• As I was crawling through Anthony 's Facebook pages and I'm an absolute FAN of his work, I tried to put together a list of cards and modules he already made. The "+" indicates that I've bought the item from him already :bonk: Anthony please correct me if I was wrong with something or if you already have a list (that I simply was too stupid to find)...


    Modules:

    ======

    + "Amethyst" Replica: Texture module for Q3D 50SB (2/4 MB)

    + "SHADE" Replica: Texture module for Q3D 100SB (2 MB)

    + MVG2020: Video module for Q3D Obsidian2 200SBi / King Shaman 1/2 (S3 Virge/DX, 4MB - 8 chip design)

    + MVG2020v2: Video module for Q3D Obsidian 100SB / 200SB / X-24 (S3 Virge/DX, 4MB - 8 chip design)

    - MVG2020v3: Video module for Q3D Obsidian 100SB / 200SB / X-24 (S3 Virge/DX, 4MB - 4 chip design)

    - PCX2: Video module for King Shaman 1/2 (NEC PowerVR)


    3D Add-On Cards:

    ============

    - Stoned Shaman: 3Dfx Voodoo1 incl. extra TMU, 10 MB, PCI (sold as SLI pair) "Remember when we were in Africa?"

    - King Shaman: 2x 3Dfx Voodoo1 as SLI incl. 2x extra TMU, 20 MB, PCI, 2D-Card connector (i.e. for MVG2020, PCX2) "Stoned, immaculate"

    - King Shaman 2: 2x 3Dfx Voodoo2 as SLI, 24 MB, PCI, incl. 2D-Card connector (i.e. for MVG2020, PCX2) "He'll change a weather, Change your luck, And then he'll teach you, How to... find yourself"


    3D Cards:

    =======

    - Neon: NEC PowerVR Neon 250, AGP/PCI

    - Little Rooster: S3 Virge/DX + NEC PowerVR PCX2, 4 + 4 MB, PCI "Too lazy to crow for day"

    + Lost Joker 2: 3Dfx Voodoo3 3500 + NEC PowerVR PCX2, 16 + 4 MB, PCI (66 / 88 MHz selectable) "I can't get no relief"

    - "V3 Project": 3Dfx Voodoo3 3500 incl. VGA Passthrough, 16 MB, PCI

    - Mini-Me: 3Dfx Voodoo4 4500 as low-height version, VGA + HDMI, 32 MB, PCI

    - Changeling: 2x 3Dfx VSA-100, 64/128 MB (selectable), VGA + HDMI, AGP (1.5V) "See me change"

    - S.U.X. 6000: 4x 3Dfx VSA-100, 128 MB, 2x BIOS (selectable), PCI

    + Snow White: 4x 3Dfx VSA-100, 128/256 MB (selectable), 2x BIOS (selectable), AGP

    - Strange God: 4x 3Dfx VSA-100, 128/256 MB (selectable), 2x BIOS (selectable), 7V/12V Fan-Speed (selectable), PCI/AGP


    So long,

    Marcus

    Suche noch Hardware folgender Hersteller:
    - Quantum3D

    - Canopus

  • Hmm something Daytona based would be great, but it would be nice if there are some old storage of VSA-101 Daytona graphics chips, imagine a Voodoo5 5500 or 6000 design with Quad VSA-101's and 64MB 128Bit DDR per chip...
    The main reason that Daytona never had 128Bit DDR was because it was nott possoible at the time these cards were being designed, thus they stuck with 64Bit DDR instead, high clocks of 250Mhz + could be easilly reached.

    Unless you have aan original Daytona you could try giving it 128Bit DDR instead of 64Bit DDR trhey have now, this should make FSAA x2 perform like no AA on a V4 4500 nin ways free FSAA would be awesome.

  • I think adding a PCIe-Inferface to the cards will be a good option. There are some chips for this.

    "Du bist und bleibst a Mensch und du kannst eben net deine menschlichkeit überwinden."

    Dennis_50300

  • remaking a VSA-100 or VSA-101 graphics chip it's self and then using those for new cards would be ideal, you;d probably need the blue prints for those though, unless you can figure it out hmm.

    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von Gold Leader (21. Februar 2022 um 06:25)

  • yeah but where to get the blueprints... Obi Wan might you have some contacts?

    I used to 10 years back, I could try Hank but I am not sure if he can help here.

    the only thing better than VSA-101 was VSA-200 aka Rampage 2000, yet these were barely closest from stable, would be nice to see a fully optimized and matured VSA-200 though, really makes me wonder how they would actually perform than the numbers we got from some of the Rampy owners.

  • You need the HDL code of the chip, something like Verilog for example. I don't see any chance to get this data (if it still exists at all).

    Oh I am very sure it exists, it's just getting it is the biggest question, if it didn't exist, well none of the VSA based cards would of been a thing.

  • VSA 101 or even VSA 200 would be interesting to see, but still they are lacking of suitable drivers. Till now the only reports about the VSA 101 I found mentioned the cards would not be running well under the current driver sets.

    So picking up the original VSA 100 seems to be the most promising try.

    The interesting question would be where to find manufactures still offering for the old TSMC 250nm process. Is it even possible to use this process from any other manufacture from a legal point of view?

    As an alterantive there might be some (ai) software capable doing the shrink down to a smaller process that would be still available. Going down from 250nm to maybe 90nm could help to hit 250mhz for this 3.5ns memory Anthony was refering to.

    But there is one design 'flaw' that also needs to be solved. As long as the VSAs are limited to the PCI66 bandwith internally and externally, there wont be much benefit seen on screen compared to the current top tier 4x VSA cards. Higher clock speeds might create some kind of behemoth for FSAA (like the AAlchemy), but wont result in higher frame rates in more complex games using bigger textures. And I guess no one is looking for 300fps in Need for Speed IISE.

  • You need the HDL code of the chip, something like Verilog for example. I don't see any chance to get this data (if it still exists at all).

    Oh I am very sure it exists, it's just getting it is the biggest question, if it didn't exist, well none of the VSA based cards would of been a thing.

    HDL code existed, that is 100% safe, but the big question is if they still do. I don't think that any of the known ex-3dfx engineers do have those data on a backup medium, because what would you do with it anyway if you have no massive chip-simulator at home. That's not something like driver code you can update, compile and run everywhere.

    Maybe data exists on a long-term archive at Nvidia (try getting it from them ;)), but even if we had access to it, setting up a FPGA solution is probably the best a hobby project could do. This HDL code needs to be translated to modern tools for chip manufacturing, then get them produced and assembled... Bring the chip to life, write VBIOS and so on.

    It's ok if you all like to dream and share ideas, but can we please be somewhat realistic?