VOGONS


First post, by skitters

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Some ISA video cards have a slot connector on top?
For example the Trident 8900c in the attached picture.
What fit onto that top slot connector?

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Reply 2 of 21, by feipoa

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sprcorreia wrote:

Other cards. I have a MPEG decoder card that uses that connector.

Interesting. Do you have a photo of it with specs? How well does the MPEG decoder work on an ISA Trident?

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 3 of 21, by vlask

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Photo from mine collection - with universal cable - unused connector is for these old type of cards....
alg2301bwgfcreative.jpg

Not only mine graphics cards collection at http://www.vgamuseum.info

Reply 6 of 21, by feipoa

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It is really too bad these MPEG cards weren't more widespread. I will probably never own any unless I make a concerted effort to look through the years.

Plan your life wisely, you'll be dead before you know it.

Reply 7 of 21, by sprcorreia

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feipoa wrote:
sprcorreia wrote:

Other cards. I have a MPEG decoder card that uses that connector.

Interesting. Do you have a photo of it with specs? How well does the MPEG decoder work on an ISA Trident?

I need to grab it from storage. It is a Commodore card. Let me see if I have a picture around.

Reply 8 of 21, by tayyare

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These are called "VGA feature connector" and supposed to be utilized by MPEG decoders, TV, and video capture cards. They came in two varieties:

FEATCON.GIF

It was not only for ISA though, most of the PCI display cards that I've seen also had that connector.

I only owned one card that utilizes this connector in my entire life, which was a Creative MPEG decoder. I was a free grab from a recycler. I never able to make it work though.

CPCI0268.jpg

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Reply 9 of 21, by spiroyster

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tayyare wrote:

These are called "VGA feature connector" and supposed to be utilized by MPEG decoders, TV, and video capture cards. They came in two varieties:

VESA Feature Connector 😉

tayyare wrote:

It was not only for ISA though, most of the PCI display cards that I've seen also had that connector.
I only owned one card that utilizes this connector in my entire life, which was a Creative MPEG decoder. I was a free grab from a recycler. I never able to make it work though.

Yes they were on PCI cards for quite a while (Voodoo3 has a working one, and even the Voodoo5 has one). However, even with the connector present, they didn't always actually work on all cards.

The only thing that I ever found requiring it is the Forte VFX1. It requires VESA conector on your gfx card so the VIP hooks straight into it and is the only way to display visual output to the HMD. When I first got my VFX1 (in 1999) I was gutted since my ATi Rage128Pro did not have a VESA feature connector, and I had to get a Matrox Millenium (quite a downgrade at the time), and a PC with ISA slots. Old stuff, even back then 😵

Reply 10 of 21, by tayyare

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spiroyster wrote:

VESA Feature Connector 😉

Actually I knew it as "feature connector" only, but the web site that I found the picture to share from, misdirected me 😊 :

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/VG … ature+connector

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3com 3C905B-TX
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Reply 11 of 21, by spiroyster

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tayyare wrote:
spiroyster wrote:

VESA Feature Connector 😉

Actually I knew it as "feature connector" only, but the web site that I found the picture to share from, misdirected me 😊 :

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/VG … ature+connector

'feature connector' yes your right, I've always known it as a VESA feature connector, but other sources (including wiki) seem to think just 'Feature Connector', however there is also an 80pin feature connector called 'VESA Advanced Feature Connector', so a distinction between 'VESA advanced feature connector' and just 'feature connector' is in order me thinks. 😀

I wonder what the 80pin advanced feature connector is used for?

Reply 13 of 21, by spiroyster

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Jepael wrote:
spiroyster wrote:

I wonder what the 80pin advanced feature connector is used for?

Support for higher speeds, wider data buses and multiple devices.

Any idea which devices?

Reply 14 of 21, by j^aws

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spiroyster wrote:
Jepael wrote:
spiroyster wrote:

I wonder what the 80pin advanced feature connector is used for?

Support for higher speeds, wider data buses and multiple devices.

Any idea which devices?

You can see the video daughterboard connected to the Advanced Feature Connector on this VLB graphics card, and alongside it is the unconnected normal Feature Connector:

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In addition, the daughterboard itself has added a bunch of other connectors, which I have no idea what purpose they serve...

Reply 15 of 21, by Jepael

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spiroyster wrote:
Jepael wrote:
spiroyster wrote:

I wonder what the 80pin advanced feature connector is used for?

Support for higher speeds, wider data buses and multiple devices.

Any idea which devices?

No, but try searching here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature_connector

Reply 16 of 21, by vlask

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feipoa wrote:

It is really too bad these MPEG cards weren't more widespread. I will probably never own any unless I make a concerted effort to look through the years.

I thought that noone is interested in these. Found some in previous years, but noone interested, so i donated them to fellow collector Palcal. He's not brave enought to throw them away. I've made even category for these onsite... http://vgamuseum.info/index.php/cards/itemlis … abbers-decoders

Not only mine graphics cards collection at http://www.vgamuseum.info

Reply 17 of 21, by spiroyster

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Jepael wrote:

Yes, I mentioned in my first post in this thread, that the VFX1 is the only thing (ime) that requires the feature connector, I was wondering more specifically about the Vesa Advanced Feature Connector (the 80 pin one, not the 26 pin one).

Although given the timeline and the introduction of AGP, I suspect these 'VESA Advanced feature connectors' became redundant and I wonder if anything required the 80 pin connection. There is one on a Voodoo5 though so 3dfx obviously saw some merit in it ???

Reply 19 of 21, by elianda

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Early capture cards like the VideBlaster or Matrox IP8/AT use the VFC, later DVD decoder cards use often the VAFC.
Also companies like ATi introduced their own version called ATi Multimedia Channel (AMC) for e.g. the ATi TV Wonder Pro.

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