have to make pinouts by yourself.

Ok, thanks! At least reference board designs can give me something to look off of. Thank you for all of your help. I will see what I can find about the chipset pins.