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From: fenger@galaxy.cps.msu.edu (Steven V Fenger)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: SUPER VGA or what there is
Message-ID: <1991Apr18.000945.9629@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>
Date: 18 Apr 91 00:09:45 GMT
References: <7309@munnari.oz.au> <6710003@pollux.svale.hp.com>
Sender: news@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu
Organization: Michigan State University, Computer Science Department
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In article <6710003@pollux.svale.hp.com> dlow@pollux.svale.hp.com (Danny Low) writes:
>> My question is  are all SUPER VGA boards compatible with 
>> each other, such that if one manufacturers board fails
>> I can plug in another manufacturers board and proceed with
>> no problems in the software.
>
>No. VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) has a SuperVGA
>standard but it is new and incomplete.

No.  VESA is very complete.  The VESA standards 2.0 came out sometime
last summer and covered displays to 1280x1024.

>Right now any SuperVGA
>card you buy will be incompatible with any other SuperVGA card.

This is true at the SVGA hardware programming level.  VESA drivers make
them compatible, though.  Most major card manufactures have VESA
compatible drivers available.  I know for sure VESA drivers are
available from ATi, Headland (Video 7), and Paradise.  A VESA driver is
a software method of compatability, though.  Its like adding a SVGA
BIOS.

>You basically have to settle on a company and stick with them.

Not really.  Major software vendors provide drivers for major SVGA cards
and vice-versa.  So, for instance, if you use WordPerfect, WordPerfect
provides drivers to work with various SVGA cards, and SVGA card
companies also provide there own drivers for WordPerfect.  If you do
change SVGA cards, you would have to install the new video driver,
though.

>The only good aspect is that many VGA cards use a common chipset
>(e.g. Paradise, Tseng or Headland) and are mostly compatible with each
>other for that reason.

Of course, all SVGA cards are compatible with each other with respect to
IBM video standards.

Steven Fenger
fenger@frith.egr.msu.edu \
fenger@cps.msu.edu        >- But all roads lead to fenger@galaxy.cps.msu.edu
fenger@power1.ee.msu.edu /