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PARADISE 8Bit Vid Card

R

Rolf

Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2005
Messages
42
Location
Melbourne Australia
Processor Chip? is marked thus:
PARADISE'88
PVGA1A-JK
00-02 9001
028136201402

There is a 3pin Jumper on the Card and a 4switch DIP Switch accessed thru the Backplane.
It gives me lovely Hi-Res Autoexec Echo from the 5150, using a VGA Monitor. So I assume VGA.
Doesn't wanna know anything about color in DOS. Like I get White Blank areas, where it should be Bright White Text on Red for The Prompt, or Bright White on Blue for Command and Text.
Win2 I assume would need a Driver.
So what do we know about this Card please Guys?
Cheers Rolf.
 
Re: PARADISE 8Bit Vid Card

Rolf said:
Processor Chip? is marked thus:
PARADISE'88
PVGA1A-JK
00-02 9001
028136201402

There is a 3pin Jumper on the Card and a 4switch DIP Switch accessed thru the Backplane.
It gives me lovely Hi-Res Autoexec Echo from the 5150, using a VGA Monitor. So I assume VGA.
Doesn't wanna know anything about color in DOS. Like I get White Blank areas, where it should be Bright White Text on Red for The Prompt, or Bright White on Blue for Command and Text.
Win2 I assume would need a Driver.
So what do we know about this Card please Guys?
Cheers Rolf.
Click to expand...

I had one in my 386 IIRC- PVGA- Paradise VGA

It should be a 256 or 512K (1MB?) VGA Card.

How is this for a start:
http://docs.van-diepen.com/th99/z/c_w.htm
(see halfway the list)

http://docs.van-diepen.com/th99/v/U-Z/52812.htm

http://support.mpccorp.com/file_lib/zeosbbs/vother02.html

http://www.seasip.info/AmstradXT/pc2086dip.html

H
 
PARADISE 8Bit Vid Card

I got one from service merchandise back in 1990.
Put it in my 10mhz XT.

Never had a problem with it...
and now I have another one...
Don't remember the docs, but it was simple, only what, 16 combinations?
but in the xt it was dip switched to have a color display...[/list]
 
Paradise Settings

Paradise Settings

Here you go!!

DIP Switch/jumper settings: Paradise Pvga

VGA Plus, VGA Plus 16, VGA Professional Dip Switch Settings.

Switch 1 Monitor Type. ON: Multi frequency, OFF: Standard VGA
Switch 2 VGA Mode Switching Style. ON: PS/2 Style - All modes available
on all monitors, OFF: PC/AT Style - color on color, mono on mono
Switch 3 Not used - Set to OFF
Switch 4 (Not VGA Plus) 8bit vs 16bit AutoSense. ON: Auto sense 8/16bit
BIOS access, OFF: Force 8bit BIOS access
 
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It's a PVGA1A Paradise VGA card and has 256KB onboard. There is a VESA 1.0 .COM driver floating around out there for it (not scitech display doctor but something else) that I have found to work to provide VESA 640x400x256, if that helps.
 
KD5VMF said:
Here you go!!

DIP Switch/jumper settings: Paradise Pvga

VGA Plus, VGA Plus 16, VGA Professional Dip Switch Settings.

Switch 1 Monitor Type. ON: Multi frequency, OFF: Standard VGA
Switch 2 VGA Mode Switching Style. ON: PS/2 Style - All modes available
on all monitors, OFF: PC/AT Style - color on color, mono on mono
Switch 3 Not used - Set to OFF
Switch 4 (Not VGA Plus) 8bit vs 16bit AutoSense. ON: Auto sense 8/16bit
BIOS access, OFF: Force 8bit BIOS access
Click to expand...

Sorry for bumping an old thread but I have this very same card and I have questions about the switch settings:

"Switch 1 Monitor Type. ON: Multi frequency, OFF: Standard VGA". Is there any benefits of using multi frequency setting over VGA? I am using multisync monitor so I could use it. I have tested that with multi-frequency on, even if I play normal VGA games, it uses lower frequency than normal 31Khz VGA as my VGA CRT can't show it. Why is that and is there any reason I should prefer using it?

"Switch 2 VGA Mode Switching Style. ON: PS/2 Style - All modes available on all monitors, OFF: PC/AT Style - color on color, mono on mono". I need an explanation what does this actually mean?
 
I would guess SW2 allows you to have the VGA co-exist with either a CGA or MDA adapter. Not sure about the other.
 
musicforlife said:
"Switch 1 Monitor Type. ON: Multi frequency, OFF: Standard VGA". Is there any benefits of using multi frequency setting over VGA? I am using multisync monitor so I could use it. I have tested that with multi-frequency on, even if I play normal VGA games, it uses lower frequency than normal 31Khz VGA as my VGA CRT can't show it. Why is that and is there any reason I should prefer using it?
Click to expand...
Better CGA compatibility?
True CGA uses 60 Hz refresh rate and there's some software that depends on it.
Regular VGA displays 320x200 and 640x200 modes at 70 Hz.
 
Xacalite said:
Better CGA compatibility?
True CGA uses 60 Hz refresh rate and there's some software that depends on it.
Regular VGA displays 320x200 and 640x200 modes at 70 Hz.
Click to expand...

My Dell LCD is capable of 55Hz refresh rate so it must be lower horizontal frequency than 31Khz because it was out of range.
 
I have a similar card, 8-bit Western Digital marked, Paradise PVGA1A, but without the -JK suffix.

It works as expected in a 286 or 386 motherboard.

Blanks screen / no signal on the XT 5160.

The system is actually running behind that blank screen, because it does give the boot beep and disk drive activity.

Other VGA boards work correctly in this XT.

Bill

IMG_1492.jpg
 
I’ve got this one in a compuadd 810, and I think is a stock upgrade for that computer, but I’m not 100% sure. It’s an XT class machine, but it does have a V20 in it. My BIOS looks newer than yours.

IMG_9962.jpeg
 
Yours is the PVGA1A-JK chip. Mine is missing the -JK suffix.

I wonder, any chance you could grab the contents of that ROM?

Bill
 
I'm waiting for Olivetti branded -JK to get from ebay, will dump the ROM once its here
 
Here you go. The ROM is a TMM24256BP-20, but that wasn't an option on the USB programmer I had easily accessible, but I still think I got a good read
 

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I also noticed there are a couple of rom dumps on minuszerodegrees, but I didn’t compare them.
 
If it doesn't, I should also try a V20 CPU, since that seems to work with some cards.
 
Nope, still does not work in the XT with that ROM image.

Does however continue to work in a 286.
 
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