🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan5.115350.16234@slcs.slb.com> brydon@dsn.SINet.slb.com writes:
>I purchased a DECpc 452ST from Digital Equipment Corp, with their high
>resolution graphics card and 20" screen.  No matter what I do, I can't get
>more than VGA (640X480) resolution out of the thing.  I would like to get at
>least 1024X768, and 1280X1024 would be better.  Is there anybody out there
>that has a DECpc xxxST that managed to get it working properly?  DEC sold it
>to me and they don't have a clue.
>
> FR-PCXAG-AD 1280X1024 hi res adapter (TI 34020)
> VR320-DA and/or NEC 6FG monitor
>The TI34020 has 2 Megs memory
>
>Any help would be appreciated.
>Harvey Brydon         | Internet:   brydon@dsn.SINet.slb.com
>Dowell Schlumberger   | P.O.T.S.:   (918)250-4312


I don't own one of the DEC cards, but I have researched them fully, and
would have bought one if they had any OS/2 support.

The card is not made by DEC, but is made by Appian.  If DEC didn't provide
you with any drivers, you might want to try these guys, although I doubt
they would be willing to help as they sell a competing product.

It is unfortunate that you plunked down the money for that card.  
It is quite expensive (~$1600). 

There is programmable memory on the card; which allows a driver to 
to load (onto the board itself) C programs or routines to 
speed up some graphics operations.  Other accelerator chipsets like the
S3 chipset, etc. have certain graphics functions hard coded on the card,
and are not programmable.  While programmable routines are a nice feature,
they are absolutely useless unless you have people writing drivers or 
routines for them.  The TIGA architecture has some nice support in the
UNIX community, but has almost none in the DOS/Windows world (except for
CAD users).  At best, a driver is provided for Win 3.1, but I have never
seen a Windows benchmark for a 34020 board (~$1500) beat an ATI ULTRA
board (~$500).

Incidently, although I have a poor opinion of the support offered for
the DEC card, I would be interested in purchasing yours, should you decide
you would like to replace it.  I have done some BIOS programming for the
TSENG 4000 chipset, and would like to attempt to write some drivers for 
the TIGA chipset.  Aside from that, I have a nice fixed frequency monitor
that is presently going to waste.  So, if you want to replace your card with 
an ATI graphics Ultra Pro, or most any other, I would be more than happy
to give you cash for such a purchase (and maybe a bit extra) in return for
the card. 

Good luck!
Rusty