PCI graphics cards with PassThru

[CLS2086]

One the Amiga Side, you can get the signal at the entrance of the VP101-3BA (or ADV191KP30 depending of your A1200 mobo...) :
http://assets.zarlink.com/DS/zarlink_VP101_JAN_01.pdf
but i'm sure that you'll need at least a buffer system like on commodore VGA adapter.
Good Luck.

[alexh]

Alex, are we talking about the connector at the top, in the middle, of the card?

Yes.

you can get the signal at the entrance of the VP101

Heh, I worked on the team that designed that Chip :-) I've got a box of 1000's of them and the Tapes of the design. And probably the load testboards.

I'd probably get the signals directly from either the Lisa chip, just as modern internal scandoublers do.

OR

From the Scandoubler's FPGA/CPLD before it's DAC.

[alexh]

At the moment I cannot find enough RELIABLE information on the VGA Feature connector, specifically the one on the Voodoo3.

At the moment I am assuming that this is just an output so of no use to us.

I am also assuming that it is 8-bit non-paletted colour too so the colour / picture quality wouldnt be very good.

If it turns out to be bidirectional, and enhanced to more than 8-bits then we would be in buisness.

[keropi]

go go go!  :-D  :-D  :-D  :-D

[Gojirax]

Didn't the VooDoo 3 work in SLI mode? If that's the case then there should be inputs and outputs on that connector...

[keropi]

no sli mode for voodoo3...
voodoo2's had sli...

[Angus]

alexh, he say:
>At the moment I cannot find enough RELIABLE information on the VGA Feature connector, specifically the one on the Voodoo3.

If its any help most of tracks from the pins on the connector that are doing anything seem to be going down towards a small chip called:

S3861Q
9949
RO3968G

This is on a Voodoo3 3000

[Boot_WB]

Gojirax wrote:
Didn't the VooDoo 3 work in SLI mode? If that's the case then there should be inputs and outputs on that connector...

Don't think so - they stopped SLI with the voodoo2 according to the 3dfx website remenants through wayback.

It does seem to be a standard connector though, as there is mention of the voodoo 3 being used in conjunction with DVD decoders here, although it could just be anecdotal.

Check the last thread on:

Oh FFS!  This submission is being troublesome.
ht_____tp://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:o-cwV1Olj-8J:w_____ww.optibase.com/
Forum.aspx%3Ff%3D17%26p%3D3+voodoo+site:optibase.com&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a

"Videoplex Xpress compatibility questions" and replies.

Sorry, but you'll have to paste the URL directly into your browser bit-by-bit and take out the underscores by hand.  The 'link' function wasn't working for the cached URL and it was making the entire page about 3m wide :-)

According to this thread it is a VMI bus - industry standard, should be easy to find some reference material on it.

[Angus]

I've found some diagrams of the Voodoo cards, and the connector in question is called a Digital Video Input Connector apparently.

There's some info and a pin layout here:

http://www.angusm.demon.co.uk/Temp/Voodoo/Diagrams.htm

[alexh]

Digital Video INPUT sure as hell makes it sound more useful.

[Angus]

I was thinking that.  

[alexh]

But the pinout doesnt match the VGA Function Connector... which means either this document is wrong or it is a custom connector and that means even MORE work to discover its secrets

It's input is REC601 digital video which is not exactly what the Amiga outputs.

There is an I2C interface on there probably to allow you to program the RAMDAC externally.

Working out how this works is going to be a nightmare... we need someone who used to work at 3DFX.

[Angus]

So excuse  my ignorance, but in an ideal scenario what might be achieved with the connector?


Don't know if this helpful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCIR_601

[alexh]

Worst case: Automon... automatic switching between gfx cards and amiga native.

Best case: Native Amiga display in a window in RTG mode.

However it is looking less like the Voodoo3 has a VGA Feature connector and some strange 601 video connector. Good for MPEG, not very useful for Amiga's.

[Angus]

>However it is looking less like the Voodoo3 has a VGA Feature

Dang.... well, I'll keep my fingers crossed (I'm an Amigan, after all).  Thanks.

[motorollin]

I have a Voodoo 3 3000 on my Mediator. I have minimal electronics experience but let me know if there's anythingI can check/test for you. This is exciting :-)

--
moto