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Unknown TMS34010 ISA graphics card

D

Dioda

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Joined
Jan 4, 2021
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12
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Poland
Hello, I'm seeking information about this massive TMS34010-based 16-bit ISA graphics card. It contains an impressive amount of video memory 2Mb, the pixel clock is 107.4528Mhz and the signal output is via DE9 connector. Unfortunately, the solder mask contains no information that could help identify it and it also missing two 27c128 eproms.


20241001_210218.jpg
 
The TMS34010 is widely known to be the first programmable graphics processing chip. It is essentially a CPU with instructions designed to accelerate graphics operations.

Cards like this were designed to be used for CAD or early 3D modeling software in DOS and Windows 3.x. They're highly specialized cards, and don't support BIOS video modes, so you can't really use them as a single solution video card. I think there may be a Windows 3.x driver so you can use it as the main display while Windows is running, but that's about it.

Though none of that matters since the EPROMs are missing, that card is effectively a brick. If you can find the BIOS from another card that used the TMS34010, you can try burning that and see if it works. Though, since there are two ROM sockets, you'll likely have to faff with splitting up the image between two EPROMs.

Here are a few examples of various TIGA cards, some had more functionality than others.
vgamuseum.info

VGA Legacy MKIII - Texas Instruments Graphics Architecture (TIGA)

Various cards based on Texas Instruments Graphics Architecture (TIGA) chips TMS34010 (1986) and TMS34020 (1988).Dates in articles means release date of card, not chipset. Texas Instruments was founded in 1951. Aimed at design and making DSP and semiconductors.Links: Wikipedia Promo video&n...
vgamuseum.info vgamuseum.info
 
EPROMs probably aren't needed if it is used as a secondary card. It can be initialized after boot. You will need the board-specific communications driver though.
 
Plasma said:
EPROMs probably aren't needed if it is used as a secondary card. It can be initialized after boot. You will need the board-specific communications driver though.
Click to expand...
No, no, the TMS video processor definitvely needs a BIOS to start the operation. That video card is a computer in the computer, and the applications on the main computer (here DOS PC) needs to communicate with it. For that it needs some software which is in the missing EPROMS:

Therere are two kinds of TIGA graphics cards:
- stand alone, like this one, to operate the computer an additional main graphics card is required, something like CGA, EGA, VGA, Hercules card, that you can see the BIOS messages and MS-DOS prompt and all applications which rely on such graphics card. Only applications with special drivers can use the TIGA modes. There are even drivers for Windows 3.x to use these. Some of these have a pass through cable to connect the VGA card through the VESA feature connector to the TIGA card. So only one monitor is required as the VGA signal is passed through the TIGA card to it's monitor.
- combined TIGA+VGA card, so both graphics card in one board. Mostly the VGA part is very basic, 256 kB standard VGA mode only.

This one above in the picture is standalone and it has no VESA feature connector, so you definively need the matching EPROMs, a VGA card and two monitors to operate your computer..

I run such a stand alone TIGA card from EIZO (drivers are on vetusware) together with a trident 1MB VGA card in one of my 386DX machines and that is very nice in Windows 3.11, 1280x1024 by 16 colors (my card has not all memory sockets filled).
 
1ST1 said:
No, no, the TMS video processor definitvely needs a BIOS to start the operation. That video card is a computer in the computer, and the applications on the main computer (here DOS PC) needs to communicate with it. For that it needs some software which is in the missing EPROMS:
Click to expand...
Then why are there are TIGA boards with no EPROMs? I don't see why a "BIOS" is necessary if the card is not emulating any IBM graphics standard. The driver can just upload code to the TIGA RAM and reset the TMS34010.
 
This "BIOS" is not for the 80x86 CPU of the host PC system, it is for the TIGA processor itself.

Here are photos of my card, and as you can see, it has 2 EPROMs, like your's has socket.

www.vgamuseum.info

VGA Legacy MKIII - EIZO MD-B12

High resolution PC card. Palcal's card: 512kB DRAM + 1MB VRAM.
www.vgamuseum.info www.vgamuseum.info

Ah, by the way, I totally forgot about this thread... https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/hw-ressources-of-an-eizo-md-b12-tiga-graphics-card.78534/ and in the meantime... I got it working. https://forum.classic-computing.de/...ge/400-olivetti-m380-xp9-triumph-adler-p100/=

Have you ever seen a processor of any kind which does something with not even a few bytes of accessible program code? Also the TIGA prcoessr can not do magic things...
 
The EIZO MD-B12 has a CGA emulation option, which is why it needs EPROMs. So it can be operational at boot time with no driver.


I don't know what OP's card is, but I highly suspect it has an optional expansion that does something similar, based on the connectors on the left side. That's why I think it doesn't need EPROMs for pure TIGA operation.

Anyway, this is all a moot point without drivers.
 
Dioda said:
Hello, I'm seeking information about this massive TMS34010-based 16-bit ISA graphics card. It contains an impressive amount of video memory 2Mb, the pixel clock is 107.4528Mhz and the signal output is via DE9 connector. Unfortunately, the solder mask contains no information that could help identify it and it also missing two 27c128 eproms.


View attachment 1287308
Click to expand...
I'd be more concerned about the missing PAL than the EPROMs
TIGA info here:

 
Al Kossow said:
I'd be more concerned about the missing PAL than the EPROMs
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure there's been more than one thread recently where someone's bought something off an auction site that's had every DIP chip in a socket, including PALs and PROMs, ripped out to be sold separately. (Despite PALs and PROMs both being completely worthless for anything else once programmed.) Maybe this is another victim, or, if the OP is lucky, the PAL might be for some optional configuration. (Maybe you plug one in if whatever daughtercard goes on those headers is present.

1ST1 said:
Have you ever seen a processor of any kind which does something with not even a few bytes of accessible program code? Also the TIGA prcoessr can not do magic things...
Click to expand...

Plasma said:
Program code does not need to be in ROM.
Click to expand...

The datasheet for the TMS34010 makes it very clear on page 8-13 that when running in a system with a host CPU you do not require any kind of ROM on the 34010's private bus, the master CPU can inject the software via the dedicated 8 or 16 bit host bus. IE, yes, unless you need to use the card as the primary display device it's perfectly acceptable for the OS-level driver to initialize the card by uploading the necessary software into the card's DRAM and resetting it via the host control pins.

I guess an interesting question is whether a given TMS card that *does* have ROMs has them connected to the TMS's bus and has the processor configured for self-bootstrap mode, or if said ROMs are actually PC BIOS extensions which use the main CPU to initialize the TMS the same way a driver would. Technically speaking you could argue that self-bootstrap mode could create a race condition and doing it via a BIOS extension would be the smarter option.
 
Thank you for all the information so far. I got this card from a friend at my university to save it from being thrown away. I do not fully know where it had been (probably visited a few boxes of spare PC parts), but it's possible that at some point someone removed those chips. However, that missing PAL chip is bothering me because it's the only one in the socket, all others are soldered directly into the board. So it might be just an options-related thing, otherwise, I would suspect some kind of customizable address decoding, but this is already done using jumpers + 74ls682 comparators. The idea that the card might not need EPROMs is quite promising. I think it also makes more sense to load the TMS code from the system HDD instead of ROM, because for advanced graphics that would require a lot of complex code, quite hard to write without bugs. I might try it with those EIZO drivers but I'm quite skeptical of it.
 
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