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Re: display and graphics chip set of 701s



On Thu, 6 Jun 1996, Bjoern Stabell wrote:

> Does anyone know how many bits of each RGB component the display and
> graphics chip set can handle [on the TP701]?

The 701 uses the C&T 65545 video chipset.  It isn't originally designed
for 24-bit color, but IBM tweaked something to get 24-bit color to work
under DOS-VESA, Windows, and OS/2.  It seems to work except it requires
a strange synch frequencies many monitors can't handle.  On the LCD I
get a wavy white line along the right side.  Not that 24-bit color is
useful on an LCD - I tested it and it's indistinguishable from 16-bit
color on my TFT, other than being slower and the white line.  The 16-bit
(64k and 32k color) modes are standard, and fully supported under DOS,
Windows, and OS/2.

> I'm using Linux, and the SVGA X server I use doesn't seem to understand
> anything beyond 640x480 in 256 colors with a resolution of 6 bits in each
> of the three color dimensions (RGB).  Anyone know of a better server or if
> better support is planned for the ct65545 chipset?

There XFree server offers minimal support for the CT65545.  It'll only
do 8-bit video (256 colors, or 8 bits from a palette of 18-bits, which
is where Bjoern gets the "6 bits in each..." figure).  It doesn't even
use the video acceleration or programmable clock.

You can buy the AcceleratedX server for $99.  It is also limited to 8-bit
color, but it does use the acceleration and programmable clock.
http://www.xinside.com

There's also been some pre-release work to enable the XFree server to
use acceleration and 16-bit and 24-bit color.  I've tried several of
these "alpha" drivers without success.  They put the video in an unusable
mode.  5% of the time it is unrecoverable, requiring I reboot.  The other
95% of the time, I can get it back to a usable mode by hitting Fn+F1.
I suspect there's something simple I'm missing here, but I don't have the
time or knowledge to look into it further.
http://www.cygnus.com/~raeburn/ct5xx.html
http://www.castle.net/X-notebook/index_linux.html

> Tragic.  I would so much have liked to run 640x480 in 16bit on the TFT
> and 1024x768 in 256 colors on an external CRT. :(  Is that doable with,
> lets say, Windows 95?

1024x768 in 256 colors on an external CRT should be doable.  I don't
have a monitor so I haven't tried.  I know the AcceleratedX drivers
are capable of doing it.

Tell me if you can get any of the 16-bit Linux drivers working. I use
Win95 right when I need to work in 16-bit mode while still preserving
Unix long-filenames.  Win95 sucks up far too much disk space and RAM
for the marginal improvements it gives me over Win3.1.  I'd love to
dump it if I could do my 16-bit color work in Linux.
--
John H. Kim            There are only two industries that call their
jokim@mit.edu          customers 'users,' and one of them is illegal.