Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:14972 comp.graphics:2371
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!littlei!foobar!argent!agora!rickc
From: rickc@agora.UUCP (Rick Coates)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.graphics
Subject: Graphics cards for PC's
Message-ID: <905@agora.UUCP>
Date: 26 Apr 88 23:10:55 GMT
Organization: Advanced Solutions, Hillsboro, OR
Lines: 95
Keywords: EGA VGA Paradise



Fellow Usenet PC users:

I am interested in garnering more information about display cards. Even
the flyers from companies (much less the ads) do not give even the 
basics. I suspect this is intended to further confuse an already confused area.
To help roll back to curtain of ignorance, let us who have used different
cards pool our knowledge. I have found magazines to be of limited help,
since most of the reviews are significantly behind or in error (for example,
the Byte review in March 88 on enhanced EGA/VGA states that the
maximum resolution for an ATI VIP card is 640x480x16 - but ATI's
flyer says 800x560x16).

What I am looking for is 640x480x256 (I know that at least one firm is making 
chips that do this - EE Times reported that Trident is making them).
Other people will be looking for other things - be careful about maximum
resolution.  The high end of 'multi-sync' monitors is not uniform, and 
you might get edged out if you have the wrong monitor.

To kick it all off, I have some explanations, EGA and VGA maximum
resolutions (there are other, lower resolution modes available), and
the modes for the Paradise AutoSwitch 480 (the card I have).

ALSO, if you are going to program these beasts (had I created a
piece of hardware as obscure and poor at supporting line drawing as
the EGA/VGA when I was an engineer for a Large Graphics Corporation,
the software group would have lynched me), there are at least two
books out (I bought both).  The first one is far superior to the
second - had I seen it first I would never had bought the second.

	Programmer's Guide to PC & PS/2 Video Systems
	Richard Wilton
	Microsoft Press	$24.95

	EGA/VGA A programmers's Reference
	Bradley Kliewer
	McGraw Hill $24.95

Thanks in advance,

Rick Coates

tektronix!sequent!islabs!ateq!rick
OR
tektronix!reed!percival!agora!rickc
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
GRAPHICS MODES:
FIRST COLUMN:	BIOS Mode 

SECOND COLUMN:	resolution (x y no. of colors)
		x: number of displayed pixels across the screen
		y: number of displayed pixels down the screen
		no: number of simultaneous colors available on the screen

THIRD COLUMN:	maximum number of palette colors
		the number of possible colors (not all displayable at once)
		64 = 2^6 - six bits of color, two per "gun" (red,blue,green)
			4 levels of monochrome
		262,144 = 2^18 - 18 bits; 6 bits per gun
			64 levels of monochrome

FIFTH COLUMN:	Text or graphics mode

TEXT MODES:
FIRST COLUMN:	BIOS Mode 

SECOND COLUMN:	resolution in characters (columns rows)

THIRD COLUMN:	character cell size

FOURTH COLUMN:	pixel resolution

FIFTH COLUMN:	Text or graphics mode
	
EGA:
+-----+-----------------+------------+-------------------+----------+
| 10  |	640 x 350 x 16	|  64 	     |			 | GRAPHICS |
+-----+-----------------+------------+-------------------+----------+

VGA:	
+-----+-----------------+------------+-------------------+----------+
| 12  |	640 x 480 x 16	|  262,144   |			 | GRAPHICS |
| 13  |	640 x 200 x 256 |  262,144   |			 | GRAPHICS |
+-----+-----------------+------------+-------------------+----------+

PARADISE AUTO SWITCH 480:
+-----+-----------------+------------+-------------------+----------+
| 50  |	640 x 480 x 16  |  64 	     |			 | GRAPHICS |
| 51  |	80 x 30 	|  8 x 16    |	 640 x 480 	 | TEXT     |
| 54  |	132 x 43	|  8 x 8     |	 1056 x 344 	 | TEXT     |
| 55  |	132 x 25	|  8 x 14    |	 1056 x 350 	 | TEXT     |
+-----+-----------------+------------+-------------------+----------+

-------------end--------------