On Sun, Jan 07, 2001 at 09:19:27PM -0800, Don Maslin wrote: Yep, I remember seeing them back in the day, I think. -- _______ Shawn T. Rutledge / KB7PWD ecloud(a)bigfoot.com (_ | |_) http://www.bigfoot.com/~ecloud kb7pwd(a)kb7pwd.ampr.org __) | | \________________________________________________________________ Free long distance at http://www.bigredwire.com/me/RefTrack?id=USA063420

The earliest VGA cards tended to be 8bit, or 8/16bit autosensing. Paradise was the main supplier, though Oak and Tseng Labs produced some as well. They generally had only 256k of RAM onboard and would do 16colors at 640 x 480. No acceleration either, as it was before Cirrus and the others started trying to speed up Windows screen draws using the graphics chipset. VGA actually had it's beginnings on the MCA bus with the PS/2 but was then adapted for the ISA bus by the 3rd party vendors. Jeff -- Collector of Classic Microcomputers and Video Game Systems: Home of the TRS-80 Model 2000 FAQ File http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757

There are 8 bit cards as well as ones that are 16 in design that can either be set to 8 or can detect 8/16 when installed in an 8 bit slot. My first Trident based VGA card was like that. -----Original Message----- From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Don Maslin Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2001 11:19 PM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: VGA card - 8 bit? I guess that this is a rather naive question, but is there any such thing as an 8-bit VGA card? If not, is the 16-bits necessary or is it just because it came about after 16-bit ISA came along with the AT class computers? - don

They aren't that uncommon. I've got an 8-bit card if you want it. It is not the fastest video you'll ever see..... Regards, Jeff In <Pine.BSF.4.20.0101072115450.59636-100000(a)crash.cts.com>om>, on 01/08/01 at 05:44 PM, Don Maslin <donm(a)cts.com> said: -- ----------------------------------------------------------- Jeffrey S. Worley President Complete Computer Services, Inc. 30 Greenwood Rd. Asheville, NC 28803 828-277-5959 Visit our website at HTTP://www.Real-Techs.com THETechnoid(a)home.com -----------------------------------------------------------

On Sun, 7 Jan 2001, Don Maslin wrote: Perhaps I'm showing my age, but, wow, I don't recall there being anything unusual about VGA cards for an 8-bit XT bus. One type I haven't seen mentioned here is the Hercules VGA board (was it also 16 bit? I'll have to find it and take a look); my IBM PC-XT had both the Hercules VGA and Hercules monochrome adapters in it at the same time, so I could use two monitors with some programs, displaying different things on each. I removed the VGA card when my Zenith VGA monitor quit working (which I've got to get around to repairing), and just went back to the old Sysdyne monochrome monitor. VGA graphics were rather slow, but some of them looked great, like those in the Undersea Adventure game - alas, it's copy protected, and no copy-unprotect software that I tried allowed me to make a copy; not sure if the disc is still readable, but it was the most interesting video game that I've played---although I'll have to admit that I rarely play computer games, as they waste too much time and life's too short to waste. -- Copyright (C) 2000 R. D. Davis "The best way to gain a true understanding of All Rights Reserved Wile E. Coyote on the Roadrunner cartoons is to rdd(a)perqlogic.com 410-744-4900 fly, head-first, off a horse into something like http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd a fence or a tree; trust me, this works." --RDD