Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!spdcc!merk!alliant!linus!linus!mwunix.mitre.org!twegner From: twegner@mwunix.mitre.org (Timothy Wegner) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware Subject: Re: GENOA graphic card, *please* help Message-ID: Date: 31 Jul 90 18:42:41 GMT References: <2133@cernvax.UUCP> Sender: usenet@linus.mitre.org Lines: 40 cester@cernvax.cern.ch (albert cester) writes: >Hi there! >I bought a GENOA 5200 SuperVGA card which claims of >beeing able to do hardware scrolling and -panning, >but I have no documentation. I tried to write to >GENOA, but they didn't answer. Another thing I am >interested in is how to switch between the various >modes of the card via direct port i/o, especially the >extended modes like 1024x768x16 etc. (I cannot use >the BIOS because I'm running SCO XENIX-386). >My card is made of a few TSENG chips, if this helps. >Could someone please email me details or point me >to somewhere I can get this information ? >Thanks in avdance. >Albert Cester. I have a Genoa 5200 and forked out $25 or so for the programmer's reference, which is a very low level description of all the registers etc. and what they do, 98% of which is the same as a regular VGA, including the planning and scrolling features you mentioned. I would get a good VGA book (one by Ferraro is excellent though has some errors - title something like "Programming the VGA Adapter") and start from there. The main difference between the Genoa and a regular VGA is the need to bank switch to access all the video memory. Grab John Bridges vgakit.zip file in Simtel or Compuserv (PICS lib 14) to find out how to bank switch. Here is what I would do to program the super VGA modes from UNIX. Get on a PC, and write a little program that reads out the various VGA register values - set the modes via bios, and then see what happens to the registers (armed with Ferraro's book, this is easy). Alternatively, grab my program source frasrc13.exe from Simtel (frasrc14.exe in a few days) and look in video.asm. There are some tweaked modes that use tables of register values. None of this is too hard - the Genoa programmer's manual is not that helpful. Good luck.