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From: johnl@ima.ISC.COM (John R. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: VGA questions
Message-ID: <730@ima.ISC.COM>
Date: Thu, 1-Oct-87 22:33:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: ima.730
Posted: Thu Oct  1 22:33:41 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Oct-87 00:56:36 EDT
References: <8VMOzLy00Xo6d080Bo@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: johnl@ima.UUCP (John R. Levine)
Organization: Not enough to make any difference
Lines: 28

In article <8VMOzLy00Xo6d080Bo@andrew.cmu.edu> ks26+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kenneth Sykes) writes:
>I recently purchased IBM's VGA card and 8513 Color monitor ...
>
>1) Can I run a CGA card and VGA card in the same machine?

I doubt it, the VGA implements all of the CGA modes along with other stuff.
In a PS/2, the VGA is on the motherboard and there is a little connector on
one of the expansion slots that lets an add-in video card turn the VGA on
and off and drive the screen directly.  Assuming the add-in VGA is the same,
it expects to be on all of the time unless a smarter card overrides it.

>2) Are there any interesting programming features of the VGA, above and 
>    beyond the 256 color palette in mode 13h?

There is a 640x480x4 mode which gives you somewhat better than EGA resolution
and square pixels.  There is also an 80x50 alpha mode that lets you draw lots
of teensy characters on your screen.

>3) Are there any demo programs (with source) available that would show off
>    the card's capabilities?

IBM had some nice demos with digitized pictures at the April PS/2 announcement,
but I haven't seen them since.
-- 
John R. Levine, IECC, PO Box 349, Cambridge MA 02238-0349, +1 617 492 3869
{ ihnp4 | decvax | cbosgd | harvard | yale }!ima!johnl, Levine@YALE.something
The Iran-Contra affair:  None of this would have happened if Ronald Reagan
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