VOGONS


First post, by stalk3r

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I bought this video card recently, a Chips & Technologies F64300 Wingine DX, which, according to the manual, sports a video cache called XRAM:

The XRAM Accelerator Cache (patent pending) is a breakthrough in performance technology. By using one standard 256Kx4 Fast Page DRAM, a proprietary algorithm implemented in the 64300 significantly increases graphics system performance.The result is performance never before achieved in standard DRAM-based graphics architectures. For added flexibility, the XRAM Accelerator Cache is optional.

Sounds exciting isn't it 😀 The empty sockets are there above the video RAM, so I assume I could simply enable it by throwing regular DRAM chips on them?

FURG2x9.jpg

Last edited by stalk3r on 2019-04-18, 10:09. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 31, by stalk3r

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jcarvalho wrote:

Yes, we can assume that. Just pull a pair from s3trio PCI and give a try

You mean the brownish socket on a S3Trio? I think the cache ram goes to the small black DIP socket on the top the card, does a S3 Trio have that as well?

Last edited by stalk3r on 2019-04-18, 11:03. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 3 of 31, by keropi

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yes , the soj sockets are for an extra 1mb of vram... I would also guess that the "cache" goes to the dip sockets on top

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Reply 4 of 31, by 386_junkie

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Be sure first which memory you need... VRAM or DRAM. Using the incorrect RAM type can damage the card and memory.

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Reply 5 of 31, by kixs

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386_junkie wrote:

Be sure first which memory you need... VRAM or DRAM. Using the incorrect RAM type can damage the card and memory.

It says:

By using one standard 256Kx4 Fast Page DRAM

So any chip from an older VGA card would be fine. But I'm not sure why it says "one". There are clearly two DIP sockets.

I have this card but haven't had the time to test it...

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 6 of 31, by rasz_pl

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You can safely assume its marketing wank, PC Mag 6 Dec 1994 description sounds like some kind of deeper fifo to hide rasterization delays from host (outputting framebuffer to screen blocks main host from writing to video memory). You would have to find actual alleged patent application to know more.

still at $4 with free shipping for two MB81C4256 its something fun to try, you can test if its working by:

INT 10 - Chips & Technologies '64300' BIOS - GET XRAM INFORMATION
AX = 5F06h
Return: AL = 5Fh if function supported
AH = status
00h unsuccessful
01h successful
BL = XRAM presence (00h no XRAM, 01h present)
SeeAlso: AX=5F05h,AX=5F08h

of course I would buz out all the pins to sanity check if thats really where ram is supposed to go.

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Reply 7 of 31, by stalk3r

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kixs wrote:

So any chip from an older VGA card would be fine. But I'm not sure why it says "one". There are clearly two DIP sockets.

It is per memory bank, one for 1MB, two for 2MB

Reply 8 of 31, by stalk3r

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rasz_pl wrote:

You can safely assume its marketing wank, PC Mag 6 Dec 1994 description sounds like some kind of deeper fifo to hide rasterization delays from host (outputting framebuffer to screen blocks main host from writing to video memory). You would have to find actual alleged patent application to know more.

still at $4 with free shipping for two MB81C4256 its something fun to try, you can test if its working by:

Regarding its speed, should it match the 70ns video RAM on board?

rasz_pl wrote:
of course I would buz out all the pins to sanity check if thats really where ram is supposed to go. […]
Show full quote
INT 10 - Chips & Technologies '64300' BIOS - GET XRAM INFORMATION
AX = 5F06h
Return: AL = 5Fh if function supported
AH = status
00h unsuccessful
01h successful
BL = XRAM presence (00h no XRAM, 01h present)
SeeAlso: AX=5F05h,AX=5F08h

of course I would buz out all the pins to sanity check if thats really where ram is supposed to go.

This is useful, thanks. I will try it.

Last edited by stalk3r on 2019-04-19, 08:25. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 9 of 31, by appiah4

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I also happen to own a similar card:

Dataexpert-DSP6430.jpg

I always thought the empty sockets were for 1MB to 2MB upgrade? U guess the U7A and U14 are for the XRAM upgrade but on my card they are not socketed or populated..

Last edited by appiah4 on 2019-04-19, 08:37. Edited 2 times in total.

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Reply 10 of 31, by stalk3r

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appiah4 wrote:
I also happen to own a similar card: […]
Show full quote

I also happen to own a similar card:

Dataexpert-DSP6430.jpg

I always thought the empty sockets were for 1MB to 2MB upgrade? U guess the U7A and U14 are for the XRAM upgrade but on my card they are not socketed or populated..

They are for the 2MB upgrade. The two extra DIP sockets are seemingly missing from your card, you can see their places on the top "MT4C4256"

Last edited by stalk3r on 2019-04-19, 08:38. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 11 of 31, by appiah4

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Do you know how this card compares to CL-GD542X cards? I have to pick between this and a 2MB CL-GD5428 for my 486 build 😀 Is the 2MB upgrade on either card of any use for a 486 PC?

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Reply 12 of 31, by stalk3r

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appiah4 wrote:

Do you know how this card compares to CL-GD542X cards? I have to pick between this and a 2MB CL-GD5428 for my 486 build 😀 Is the 2MB upgrade on either card of any use for a 486 PC?

I have no idea how does it perform, I have not had the chance to test it so far, furthermore this is my first VLB card ever 😀 By the way, for DOS-only usage I don't think there is a benefit of having a 2MB card. Maybe for some later SVGA games for which a 486 might be too slow anyway.

EDIT: there is a test of all mainstream VLB cards in PC Mag issue Dec 1994, this card goes by the name Boca Voyager:
https://books.google.ch/books?id=PITtFPwTaWwC … epage&q&f=false

Reply 14 of 31, by stalk3r

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rasz_pl wrote:
You can safely assume its marketing wank, PC Mag 6 Dec 1994 description sounds like some kind of deeper fifo to hide rasterizati […]
Show full quote

You can safely assume its marketing wank, PC Mag 6 Dec 1994 description sounds like some kind of deeper fifo to hide rasterization delays from host (outputting framebuffer to screen blocks main host from writing to video memory). You would have to find actual alleged patent application to know more.

still at $4 with free shipping for two MB81C4256 its something fun to try, you can test if its working by:

INT 10 - Chips & Technologies '64300' BIOS - GET XRAM INFORMATION
AX = 5F06h
Return: AL = 5Fh if function supported
AH = status
00h unsuccessful
01h successful
BL = XRAM presence (00h no XRAM, 01h present)
SeeAlso: AX=5F05h,AX=5F08h

of course I would buz out all the pins to sanity check if thats really where ram is supposed to go.

I've just had the time to check this; adding or removing "XRAM" chips does not change a thing in terms of dos performance (it does change registers AH, AL so I am pretty sure the feature was enabled). It was indeed a marketing wank 😀 The card is bloody fast though in DOS regardless the presence of XRAM chips, got pretty much the same if not higher scores than high-end VLB cards.

Reply 15 of 31, by kixs

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kixs wrote:
It says: […]
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386_junkie wrote:

Be sure first which memory you need... VRAM or DRAM. Using the incorrect RAM type can damage the card and memory.

It says:

By using one standard 256Kx4 Fast Page DRAM

So any chip from an older VGA card would be fine. But I'm not sure why it says "one". There are clearly two DIP sockets.

I have this card but haven't had the time to test it...

Tested my card a few weeks ago. It performs good in DOS and Windows. Extra cache chips only increase performance in Windows adding around 25% boost.

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 16 of 31, by stalk3r

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kixs wrote:

Tested my card a few weeks ago. It performs good in DOS and Windows. Extra cache chips only increase performance in Windows adding around 25% boost.

What I like about it is that it gives pretty good image on modern LCDs, as opposed to e.g. an S3 Trio VLB whose image is utterly crap. I guess it's related to the quality of DAC . But good to know the "XRAM" gives a boost in Windows.

Reply 18 of 31, by Eep386

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I found one a while back to replace the bug-tastic one Microsoft shipped with Win95.
It seems to fix the random lockups on screen mode changes as well as the super-annoying Windows mouse cursor appearing over DOS applications.
The F64300 should detect as 'Chips & Technologies, Accelerator (New)' under this driver.

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Reply 19 of 31, by Gona

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stalk3r wrote on 2019-04-18, 08:46:

The XRAM Accelerator Cache (patent pending) is a breakthrough in performance technology. By using one standard 256Kx4 Fast Page DRAM, a proprietary algorithm implemented in the 64300 significantly increases graphics system performance.The result is performance never before achieved in standard DRAM-based graphics architectures. For added flexibility, the XRAM Accelerator Cache is optional.

I have tested this "XRAM Accelerator Cache" thing by installing two standard DIP from an other videocards and run DOOM2 timedemo (with and without installed DIP chips) but the two results are the same...

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