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MATROX PG-640 and PG-1280 Manuals and Drivers

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pevalcas

Experienced Member
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Messages
53
Location
Italy
Hello to the VCF members.

I'm searching the manuals for the Matrox PG-640 and PG-1280 (and PG-1281) graphics cards sold in the second half of the eighties.

Also any drivers, if available or information on these cards.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Vincenzo.
 
Hello Alecv.

Thanks for the link. At least it is useful for the pictures of the PG-640. Unfortunately no manual there. But I know it is VERY difficult to find. And maybe even not existing.
Hope someone finds it in its treasure vault!

Bye!
 
Hello Kgober,

thanks for your answer.

Unfortunately not. There is nothing related to PG640, PG1280 or PG1281. Only later boards.

Bye.
 
Mr. Al Kossow!!!!

The myth. The Legend! I downloaded millions of manuals from your bitsavers website bible! :)

You are still missing some of the rare Olivetti and manuals I own. ;-) Bit don't have a scanner and it takes a while to scan it page by page.

Unfortunately I didn't buy the board because I'm in Italy! I wish I could! But no shipment to Italy and shipment would have been expensive as the board.

Anyway, it's a very good piece of retrocomputing.

Regards to Mr. Kossow!
Vincenzo from Italy.
 
Hello John,

of course I knew that and I already downloaded it months ago.

I own a PG1280 board (on an Olivetti PE32) and I wanted to have more info on the dip switches on the board, the jumpers, the commands, the memory organization, the graphics commands, etc.

Thanks anyway.

Bye!
 
The PG related files on the Matrox FTP have these:

Matrox PG-Series


Downloads

Files are zipped using the latest version of WinZip. If you do not have this version, download a copy from http://www.winzip.com/.


PLEASE NOTE: NO WINDOWS-NT OR WINDOWS-95 DRIVERS AVAILABLE

FOR THIS PRODUCT LINE.



Following are all the currently released versions of software.

1434_100.zip PG Windows 3.1 driver

1131_212.zip PG/PG-2 Diagnostics rev 2.12

1170_210.zip Pg ACAD 10 C7 driver

1363_300.zip PG Acad11 driver rev 3.00

pgacad12.zip PG AutoCAD 12 driver rev 1.0B (beta)



PG Utilities

1095a800.zip PGM Shell User's Kit DOS rev8.00 (1/2)

1095b800.zip PGM Shell User's Kit DOS rev8.00 (2/2)

1262_100.zip PG LibShell Installation rev1.00 (1/1)

1106_330.zip PG LibShell PGMR Kit/DOS rev3.30 (1/1)



PG-2 Utilities

pg21281.zip PG-2-1281 utilities


Located here:
/pub/imaging/retired_products/pg

That is an imaging card not a video card (different division).
 
I've got a physical PG-640 manual. On DIP switches, it says:
Options on the PG-640A are selected using four DIP switches on the CPU board, eight DIP switches on the video board and 12 jumpers on the video board. The switches on the CPU board are:
1. RESERVED. This switch must be OFF.
2. ADDRESS SELECT. When this switch is OFF, the base address of the communications FIFO queue is set to C6000H, when the switch is ON the base address is set to C6400H. This allows two PG-640A's to be installed in the same system unit.
3. COLOR GRAPHICS ADAPTOR ENABLE. When this switch is ON, the color graphics adaptor emulator is enabled. If there already is an IBM color Graphics Adaptor, or equivalent, in the system unit, the emulator section of the PG-640A should be disabled (switch is OFF).
4. TEST/. This switch is always left OFF. See Appendix G for information on the diagnostics programme.

The CGA Emulator's base address can be strapped to one of two locations: that normally occupied by the CGA (Memory Address B8000, I/O Address 3D0) and that normally occupied by the Monochrome Display Adapter (Memory Address B0000, I/O Address 3B0). If the CGA Emulator is strapped to B0000, the user is responsible for initialising the CRTC registers. The CGA Emulator's base address is set using the following jumpers:
Memory B8000, I/O 3D0: 1-4, 2-3, 7-8 IN
Memory B0000, I/O 3B0: 1-2, 4-5, 6-7 IN

The DIP switches on the video board are used to select the DMA channel used by the PG-640A. Follow the table below to choose the appropriate channel. Note: No other board in the system unit may use the same DMA channel. Switch 5 is not used. Switch 1 should be OFF.

Channel 1: SW2 off SW3 off SW4 on SW6 off SW7 off SW8 on
Channel 2: SW2 off SW3 on SW4 off SW6 off SW7 on SW8 off
Channel 3: SW2 on SW3 off SW4 off SW6 on SW7 off SW8 off

Note: The PG-640A is shipped with Channel 1 selected.

The video sync is normally only available on Pin 4 of the video connector. A jumper can be set to have a composite sync added to the green video signal found on pin 2 of the video connector. See the following table.

Normal Pins 5-6 OUT
Sync On Green Pins 5-6 IN
Click to expand...
 
Hello Unknown! :)

Thanks. Unfortunately everything is for PG1281. That's good to have, but I am searching more the PG1280 card, which is the one I have. It seems everything before 1990 has vanished.

Anyway the PG1280 was around 1987.

Have got from another follow VCF guy some drivers for PG640. Now the only ones missing are PG1280.

Thanks anyway.

Regards!
 
Thanks again John!

That's valuable info! I will try to see (carefully) if they're also for the PG1280. I remember there is a 4 position DIP Switch on the board, plus some jumpers. Probably they have the same meaning.

Greetings! Vincenzo.
 
It's not a clone, it's compatible to some degree. In practice that means your program that supports the IBM PGC might work (ACAD) or it might not (Generic CADD). The Matrox is less compatible than some others as it uses an NS32016 instead of i8086.
 
Sort of vaguely recall PGC compatibility shims as being, well, if not de rigueur, at least not terribly uncommon among early accelerated video cards for PC. I'm curious if any of them actually replicated the PGA's x86-based design at a hardware level, rather than just offering a API translator. Some of the cards that show up on list of PGC "compatibles" that you can actually still find data about were were TIGA cards...

Well, okay, so there's at least one. The Orchid TurboPGA was based on an 80186.

I do distinctly remember 8514/A "compatibility" being a thing that was claimed by many but not really delivered some years later. The utterly **aptastic Trident 9000 512k VGA card without even an ounce of acceleration (more like a pound of deceleration...) in my 486 came with a TSR driver to emulate the 8514/A API for programs that actually used it in a well-behaved-enough-to-work way, and I don't think that was unusual. Actual register-compatible clones like the ATI Graphics Ultra series were far more rare.
 
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