This card should work as is, it's a stand-alone VGA card with 2d hardware acceleration.

Unfortunately it doesn't. I tried messing up with those switches in upper left corner, but it still doesn't work.

It's a Number Nine #9GX card, pretty sure it's a VGA card with TI TMS-34010 acceleration added.
So I believe it *should* work as standalone VGA.

This area looks burned and chip damaged. Can't really tell.

That was just a shadow...

that just looks like a reflection/shadow of the tall transitor in the pins to me ^^

e: too slow ^^

Look at this description:

"Offered is an extremely rare vintage number 9 Graphics Xccelerator introduced by the Number Nine Computer Corporation in Cambridge Mass. It has VGA output and is a 16 bit ISA board

This board has been in storage for over a decade and was a pull from old computer systems that were being scrapped. It was originally coupled to a Headland ISA 16 VGA board by the upper connector. This offering does not include that board, which I will be listing later on Ebay as well. If you might be interested in the pair please contact me for information.

The board seems to be in excellent physical shape as can be seen in the pictures and would make a great addition to any collection of rare early computer video cards.

Please make note: I do not have a system that can test this board so it is being sold as-is. "

Picture of the card.

Yeah, and that's the bloody cable I need. I guess.

With a little work you can make the cable yourself. Buy a 26 pin edge connector and a standard ribbon cable.
Observe polarity.

At this stage, it seems like the only way to test it. Thanks.

Similar but not sure...
https://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/cw-i … -2618M-ND/10168

I'm still pretty sure that neither the cable nor a second VGA card is needed. Probably for a dual-monitor configuration, maybe. That edge connector is the same as the header below, btw, so you could use either of them.

Anyway, that card has everything on it to act stand-alone. Besides, the feature connector can not even pass-through VGA, since it has no access to the VGA palette.

Another description mentioning that it isn't standalone:

"#9GX

Number Nine Graphics Xccelerator
16-bit ISA Video Card

PC007200-2

NEVER BEFORE SEEN IN CAPTIVITY
PROBABLY THE RAREST PC VIDEO CARD IN THE WORLD

imagine a 1991 ISA video card with 6MB of RAM!!!

really rare. nobody has pictures,
Wikipedia doesn't accurately describe this card
nobody else has one or describes one
when #9 sent a sample to a magazine for evaluation the drivers didn't work
and the magazine was unable to test it

based on the TI TMS-34010, uses the TIGA Driver

there is this blurb online:
The PC DECwindows Motif supports the ...
Number Nine Computer Corp. #9GX Graphics
Xcellerator card, 16 or 256 color, 640 x 480 or 1024 x
768 or 1280 x 1024 (with a Texas Instruments Graphics
Architecture (TIGA), Version 2.0 driver;

this card looks pretty much like new,
it is in beautiful condition except for a hint of 'greasiness'
around the memory chips that reminds me of leaking capacitors
but these capacitors have not leaked so perhaps somebody
sprayed the sockets with some sort of contact cleaner

This card is not a stand-alone video card
it is an accelerator that only works with the pass-thru feature connector
and a second standard VGA card
although it does mentions an optional VGA Snap-On Module (#9VGA)
so with such a module it could be a stand-alone card

This card is fully populated with 2MB VRAM
(8 soldered KM424C256Z-10 and 8 socketed D42274V-10)
and 4MB DRAM
(8 socketed HM514400ZP10 1meg x 4bit)"

derSammler wrote:

Besides, the feature connector can not even pass-through VGA, since it has no access to the VGA palette.

It doesn't need to. Its concept is not being an always online loopthrough connection, like in the 3dfx Voodoo cards. The addon board just kicks in when the drivers are loaded - usually in Windows, CAD or 8514 mode.

On second thought I'm not even sure if you're completely right on that point. Communication via VGA feature connector must provide some form of write access both ways. At least the framebuffer of the primary video card must be accessible through the feature connector as there is a substantial number of capture cards with feature connector that need to transfer the input data stream into the video card. Therefore I could imagine an addon board being able to access the video signal of the primary card as well but not entirely sure on that.

There is virtually no information about this card, anywhere...

No documentation, and probably not much help, but...

ftp://ftp.oldskool.org/pub/drivers/NumberNine/ftp/gx/

ftp://ftp.oldskool.org/pub/drivers/NumberNine/ftp/tiga/

Thanks. I already found these.

To check if it standalone or not I would put it in a PC together with a normal VGA, no loop cable needed. If there is a conflict there will be no display on both cards. If there is a output on the VGA (but not on the number nine), the number nine is an add-on only.

To get the number nine running you need to setup the specific TIGA drivers. When running a suitable application, you get a picture on the number nine.

I think this connector cable is only to loop the VGA signal through, you dont need it for testing your number nine.

How about chnaging the topic title to "number nine TIGA...". There will be more people looking into it to support...