1920x1080 on PM8500 built-in, Twin Turbo 128

[LC_575]

Is there any way I might get this to work on my Performa 6300 using the built in video?

 

[noidentity]

No, this only works on Macs with the same video chip as the 8500.

 

[leitec]

What kind of VGA adapter would one need for this? I have a Belkin adapter with DIP switches to set resolution, which makes me not sure this'll work for me.

 

[noidentity]

Sorry for the overdue reply. You may need the adapter set to multisync, but as long as it can do say 1280x960 normally, then this will work. I've done this with several adapters, and a couple of 8500 motherboards now.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Just out of curiosity, do you think there would be any way to hack the driver for the old Radius Color Pivot II Cards to put out a 60 Hz resolution for use with modern LCDs?

 

[noidentity]

Maybe. It depends on whether the resolutions are hard-coded into its driver ROM, or are in an extension that can be modified. For the built-in driver for the PM8500, I had to figure out which values affected the video parameters. Here you might just need to find what sets the dot clock so you can lower it. Once I figured out the built-in driver, finding the resolution tables in the TwinTurbo PCI card was a lot easier.

Can you point me to any extension/driver that's used for this card? I could take a quick look in case there's any kind of obvious resolution table inside. I wasn't able to find anything on the web after a few minutes of searching.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I'm not at home, so I can't upload the driver but . . .

. . . KnightTech is 404! BLEH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IIRC, I've got all the RadiusWare downloads backed up on various Macs and I snagged a Full installation/Documentation set of one of the revs from macmetex fairly recently and I've got everything from the 7.0.1 Rocket/RocketShare era on Floppy w/Docs! [] ]'>

I'll find out what's relevant and email it to you if necessary.

The cards have everything they need in their DeclROM to Flash the Radius Logo and load the drivers for the fixed resolutions I've tested as the first init/whatchamacallit loaded.

My original plan was to search out and swap any relevant crystal cans to try to slow the 66.6Hz or, preferably, the 75Hz 16" Rez down to 60Hz. But then again . . .

. . . I'm just a simple HardwareHacker/KnuckleDragger with an analog, vacuum tube based, video replay type brain. :

edit: Got TTL EPROM Burner/Reader?

 

[noidentity]

No, unfortunately I don't have much hardware tools beyond a digital multimeter and anything custom I make on a breadboard.

Using a ROM might be too difficult. Regardless, the idea is to find the resolution values together, which is likely a table. If there are other values inbetween, those might be the mode parameters. Then you find the specified values for the resolutions (blanking, front porch, back porch, etc.) and see if you can find those in the table, or ratios that match ratios of the specified values. After some trial-and-error, you might find a pattern that makes sense. Then you try changing a value and see how that actually affected the resolution (preferably on a multisync CRT that shows you the H and V rates). Repeat 100x

I'm pretty sure the TwinTurbo PCI card on my PM 8500 doesn't require a driver to work unaccelerated, and that it can change resolutions, yet it also has an extension that overrides these and was able to be modified for custom resolutions. So doing the Radius logo from ROM doesn't rule out the extension allowing customization in the same way.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

The basic drivers are in the DeclROM for Sense Line defined/activated FixedRez Apple Monitor standards.

IIRC, the RadiusWare control Panel would be where any "options" were set for Radius Products. When you click on "Options" in the Monitors Control Panel, you get a basic splash screen indicating the hardware loaded via DeclROM.

I'll look over what I've got, meanwhile I've got my curiosity going about the LC version of this card!

 

[noidentity]

Hmmm, even if there is no extension with the driver, it still could be possible to patch the driver in memory. So the process might be an extension that finds it in memory, patches it, then changes the resolution to a patched one. The apps posted here do that so you can test without restarting. But figuring out how to find the Radius driver could be tricky, without having something on disk to use as a search string.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I'm terrible at pattern finding, BTW, but an ace at finding pattern disruptions . . . picture the sort of guy who can find a four leaf clover just about anywhere without too much fuss . . . but would totally miss it if the clover pattern spelled out: "SCHMUCK!!!"

Like I said: HardwareHackin'KnuckleDragger! :lol:

Maybe I'll snag another card and have macmetex send it off to Trag, he's an EE type who's working on some nifty ROM projects . . . or one of the other boffins here who might still have an old school TTL EPROM burning/reading rig! If someone can send you the DeclROM contents, could you (or another 68kMLA volunteer?) take a peek at it?

 

[noidentity]

I can't commit to putting lots of time into this. I can look into an extension or whatever for possible tables, but doing ROM hacking in't something I have time for.

 

[noidentity]

Just updating the links again:

CustomGraphicsDriver.sit

Custom_TwinTurbo9600_Driver.sit

 

[Bunsen]

Thanks for that, noidentity.

Might I suggest also offering them to the Mac Driver Museum?

 

[noidentity]

Excellent site; I'll go through my Mac archives and submit any other obscure drivers I have.

 

[Alex]

OK, here's the TwinTurbo 128 M8A version: Custom_TwinTurbo9600_Driver.sit

Here's the same for the built-in version, extensions pre-configured for 1680x1050 and 1920x1080 (no other changes to this): CustomGraphicsDriver.sit

These links are dead as are the ones on page 2 of this post. Could someone please upload them to the internet archive so that they will not go away. PLEASE!