I've never seen one alternately you could buy a broken voodoo 2 and use some hotair to remove all the components then you can check traces. Id think more info could be learned from that than looking at a picture assuming one exists in the quality you want.

Warlord wrote on 2021-04-09, 18:33:

I've never seen one alternately you could buy a broken voodoo 2 and use some hotair to remove all the components then you can check traces. Id think more info could be learned from that than looking at a picture assuming one exists in the quality you want.

I found good-quality pictures of populated boards, but some of the traces go under the RAM, so I can't figure out where they actually go. Unfortunately, I do not have a voodoo 2, but I want to build one from components and a custom PCB, which requires me to reverse-engineer the chipset, as pinouts have not been released for it.

Edit: Not to mention that even a broken card would cost way too much in today's market ($150 for an average broken one).

you can buy working ones for 150 if I check sold listings people have bought working ones for around 100. I assume you could find a broken one for less than 50.

In all honesty to have PCBs made, get all the chips to go on one, you are looking at more than 150 dollars that way, but I could be wrong. Never the less good luck I'll be eyeing this thread.

Warlord wrote on 2021-04-09, 18:57:

you can buy working ones for 150 if I check sold listings people have bought working ones for around 100. I assume you could find a broken one for less than 50.

In all honesty to have PCBs made, get all the chips to go on one, you are looking at more than 150 dollars that way, but I could be wrong.

I'm not building just any voodoo 2 😉 It's going to be a custom one with a unique board design, but I first need to reverse-engineer the board. Now that I think of it, I can find a working board somewhere for less than $50 excluding shipping and tax.

Edit: I may have to sacrifice a possibly working one for research.

At least the rest of the voodoo 2 docs were released, meaning that I don't have nearly as much work to do.

I need to go through my V2 boards. I know I have some non-working ones.

If there is one that I can't get working, I would gladly send it to you for the price of shipping.

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-04-09, 19:51:

I need to go through my V2 boards. I know I have some non-working ones.

If there is one that I can't get working, I would gladly send it to you for the price of shipping.

Thank you very much for the offer 😀.

On another note, does anyone know any good pcb x-raying services that won't cost an arm and a leg?

Wasn't there a guy on here that already built his own quad Voodoo whatever card? Same guy that did the AGP-PCI or PCI-AGP thing I think...

weedeewee wrote on 2021-04-09, 21:36:

Wasn't there a guy on here that already built his own quad Voodoo whatever card? Same guy that did the AGP-PCI or PCI-AGP thing I think...

If you are talking about the Quantum3D brick, he didn't design it but rather assembled an existing one, along with replacing faulty components.

If you are talking about anthony's Voodoo 6000 replica, that uses VSA-1000 chips, not SST-2 ones.

TelamonLivesOn wrote on 2021-04-09, 21:40:

weedeewee wrote on 2021-04-09, 21:36:

Wasn't there a guy on here that already built his own quad Voodoo whatever card? Same guy that did the AGP-PCI or PCI-AGP thing I think...

If you are talking about the Quantum3D brick, he didn't design it but rather assembled an existing one, along with replacing faulty components.

If you are talking about anthony's Voodoo 6000 replica, that uses VSA-1000 chips, not SST-2 ones.

I was thinking of sdz from what he wrote in this comment.
Re: AGP to PCI adapters - any PCB designers here willing to make one?

I should have scans, and some dxf files. They are quite high res, and the dxf files are huge, where should I upload them?

sdz wrote on 2021-04-09, 22:42:

I should have scans, and some dxf files. They are quite high res, and the dxf files are huge, where should I upload them?

Google drive or dropbox would work fine.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z3agg_YqD1w0 … iew?usp=sharing

Innovision card, it had a ripped TMU (& pads) and was quite unfixable. This link might also help, check first posts: Voodoo 2 component map
I should have a dxf file with the top layer, and scans of the internal layers, but I can't find them right now.

sdz wrote on 2021-04-09, 22:53:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z3agg_YqD1w0 … iew?usp=sharing

Innovision card, it had a ripped TMU (& pads) and was quite unfixable. This link might also help, check first posts: Voodoo 2 component map
I should have a dxf file with the top layer, and scans of the internal layers, but I can't find them right now.

If you find the internal scans, let me know. This would greatly help me with the creation of my own card(s).

One question I have is why does the remaining Voodoo 2 Documentation say that the TMU and FBI chips support SDRAM? I thought that was introduced on the Banshee/Voodoo3. Is this datasheet even real or fake: http://ohwc.narod.ru/video/3dfx/v2_voodoo2_spec.pdf?

Edit: The specs for the Voodoo 1 look similar, but mention EDO ram instead of SDRAM/SGRAM. They also have no references to 2D whatsoever.

Edit 2: If the Voodoo 2 chipset does indeed support SDRAM as an alternative to EDO, then this changes everything.

Anyone know?

"Important Note: Throughout this document, features, descriptions, and specifications which are marked withthe * symbol are not present in the Alpha version of the Voodoo2 Graphics chipset.
Polygonal anti-aliasing*
Ultra-fast full-screen clears using SGRAM color-expansion capability*
Embedded RAMDAC with dual-PLLs for video and graphics clock synthesis* (may be ommitted from spec)
Embedded NTSC/PAL Encoder for direct Television output* (may be ommitted from spec)
2 or 4 MBytes of SGRAM* or SDRAM* frame buffer memory
2, 4, 8, or 16 MBytes of SGRAM* or SDRAM* texture memory"

I don't think SDRAM/SGRAM support ever made it into the final silicon revision, as well as 8-16MB texture memory support.

I wonder if the VSA-100 would fare better for my project, as documentation is much more abundant.

Edit: I should've known the features weren't present, as I know that there is no embedded ramdac.

sdz wrote on 2021-04-10, 21:50:

"Important Note: Throughout this document, features, descriptions, and specifications which are marked withthe * symbol are not […]
Show full quote

"Important Note: Throughout this document, features, descriptions, and specifications which are marked withthe * symbol are not present in the Alpha version of the Voodoo2 Graphics chipset.
Polygonal anti-aliasing*
Ultra-fast full-screen clears using SGRAM color-expansion capability*
Embedded RAMDAC with dual-PLLs for video and graphics clock synthesis* (may be ommitted from spec)
Embedded NTSC/PAL Encoder for direct Television output* (may be ommitted from spec)
2 or 4 MBytes of SGRAM* or SDRAM* frame buffer memory
2, 4, 8, or 16 MBytes of SGRAM* or SDRAM* texture memory"

I don't think SDRAM/SGRAM support ever made it into the final silicon revision, as well as 8-16MB texture memory support.

The document does not say that 8-16mb was not present in the alpha version, but we won't know for sure unless the actual chip's pins are reverse-engineered (I may create a separate thread for this process later.