ATI Small Wonder Graphics Solution v1

[FishFinger]

I've been offered one of these, and wondered if anyone knew anything about it.

As far as I can tell it's a 64KB card and supports a lot of modes: MDA, Hercules, CGA, plus some enhanced modes like like 640x200x16 and 132-column text.

I'm told that it can display any of the supported modes on any of the available outputs - such as MDA/Hercules on the composite output (which is what particularly interests me, as I don't have a TTL monitor, only a 15khz composite).

Do they play nice in a dual head setup with a VGA card? The 64KB RAM would normally overlap with the CGA/EGA/VGA memory area, so I assume it would have to limit the RAM to 32KB in MDA/Hercules mdoes.

Not the actual card, but it looks identical to this:

 

[Chuck(G)]

You're not going to be able to use a 15KHz monitor on the composite output to get MGA/MDA. There are too many lines in mono mode to handle with a 15KHz horizontal sync.

There are other 8-bit cards that can do similar tricks. I think the Vega VGA card could do this--and the Everex Micro Enhancer EGA could use Herc and CGA monitors in addition to EGA. But no composite output.

 

[FishFinger]

I may be wrong, but I don't think it's actually true MDA mode (720x350), I think it's 640x200 with the 8x8 font, just that it can do it in a way that's compatible with MDA - monochrome text, RAM at B000, etc...

 

[Fallo]

I'm told that it can display any of the supported modes on any of the available outputs - such as MDA/Hercules on the composite output (which is what particularly interests me, as I don't have a TTL monitor, only a 15khz composite).

The card looks like it will accept either a monochrome or a CGA RGB monitor on the 9-pin connector (the jumpers are probably used to select the monitor type). The composite output wouldn't be able to display the MDA modes, only the CGA ones.

It's not just the sync frequency that differs on composite displays (15 Khz versus MDA's 18 Khz), but the refresh is also different (60Hz versus 50Hz).

 

[per]

I may be wrong, but I don't think it's actually true MDA mode (720x350), I think it's 640x200 with the 8x8 font, just that it can do it in a way that's compatible with MDA - monochrome text, RAM at B000, etc...

There is only one way to find out; try it!

I have the version 2 of that card, and I find it very handy (I got a Mono monitor, and with the standard IBM MDA; I'm unable to use graphics). In Mono monitor mode, it uses the 720x350 mode (even for CGA simulation), but it may use 8x8 font mode in CGA monitor/composite mode. Drivers can be provided if you need them.

 

[per]

The card looks like it will accept either a monochrome or a CGA RGB monitor on the 9-pin connector (the jumpers are probably used to select the monitor type). The composite output wouldn't be able to display the MDA modes, only the CGA ones.

It's not just the sync frequency that differs on composite displays (15 Khz versus MDA's 18 Khz), but the refresh is also different (60Hz versus 50Hz).

Both the graphics mode used on boot and monitor-type can be set by the switches.

This card emulates the graphics modes if graphics mode and monitor-type matches, else, it will simulate the graphics mode the best it can while still being able to output to the monitor-type.

Sw 1/1 ON = MDA/Hercules graphics mode
Sw 1/1 OFF = CGA/Plantonics Color+ graphics mode

Sw 1/2 ON = RGBI or Composite monitor
Sw 1/2 OFF = Monochrome monitor

Sw 1/3 ON = Composite in Color
Sw 1/3 OFF = Composite in Monochrome (IBM PC portable)

Sw 1/4 = Nothing (used on the very few 'g' versions of the card with a joystic port instead of the composite out)

The settings of the target machine should be set accordingly to Sw 1/1.

 

[per]

See attachement from the full list of compability.

 

[Andrettigto]

it may use 8x8 font mode in CGA monitor/composite mode...

Off topic a bit but this 8x8 font, is that the same as the alternate CGA font that was selectable through a board level hardware modification?

There was an article in PC TechJournal and I did the mod back then on my CGA. The alternate font set used single pixels displaying a crisper character. Possible it was the MDA character set, I can't remember.

 

[per]

Off topic a bit but this 8x8 font, is that the same as the alternate CGA font that was selectable through a board level hardware modification?

There was an article in PC TechJournal and I did the mod back then on my CGA. The alternate font set used single pixels displaying a crisper character. Possible it was the MDA character set, I can't remember.

No, it wasn't the MDA character set, but an alternative 8x8 font.

However, according to the table I just found and posted in the post above, the card uses interlaching to achieve MDA-like high-resolution text to CGA/Composite monitors (when the card is in MDA/Hercules graphics on CGA/Composite monitor mode).

 

[per]

Do they play nice in a dual head setup with a VGA card? The 64KB RAM would normally overlap with the CGA/EGA/VGA memory area, so I assume it would have to limit the RAM to 32KB in MDA/Hercules mdoes.

I have examined the manual, and as long as the graphics mode used don't overlap, it is fine. Say, you set Sw 1/2 to OFF, you can use the card with anything that will work side-by side with a MDA adapter (if you activate Hercules mode, it wil work fine with anything that will work side-by side with a Hercules card). It is almost the same if you set Sw 1/2 to ON; then the card will work with anything that works side-by-side with a CGA adapter.

In other words, just make sure your secondary graphics card will work side-by-side with whathever the ATI Graphics Solution is set to, and you will get positive ressults. Also make sure, if it is an EGA or VGA, that you set the target system to "No video card or video card with BIOS extension" setting (sometimes this setting is just called "EGA" or "VGA/PGA").

 

[JohnElliott]

Off topic a bit but this 8x8 font, is that the same as the alternate CGA font that was selectable through a board level hardware modification?

The Small Wonder has three fonts, but its third font isn't the same as the IBM 'thin' font. It has narrower characters (5 pixels wide rather than 7) and I think it gets used in some of the weirder modes.

Googling for gsm203.zip and gs100.exe will net you some drivers and utilities.

 

[Anonymous Coward]

Are the plantronics colorplus modes of any use at all? Do they have any kind of pcjr graphics compatibility? Will Sierra Online AGS games display in 16 colours?

 

[Fallo]

Are the plantronics colorplus modes of any use at all? Do they have any kind of pcjr graphics compatibility? Will Sierra Online AGS games display in 16 colours?

The Colorplus has 320x200x16 and 640x200x4 graphics, which are more-or-less the same as the PCjr/Tandy modes, but they require you to program the registers directly (no BIOS support). Some applications (eg. Lotus 123) support them, but you can't use games in PCjr/Tandy mode.

 

[Anonymous Coward]

That's too bad. It's a shame there were no TSRs written to allow for some EGA and Tandy compatibility.

 

[Marrr]

Yes, it's kinda strange to choose to emulate Plantronics ColorPlus instead of the much more popular PCjr/Tandy.

Also, I'm wondering if anybody actually tried to use that "display 350-line modes on a 200-line monitor using interlace" feature. Looks like something for a true masochist to me...

 

[JT64]

I've been offered one of these, and wondered if anyone knew anything about it.

As far as I can tell it's a 64KB card and supports a lot of modes: MDA, Hercules, CGA, plus some enhanced modes like like 640x200x16 and 132-column text.

I'm told that it can display any of the supported modes on any of the available outputs - such as MDA/Hercules on the composite output (which is what particularly interests me, as I don't have a TTL monitor, only a 15khz composite).

Do they play nice in a dual head setup with a VGA card? The 64KB RAM would normally overlap with the CGA/EGA/VGA memory area, so I assume it would have to limit the RAM to 32KB in MDA/Hercules mdoes.

Not the actual card, but it looks identical to this:

Nice i would buy it to test it out in my XT with my LCD-tv and maybe play some CGA games.

JT

 

[Fallo]

Yes, it's kinda strange to choose to emulate Plantronics ColorPlus instead of the much more popular PCjr/Tandy.

The main problem with emulating the Tandy graphics is that the video buffer is not in a fixed location. It moves up the more memory is in the computer.

Nice i would buy it to test it out in my XT with my LCD-tv and maybe play some CGA games.

Make sure that you don't have your TV set to widescreen mode, because it will distort the graphics, a common problem people have when trying to use vintage computers/consoles on LCD TVs.

 

[per]

Make sure that you don't have your TV set to widescreen mode, because it will distort the graphics, a common problem people have when trying to use vintage computers/consoles on LCD TVs.

Is that what causes all those zig-zag edges and mixed up colours (read one of my posts from long-time-ago)? Then I have to try again with my TV set to normal frame...

 

[Fallo]

Is that what causes all those zig-zag edges and mixed up colours (read one of my posts from long-time-ago)? Then I have to try again with my TV set to normal frame...

Widescreen mode is probably what's causing zig-zagging, but I'm not sure what you mean by mixed-up colors. If you're referring to color bleed, that's normal and the way the CGA composite output is supposed to look.

 

[per]

Widescreen mode is probably what's causing zig-zagging, but I'm not sure what you mean by mixed-up colors. If you're referring to color bleed, that's normal and the way the CGA composite output is supposed to look.

I'm not only talking about color bleed, Seriously, with one combination of colors, some of the left parts of the picture went out of the screen and the remaining was compleetely mis-colored and bleeding as much as I never has seen before! However, there was no zig-zaging when that screen was showed.