SPONSORED LINKS
Headers for cached page www.cygnus.com/~raeburn/ct5xx.html: HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Tue, 09 Nov 1999 02:52:56 GMT Server: Apache/1.3.4 (Unix) Last-Modified: Sun, 20 Oct 1996 04:32:51 GMT Connection: close Content-Type: text/html
This page is (perpetually) under construction. Additional info and/or web
pointers are most welcome! Especially for the chips I don't know much about.
Disclaimer: My maintenance of this document has nothing to do with Chips & Technologies, XFree86, any laptop manufacturer, or any other official organization. I'm just putting up what info I know, in the hope that someone else may have to do a bit less searching. Some of it might even be accurate.
The 655xx series chips are SVGA video controller chips for flat panel displays and CRTs. They also provide some level of CGA, MDA, EGA, and Hercules compatibility, and various accelerator features. They are designed with various features for reducing power consumption and optimizing display quality.
The 65540 and 65545 have programmable clock generator circuits, and the ability to map the full range of video memory at once, instead of using a pair of small banks like most non-accelerated PC video cards do.
The 65545 also has hardware cursor/pop-up support, and a bitblt engine.
The HiQVideo chips -- 65550 and 65554 -- include some new multimedia
support, including video capture and display with scaling. A press release
from April on the Zoomed Video
Initiative mentions this. The 65550 is a HiQV32 chip, and the 65554 is a
HiQV64 chip; the numbers apparently refer to the width of the interface between
video chip and frame buffer memory. I don't know if the 65554 is available
yet.
XFree86 3.1.2 does include minimal support for the CHIPS 65520, 65530, 65540,
and 65545, worked on by Jon Block
(block@frc.com), Mike
Hollick (hollick@graphics.cis.upenn.edu), and Regis Cridlig (cridlig@dmi.ens.fr). It
recognizes these chipsets and will use them as simple, generic SVGA display
drivers.
Regis put up a driver for XFree86 3.1 on Linux here, but I
haven't checked whether it's got anything that didn't go into the next XFree86
release.
I have a modified version of the XFree86 3.1.1 driver here which will enable
the linear addressing mode of the 6554x if you specify
Using the programmable clock, we should be able to generate a wide range of
clocks. According to Nelson Minar, the beta-test (or was it demo?) version of
the XInside commercial accelerated X
server supports at least some higher clock frequencies, up to 65MHz; it's
possible their final product might not support this chipset though. I'm
working on programming the clock generator to support higher frequencies than
the default 25.175MHz and 28.322MHz.
The 65545 also has hardware cursor support and a bitblt engine.
A group of people in Japan, Europe and Australia have been working on
supporting these chips under X. The server, and diffs from XFree86 3.1.2, are
available for anonymous ftp from ftp://ftp.biol.tsukuba.ac.jp/pub/X/XFree86/alpha/CT65545plus. Their work
is more recent than any of the others above. David Bateman and Egbert Eich
have done work on 65550 support; that code, and X server binaries, can be found
at ftp://ftp.rp.csiro.au/people/dbateman/ct65550.
Nelson and I have seen problems where, occasionally, if X is running when the
system is suspended, you can't un-suspend it. Or maybe you can, and it just
wedges up right away. In any case, sometimes it just dies. (At least, I only
see it occasionally; I'm not sure about Nelson.) It doesn't happen if you
switch to a virtual console in text mode before suspending, and it doesn't
happen under the XInside server. If I can figure out what flag they might be
setting differently, I'll see if I can fix it. But I don't even know how to
reliably reproduce it at the moment.
There are synchronization problems of some sort at higher resolutions. Regis
and Nelson have seen them. Since I use only my lower-resolution flat-panel
display, I haven't, so I can't describe them well. (Nelson: Does the XInside
server have this problem too?)
Nelson has a NEC Versa P laptop with a 800x600 256-color LCD screen. Check his
web pages for the configuration file he's using with some luck on the LCD and a
Sony Multiscan 15sf. Above 704x600 Nelson runs into the synchronization
problems, but 704x600 he seems to find reliable.
My Versa M/75C is 640x480 with 64K colors. Here are the "Monitor" section
settings I use for the LCD display in 8bpp mode. I don't often use an external
monitor.
I don't run Windows myself (except sometimes to play with the Dilbert
Screensaver), nor NT nor OS/2, so I can't tell you anything about how well
these drivers work.
Some Windows, Windows NT, and OS/2 drivers can also be picked up via the web pages at CHIPS.
This info was also sent to me a little while ago. (The email address
doesn't appear to work any more.)
Data sheets for these chips and video BIOS code are available from Chips
and Technologies, Inc. Call them (see the contact info below) and ask for product literature.
Some of the data sheets are also available as PDF files via CHIPS' web site and ftp site. If you use ftp directly,
instead of a web browser, don't forget to set "binary" mode. (The CHIPS ftp
server, whatever it is, doesn't implement the "SYST" request. Many UNIX ftp
client will default to ASCII mode -- which tends to trash binaries -- unless
the "SYST" request gets a response indicating the server is a UNIX box.)
You'll need a PDF viewer such as xpdf or
Adobe Acrobat to view these files. Unfortunately, some of the PDF files look
like they were scanned in from hardcopy and converted. So the text is stored
as semi-legible raw bits rather than characters, you get smudges, and you can
see where the holes were in the original hardcopy.
... And the 65548 PDF file, when I looked at it, appeared to be
"encrypted", which means you have to use Adobe's software to look at it. And,
it means you're SOL if you're using Linux or NetBSD. I'll keep calling and
bugging them for paper copies, thank you very much.
The latest versions I know of are:
Bjoern Kriews <bkr@drdhh.dialup.uni-hamburg.de> reports that CHIPS'
German distributor, Rein Components, also has datasheets
available.
There is also at least one Video BIOS data sheet available from CHIPS
through their ftp site.
Chip availability: The earlier chips (through 65530?) are being phased out;
I don't know if they're being used in new boards or systems these days. (Yet
the latest datasheets I could get on them were still marked "preliminary"....)
The '545 and '548 datasheets, at least, have some mistakes and omissions.
In case you don't get the associated errata sheets for the '540 that I got,
here's a quick summary:
There are other minor problems I've run across too, but haven't summarized
yet. The mailing list archives mention
everything.
Some of the Toshiba laptops use a 65546 chip, which I understand is made
exclusively for Toshiba. CHIPS won't give out the technical data on this chip;
you'll have to contact Toshiba. I called Toshiba America, and talked to their
tech support and laptop development groups. Each told me to talk to the other.
One other source I got said he thought it was probably a 65545 with a different
pinout, but he wasn't sure.
I've got a mailing list "ct5xx-hackers@cygnus.com" set up.
Some other web pages available:
Also try various newsgroups: comp.windows.x.i386unix, comp.sys.laptops,
and some of the Linux newsgroups.
For chip info:
Systems
These chips are used in several laptop systems including:
They are also used in ISA and PCI cards available from a number of companies;
some are listed in the contact section later.
X support
Options "linear"
in your XF86Config file.
Bugs
XF86Config data
Bandwidth 25.2
HorizSync 30-64
VertRefresh 50-100
Mode "640x480-28"
DotClock 28.322
HTimings 640 648 688 784
VTimings 480 488 491 521
EndMode
Windows/NT/OS2 support
From: Michael Wild <Michael@iee.org>
Subject: Found : CT655xx drivers for NT
To: raeburn@raeburn.org
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 1996 20:55:58 +0100
I recently spent some while tracking down an NT driver for my Acer
laptop, which has a CT655xx vid chip. Along the way I encountered
your excellent page. I noticed you don't offer help on NT, but I
thought other visitors might like to know the drivers can be found
at :
<http://www.pc.ibm.com/cgi-bin/listftp?dir=34&sorttype=date>
The file you need is :
vf701nt1.exe Video Drv Windows NT - TP 701
(57066 bytes, 10-31-95)
This is for NT 3.51. The main advantages over the "generic" driver
that comes with NT are that it is somewhat faster and supports 256
colours.
I don't know if the package from IBM just includes a copy of the CHIPS driver,
or what... Pier Borra reports that the driver works for his Toshiba 400 laptop
as well. However, Jimmy C. Yang points out that this web site is intended for
support of IBM's Butterfly laptops, so Chips' web site may be more desirable.
Getting Technical Data
part(s)
publication number
rev
rev date
notes
65510
DS161.1
0.7 (prelim)
October 1992
65520/530
DS152.1
0.7 (prelim)
November 1992
available on CHIPS web site
65525
DS163
1.0 (prelim)
February 1993
also on web site
65535
DS165.1
2.0
March 1994
65540/545
DS170.2
1.2
October 1995
errata sheets available
65548
DS176.1
1.0 (prelim)
August 1995
also on web site
65550
DS177.1
0.7
December 1995
HiQV32
65554
API32
0.1
December 1995
HiQV64 "Advance Product Information"
OC65530
UG113.2?
2.0
June 1993
VGA BIOS reference guide; on web site
Other network resources
The code being worked on in Japan can be found at this ftp
site.
Contact info
Phone numbers without leading "+" are US phone numbers; the "800" numbers may
not be reachable from outside the US, so I've included non-800 numbers as well
when I've got them.
Laptop manufacturers:
Phone: 800-323-4477 or 408-434-0600. Fax: 408-526-2275.
http://www.chips.com/
Video board manufacturers:
corporate office: 714-583-3000 (ask for laptop development group)
Here's the availability of video boards last I checked. Note that not all of
this is current, and some of it may be based on second- or third-hand reports.
If you've got an update or addition for this table, please let me know.
Phone: 714-573-5000.
aveddisplay@aveddisplay.com
http://www.aveddisplay.com/
Phone: 510-661-2220. Fax: 510-490-2360.
http://www.dolch.com/
Phone: 805-482-1298. Fax: 805-987-8088.
mintronix@interramp.com
All their video boards are C&T-based.
Voice: 408-748-0500?, 408-748-8541. Fax: 408-748-8542.
sage@netlynx.com
http://www.netlynx.com/~sage/
| company and product name | date info updated and source | 65545 | 65548 | 65550 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Added value | ISA | PCI | ||
| Aved | ? | ? | ||
| Dolch "Viper" boards | 12 July 1996 by phone | ISA | PCI | not planned |
| Earth Computer Technologies "Earth Vision/ISA" | 30 Jun 1996 from web page | ISA | ||
| Mintronix | 12 July 1996 talked to Derek Nguyen | PCI | PCI (9/96) | |
| Sage Inc | 4 Jul 1996 from web page | ISA | PCI (rumored) |
Thanks to the people who have contributed information used in this page, major or minor, including: Nathan Bond, Pier Borra (pier7@netcom.com), Regis Cridlig, Rob Howard (grasebyus@aol.com), Stuart Kreitman (skk@benelux.pa.dec.com), Bjoern Kriews, Nelson Minar, Derek Nguyen at Mintronix, Rich Paul (linguist@cyberspy.com), Shrikant (full name??) at CHIPS (shrikant@chips.com), Daniel Vachon (dvac@bighorn.dr.att.com), Michael Wild, Jimmy C. Yang (yangcx@expert.cc.purdue.edu).
Author: Ken Raeburn, raeburn@raeburn.org
Last updated: 7 July 1996