Re: powerstorm 4d40t support.
On Saturday 13 September 2003 01:02 pm, Maciej Matysiak wrote:
> the 5440, which i need, is missing :( but please correct me,
> if i'm wrong (ie. the chip numbers don't have to be exact in
> this case, or something).
Hmmm. Strange. I know this card has worked with XFree86
before--I remember it being mentioned several times on old
XFree86 3.x release notes mentioning "more complete acceleration
for [such-and-such cards]". Not sure why it's vanished from the
HCL.
Well, I'd say it's worth trying the Alpine driver, just to see
what happens. If you've got XF86 4.3.0 installed, a simple
"XFree86 -configure" might detect something. Sadly, it probably
won't detect the 3D functionality of that card--XFree86 has
never supported that and probably never will. But you might get
some 2D action.
> > Third, that thing looks like more than just a vidcard.
> > That's probably why it's so huge! It's a combo card, with
> > the Cirrus card as a stacked daughtercard -- I see SCSI and
> > network components on the baseboard.
>
> now, i'm really confused :) i can't say that you're wrong
> because i don't know that hardware (and can't find any decent
> description of it). and in fact there's something like scsi
> cable socket. i can't see anywhere any network components -
> what makes you think they are there? :)
I'm basing my judgment off spotting a few things; namely, the
three heatsink'd chips, the memory slots, the 50-pin SCSI
connector, and the LSILogic chip (LSILogic primarily
manufactures SCSI controller chips).
(I'll have to revise my opinion of network presence on that thing
though--I got a look at the ports from the back, and what I
thought was a network port actually looks to be an S-Video port.
Never mind that, sorry.)
I'm guessing the black and blue ports are both monitor ports--my
quick research suggests the 4D40T is a dual-head card. My own
personal knowledge of the CL 5440 is that it should by no means
require that much board real-estate or the three heatsink'd
chips we see on the baseboard. The extra chips under the
heatsinks are probably tied to another video head--a high-end
(for its day) professional OpenGL accelerator.
> but, i have separate cards for network and external scsi
> support (the internal seems to be on the motherboard): take a
> look at http://babilon.org/Alpha/05.jpg, there's green card in
> the top right box' corner, that's the external scsi thing. and'
> next to it there's tulip card: http://babilon.org/Alpha/12.jpg
Hmmm...interesting. Well, you're set for that then. Now that I
look at the motherboard, I'm seeing the 21143 and QLogic
controller chips for the thing.
> anyone has idea what's use of those two dimm slots on that
> powerstorm card? (i know that i can put there memory ;) but:
> how much, and what would it be used for?)
I'm guessing they're for extra video RAM, probably for the
high-end 3D usage the card was built for (i.e. storing 3D
textures and mesh data in the card's local memory). A lot of
high-end 3D cards were built with RAM slots, in the days before
the bandwidth demands of 3D chips outstripped what
industry-standard modular memory could provide. Some high-end
3D cards are probably still made like that, especially those
designed more for T&L than real-time texture mapping.
Just going over this stuff, it brings a tear to my eye, thinking
that this card's 3D goodness has never been supported under
XFree86. :'( It was apparently OEM'd exclusively for Digital
UNIX (nee Tru64) CAD-type usage.
> if someone is really interested, i can make more (and better
> :)) pictures of this computer.
Definitely interested! I'd personally like to see closer pics of
the vidcard, so I could maybe make out more of the writing on
the chips. This is like an old-school hardware nostalgia fest.
The output of lspci (with all boards in) might prove interesting
too.
I'm also curious about the chips under those heatsinks. They
look like they're epoxied on there, but there are ways to weaken
thermal epoxy--usually putting the card in a sealed anti-static
bag and sticking it in your freezer overnight will do it. Then
take the card out and let it acclimate to room-temp before
opening the anti-static bag. That might be a lot of work
though, just to satisfy someone else's curiosity...
--
Kelledin
"If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does
it still cost four figures to fix?"
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