The collected works of escimo - Page 1

SUN SPARCstation 2, selectively with SunOS 4.1.3 or Solaris 2.4 and SPARCompiler C 2.0.1

still demand?

Sorry. Completely forgot the theme. Still needed? If yes, send me your mail address as pm, please. Cheers.

"• Two serial-port connectors • For VR peripherals"
Source: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/do ... 1&type=pdf

The 7-pin DIN female stereo connector was/is for Frame Lock and Buffer Swap Synchronization

Documentation Sets of Legacy Sun Graphics Products http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19125-01/
Documentation Set of Elite3D http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19125-01/elite.3d.acc/
Some notes on the AFB (Elite3D): Source: http://www.michaelfrankdeering.com/Proj ... B/AFB.html

ftp://ftp.uni-duisburg.de/Hardware/Cycle/up_20fr.pdf

http://web.archive.org/web/200107220433 ... clecc.com/
http://chiclassiccomp.org/docs/content/ ... grades.pdf

@nongrato: pm

The question is, if you're able to use the Workshop 3 demo license also for SunOS 4 (Solaris 1.x). e.g. SPARCompiler 3.0.1 etc

SUN WORKSHOP for Solaris 1.X
VOLUME 5 NUMBER 1
SPARCworks 3.0.1
SPARCompiler C 3.0.1
SPARCompiler C++ 4.0.1
SPARCompiler FORTRAN 77 3.0.1
SPARCompiler Pascal 3.0.3
SPARCworks/TeamWare 1.0.3
SunSoft Performance Library 1.1
Tools.h++ Source Code 6.0.4
SPARC
Part No. 704-5467-10
Revision A, January 1997
(c) 1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. (...)

SUN WORKSHOP for Solaris 2.X
VOLUME 5 NUMBER 1
Sun Visual WorkShop C++ 3.0
Sun Internet WorkShop 1.0
Sun Performance WorkShop Fortran 3.0
Sun WorkShop Professional C 3.0
Sun WorkShop Professional Pascal 5.0
Sun WorkShop TeamWare 2.0
Sun WorkShop Compilers C/C++ 4.2
Sun WorkShop Compilers Fortran 4.2
Sun WorkShop University Edition 3.0
Sun WorkShop for Ada 2.0
SPARC
Part No. 704-5468-10
Revision A, January 1997
(c) 1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. (...)

Unfortunatelly I didn't try it because I wasn't sure and switched back to SPARCompiler C 2.0.1.




Next time I will try it, promise.

Have an B2k, which is practical the same like B1k with some cosmetic changes and stocked with two UltraSPARC III Cu (copper) 900 Mhz.
The top graphics you can get for UPA (ultra port architecture) was/is the XVR-1000.
Better was/is only the XVR-1200 which unfortunatelly consumes two of the four PCI slots in your B1k/B2k.
The XVR-2500 (3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 500) was the next step, but with PCIe (eight lanes) for e.g. U25/U45.

Sudos wrote: if it wasn't for having to watch power consumption, I'd already have my Sun-4/260 or 370 up and running if I could get them to boot. 25MHz SPARC, what a power house!

Sun-4/260 with 25MHz? That's super-speed, indeed. Didn't know that the S-25 chipset was available or is compatible.

Found only this:
https://books.google.de/books?id=CzoEAA ... &q&f=false

Never was able to get a 4/260 but I'm happy with the SS2, which running at 40 MHz is too fast for me.

With UltraSPARC II(i) it's possible to decode up to two MPEG-2 streams simultaneously (at video resolution ?, software ?).
Comparing this with the requirements for H.264 alias MPEG-4/AVC you need a way more powerfull CPU, beginning with UltraSPARC III(i).
But each x86_64 (x64) CPU is the better option for this enterprise, I think.
If it has to be SPARC, choose maybe a more powerfull system like V480/V490, V880/V890 or better with many CPU's. - Not the ideal "play-near-screen" systems unless you have big sound boxes.

Under SunOS 4.1.x (Solaris 1.x) this maybe helps:

# mount -rt 4.2 /dev/sr /mnt

CDROM has a regular filesystem (ufs, UNIX File System, based on BSD Fat Fast File System), also known as 4.2, no HSFS

SS2: SunOS 4.1.3U1, Solaris 2.4
B2k: Solaris 8
There are also alternatives like NetBSD, OpenBSD, GNU/Linux (Aurora etc), real good by the way but I like to use the original stuff.

A big problem is to get some professional applications for these treasures (e.g. sun4c). Have only some trials, e.g. ACEPlus, FrameMaker, XV.
Would like to see some EDA suites, e.g from Cadence (DFII), Xilinx, Synopsis, Viewlogic, IKOS which are running on my SS2. For this you primarily need accelerated 2D performance which the SS2 doesn't lack with it's double wide SunGX board.

@cb88 depends which version of Sunos/Solaris you're using.
Actually running a SunPC DX Accelerator SBus Card 501-1981 in my SS2 with "SunPC3.1" under SunOS 4.1.4
but also have the same card and software as you

SunPC 4.2 supports Solaris releases 2.4, 2.5, 2.5.1, and 2.6.
(...)
Caution – Do not install the SunPC Coprocessor card in a SPARCstation 10 Model
514MP (four-processor model). SunPC is not supported on this model.
(...)
* System RAM required
This version of SunPC requires a minimum of 32 Mbytes of physical RAM installed
in your SPARCstation in order to run Windows 95; more than 32 Mbytes is preferred.
* Free disk space required
To install the SunPC software, Windows 95, and all associated patches and drivers,
you will need a minimum of 60 Mbytes of hard drive space. Your emulated and
extended drives will require additional space; your emulated (C: and D:) drives will
need between 60 and 128 Mbytes.

Source: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19957-01/80 ... 933-10.pdf , p.4

@radrob what kind of sun abandonware, for example?

Some (mobil) screenshots from a running SunPC 3.1 under SunOS 4.1.4 on SPARCstation-2.

SS2 with installed SunPC Accelerator board in SBus slot 1, next of SunGX board occupying SBus slots 2+3.
Then install software beneath /usr/sunpc as root and afterwards install driver & modules with sunpc_install (also as root) and reboot

Boot output says found "SunPC 3.1", allowing 4 (software) sessions, 1 (hardware) accelerator (SunPC Accelerator DX)

Starting SunPC software under personal user

Starting screen. Note the text "Accelerator" in the buttom right corner of the window, which simply means "using Accelerator board"

Prompt after boot DOS.

Soon will get some old DOS applications like Turbo C and want to try AutoCad for DOS.

@rem Which file do you mean exactly on this site?

I find most of the things I'm searching after

BTW: http://escimo.lima-city.de/sun/ws5.0_j.txt

What OS, which version do you use?

Drivers (packages) started to be shipped from Solaris 10 1/06 and higher.
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/817 ... index.html
Comes with Solaris 10 in packages SUNWkfb*

Package Name Description
--------------- -------------------------------------------------------
SUNWkfb System software/device driver
SUNWkfbcf Configuration software
SUNWkfbmn Manual page
SUNWkfbr System software (root)
SUNWkfbw Window system support
Source: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19125-01/xv ... 517-10.pdf

I don't understand your problem(s).

Operating system is 5.10, in other words Solaris 10 for SPARC

What's the output of ...
# cat /etc/release

I have 2D, but not even that this is efficient enough for 2D when running CDE or that JDE in software

Sound's like you're able to get proper resolution under X11 with the monitor connected to the XVR-2500 (?)
What's the output of ...
# pkginfo | grep SUNWkfb
=> No output here means, NO DRIVERS installed!

The original accelerator package CD-ROM contains the SUNWkfb*-packages (drivers, configs etc) under path under "Product/XVR-2500/Solaris_10/Packages". Alternatively use the Solaris 10 install DVD. Hint: in the Installation manual (link to PDF above) there is the restriction to install the driver first and afterwards the Hardware (XVR-2500).

More details, please:

More than one framebuffer installed?

Under OBP: What's the output of
ok show-displays

What's the output of ...
# fbconfig -list

What's the output of ...
# fbconfig -dev kfb0 -propt

What's the output of ...
# cat /etc/dt/config/Xservers
... some line with "/dev/fbs/kfb"?

More infos ...
% man SUNWkfb_config
% fbconfig -dev kfb0 -help

If you have an oracle support contract you're able to download the full version as "patch" but didn't remember the patch #
Install and run. There's no need for license key.
BTW: why not using Studio 12? Studio 11 makes sense if you're using e.g. Solaris 8 and you must use the Sun/Oracle compiler suite

Compatibility matrix for all compiler products starting with Forte Developer 6 (Workshop 6)
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/serve ... 41991.html

@strong_epoxy if you have an oracle support contract or access to it (support.oracle.com) you should still be able to download Studio 12(.0) and Studio 12.1 (Update 1) - the Sun branded versions:

Patch 21570468 SUN STUDIO 12 PKGADD INSTALLER EOL ARCHIVE (Patch) 2.1 GB - Download Access req. Extended Support contract
Patch 20969014 SUN STUDIO 12 TARFILE INSTALLER EOL ARCHIVE (Patch) 1.6 GB - Download Access req. Extended Support contract
Patch 21576771 SUN STUDIO 12 UPDATE 1 PKGADD INSTALLER EOL ARCHIVE (Patch) 996.5 MB - Download Access req. Extended Support contract
Patch 20969278 SUN STUDIO 12 UPDATE 1 TARFILE INSTALLER EOL ARCHIVE (Patch) 861.7 MB - Download Access req. Extended Support contract

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/serve ... 42582.html

@mila Forte Developer 6 (WorkShop 6) was licensed with FlexLM LicMgr, ONE Compiler with serial number (S/N). Beginning from Studio 10 no license key was needed anymore.

The flashlight like this?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Weitek-Sparc-Po ... 1311268948

Unfortunatelly the 80 MHz Weitek Power µp chip isn't included in the box but the exchanged, original CY7C601A 40MHz (SPARCstation 2).
In my opinion the box is a way to expensive for shipping to Europe but is only for to show the image of the flashlight. ;D

two books coming in my mind


High Noon: The Inside Story of Scott McNealy and the Rise of Sun Microsystems Hardcover – August 13, 1999
by Karen Southwick (Author)
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 13, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0471297135
ISBN-13: 978-0471297130




Sunburst: The Ascent of Sun Microsystems Paperback – March, 1991
by Mark Hall (Author), John Barry (Author)
Paperback: 297 pages
Publisher: Contemporary Books; Reprint edition (March 1991)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0809239892
ISBN-13: 978-0809239894

If you're knowing the later products with UltraSPARC III(+), named Blade 1000 and 2000 then you're able to imagine that the housing is originated from the Ultra 80 lines of workstations. I owned one myself years ago and it's still an impressive workstation system, completely outdated ok, but able to run 4 threads in hardware simultaneously in comparison to faster Blade 1k/2k successors which were able of "only" two (in hardware).

There were some quad processor workstations by Sun, e.g.
- Sparcstation 10, 20
- Ultra 450 (same housing as Enterprise 450, but bigger footprint)
- Ultra 80

Best graphics for Ultra 80 in general i.m.o. is XVR-1200 (3Dlabs)
but best UPA graphics should be the mentioned XVR-1000

Melkhior wrote: Ultra 1 will support up to 9 (10 doesn't support the UltraSPARC I cpu).

Solaris 10 not, right but OpenSXCE of course because it was "back-ported" to UltraSPARC I. You should give it a try.

Hi,

maybe the location for asking was not pointed correctly ( viewtopic.php?t=16730114 )

does someone have one of the following papers scanned (image) or in PS, PDF format or know how to get them and would share it with me, please?

for reading...

" SPARCstation 2GS / SPARCstation 2GT Technical White Paper ", Sun Microsystems, 1990
This describes the highest performance graphics accelerators available from Sun.
Source: "Sun Performance Tuning Overview—June 1991", Adrian Cockcroft

for fun...

SPARCstation 2 marketing brochure / flyer (complete)

Known search engines didn't help me at this point, several times.

Thanks so far.
escimo

So the NVRAM is dead? What do you mean with timeout?
Is it possible to get more input?
- console output and/or messages
- PROM version
- board part# and revision (type is the same used for Ultra 80 workstations)
- CPU part#'

Once before, in the first days I had also serveral problems with my Ultra 80
It's because somtimes CPU modules and memory riser board are not installed properly.
A non-dead NVRAM (battery) also would be fine.

You specified cpu slot #0, but first CPU slot is #2. My misunderstanding of you text?

(Memory) Configuration Rules
The following memory configuration rules apply to your system:

• At least one memory bank (all four bank slots) must be filled for the system to boot
• Each bank used must have four identical capacity DIMMs installed (for example, four 64-Mbyte DIMMs or four 256-Mbyte DIMMs)
• DIMMs must be added four at a time within the same bank

Note – In the Sun Enterprise 420R server, each memory bank comprises two slots on the main logic board, and two slots on the memory riser card. As you add memory, fully populate each bank by inserting DIMMs into the two slots comprising each bank on both the main logic board and on the memory riser card. For information about removing and installing DIMMs, see the Sun Enterprise 420R Server Service Manual.

DIMM capacities can differ from one bank to the next—for example, four 64-Mbyte
DIMMs installed in bank 0 and four 256-Mbyte DIMMs installed in bank 2 is permissible

(...)

(CPU) Configuration Rules
The following rules apply for your system:

• You can install up to four UltraSPARC II CPU modules into the server.
• The first CPU module is inserted into CPU slot 2 (J0301) ;
  two CPU modules are installed into CPU slot 2 (J0301) and into CPU slot 1 (J0201);
  three CPU modules are installed into CPU slot 2 (J0301), into CPU slot 1 (J0201), and into CPU slot 3 (J0401);
  while four CPU modules occupy all the CPU module slots.
• If you install more than one CPU module, the modules must operate at identical clock speeds (450 MHz, for example) and they must have the same size cache memory . This generally means the CPU modules must have the same part number .

Source: Sun Enterprise 420R Server Owner's Guide, p.64 and p.66

Code: Select all

[part 1/2 of four RAM/memory banks on mainboard]
[part 2/2 of four RAM/memory banks on memory riser assembly]
[CPU Slot 3, install 3rd]
[CPU Slot 2, install 1st]       <--- insert first/single CPU in Slot 2 !
[CPU Slot 1, install 2nd]
[CPU Slot 0, install 4th]
[PCI slots]

Source: Sun Enterprise 420R Server Service Manual, p.69

Further breakdown: remove all but one CPU and all PCI cards. Using an serial cable an terminal

(...)
4. If the POST output contains an error message, then POST has failed.
The most probable cause for this type of failure is the main logic board. However, before replacing the main logic board you should:

• a. Remove optional PCI cards.
• b. Remove optional DIMMs. Leave only the four DIMMs in Bank A.
  (also refered as bank 0 and means: mem slots U0301+U0302 at riser board and mem slots U1301+U1302 at the mainboard)
• c. Repeat POST to determine if any of these modules caused the failure.
• d. If POST still fails, then replace the main logic board.

Source: Sun Enterprise 420R Server Service Manual, p. 207

Also looking at:
- Sun Enterprise 420R Server Service Manual, p. 189-191, error code definitions.
- Sun Enterprise 420R Server Owner's Guide, p. 115ff, Chapter 7 Diagnostics and Troubleshooting
- Sun Enterprise 420R Server: Field Information Notices (FIN)
- Sun Enterprise 420R Server: InfoDocs (e.g. 47161 CPU shroud or CPU card cage assembly may not seat properly in .../Sun Enterprise 420R/...)

@jirka: So you outbid me once in the auction for the RW320 from austria! Fortune cookie! Had no time to bid again from the train ride. - Still remember the brocken sticker with the scratch under the "SNI" label at the front. Once ago wanted them as a comparison to my SPARCstation-2 and for reentering in SGI hardware. No problemo! It's in good hands, isn't it?!

Greetings to Czech Republic from your country neighbor.
Cheers, escimo

jirka wrote: Not really. I got this machine this summer from the local http://aukro.cz auction server ( http://aukro.cz/show_item.php?item=6434963370 ). So it's previous owner outbid you.

Even nicer if it's cleaned up. Still have fun with it.

Cheers.

Some pics of the GS CG12 (cgtwelve) 24-bit integrated accelerator and color frame buffer from 1990 for SBus-based SPARCstations (1/1+/2 and 5?), partitial manufactured by Matrox Electronic Systems, Canada. Used as affordable 3D desktop graphics solution. Placed between the CG6 (2D/3D wireframe, higher 2D perf) and GT (3D solids, higher 3D perf) graphics. Anounced with the SPARCstation 2GS, Nov 5 1990 (Src: The Florida SunFlash).


Installed in the SPARCstation 1+ (Sun-4/65) with plenty 16 MBytes of RAM.
Ultra short snap of the card running in OPB. Yes, black and white only with console. Not so under SunView and OpenWindows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buI5nwHcQw0

FIrst run with SunDIag 2.3.3 tests under SunOS 4.1.4 went all fine
(unfortunatelly only a photo of the screen)
A GFX tape comes with the GS for SunOS 4.1.1. GFX still needed for SunOS 4.1.4? I think the tape including SunPHIGS, SunGKS, SunVision and XGL developer libs (headers etc). - Unfortunatelly not in my supply.
Source: The Florida SunFlash, November 1990

pilot345 wrote: Nice post! Any more information about it?

Unfortunatelly only the infos within the code block of the former post.

There is a white paper " SPARCstation 2GS / SPARCstation 2GT Technical White Paper ", but nobody seems to have a copy.

If you want to compare it with solutions of other vendors, e.g. with SGI, HP/Apollo, IBM, DEC or highend PC's, look after workstation solutions dating back to late 1990 (Nov, 5 = anouncment of the SPARCstation 2GS). At least there will be differences between the used graphic APIs. This entry-level solid graphics sub-system with 24-bit color depth capability is optimized using the Sun XGL and Pixrect/Pixwin API libs .
Depending on the level of optimization within the graphics pipeline (implemented through device handler/driver), there are some functions accelerated in hardware other in software (host CPU). But for sure, the sub-system is by far less performant if used for ordinary/all day windowing operations (RasterOps), for which e.g. a CG6/cgsix is the better choice. Of course, also heat is a serious point here.

The example picture with the starship Enterprise is only wireframe, not a solid model. Anyway nice.

For creating something simple (some "simple" solids) you need also the development headers of the libs, which were sold separately with SDK (Solaris Software Development Kits).

Noticed it? One board is manufactured in collaboration with Matrox Electronic Systems. For each of the colors red, green, blue there is one dedicated DAC chip (BT).

Hi.

BIOS battery down or low capacity?

TABLE 5-3 Battery Specifications
Specification Value
Voltage 3 VDC
Type CR 2032

And 1.50 is the most recent version of the BIOS? For U40 M1 it should be at least 1.60.

Sources:
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19127-01/ul ... index.html
https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19127-01/ul ... Id-1006784

During POST, the BIOS outputs the error code to I/O port 80h. The workstation
motherboard is equipped with a two segment LED display that displays the current
value of port 80h.
If the BIOS detects a terminal error condition, it issues a terminal-error beep code,
attempts to display the error code on upper left corner of the screen and on the port
80h LED display, and halts POST. If the system hangs before the BIOS can process
the error, the value displayed at port 80h is the last test performed.

211 is 0xD3. - Mmm, nothing according to the service manual.
or maybe w/o 2 will be 11 "General dispatcher for alternate register initialization. Set initial POST values for other hardware devices defined in the register tables."

It's helpful to put all unrequired hardware out of the system (HDD, SCSI-Ctrl) and restore the BIOS defaults by switch/jumper on the motherboard.

Which hex code is shown by POST on the two segment LED (motherboard)?

Good tip by johnnym...give it a try.

Source: https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19127-01/ul ... Id-1000253

Caution - DIMMs are installed in adjacent pairs . However, if you replace a single DIMM, the new DIMM must be identical to the DIMM that you removed.
(...)
Sun Ultra 40 memory is installed as pairs of DDR400 PC3200 Registered ECC DIMMs. Sun Ultra 40 M2 memory is installed as pairs of DDR2-667 DIMMs.
(...)
The DIMMs in a pair must be identical, from the same manufacturer with the same type and number of memory devices, the same amount of memory per device, and the same memory speed. All installed DIMMs must have the same memory speed.

• The minimum configuration is two 512-Mbyte DIMMs installed in slots 0 and 1 .

Caution - The Ultra 40 and Ultra 40 M2 DIMMs are numbered the same but located differently, and this difference is critical. On the Ultra 40, DIMM slots 0/1 and 4/5 are closestto their respective CPUs. On the Ultra 40 M2, DIMM slots 0/1 and 4/5 are farthest from their respective CPUs .

Base subscription for 3 years with Sun only € 830 (1 socket).
After Oracle bought Sun the prices had near tripled. Nice pricing policy, isn't?
I would be not surprised if Oracle planning to cancel further development of Solaris.
But then I like to see Larry in a commercial similiar to this for confusing (Open-) and Solaris enterprises and community - LOL

First experiences with Solaris 8 on x86 desktop with Pentium III, FSC D1107-B mainboard, 512 MB SDR-RAM, Matrox Millennium G200 AGP 8MB, SCSI, SoundBlaster 16 ISA. Went all fine.

Back in 2008 I registerd my FSC Primergy TX120S1 after successful completion of Sun Hardware Certification Test Suite for Solaris 10. The server was added to the Sun HCL starting from 5/08. Without support by Sun because the OS didn't support the network chipset in 5/08, not so for OpenSolaris 2008.05.
Looking at the HCL for Solaris 11, there seems to be less systems certfied or maybe nobody wants to certify systems for Oracle. Shame and blessing.

Some history about Matrox graphic solutions

Matrox products in the late 80's until late 90's offered always the option for stacking base boards with upgrade options for gaining more sophisticated graphic features. So the products could be offered for price sensitive customers as for performance users searching state-of-the-art graphics hardware for high-end PC-based workstations.

Assuming the older naming scheme of vintage Matrox products was kind of... So I guess Matrox SG3-1152 standing for " S -Bus or "SUN G raphics", "3 SBus slots or 3 D" (?) and "max horizontal resolution of 1152 (1152 by 900 pixels)
My investigations included requesting the technical support of Matrox but with minor success, because for the SG3-1152 there is no technical staff around anymore and documentation is lost or hidden (proprietary). But I found some articles in archives, e.g. BYTE Mag, PC Mag, InfoWorld Mag, CompWorld Mag.

Some older Matrox Graphics products and solutions, incomplete, in non-chronological order as follows:

QG-640 ( Q -Bus G raphics, max 640 px horizontal resolution)
PG-640 ( P rofessional G raphics for ISA 16-Bit Bus)
SM-640 ( S olid M odeling enabled PG-640 with stacked add-on board)
PG-1024 and SM-1024 (TI34010/TIGA-based coprocessor using DRAM + ASIC-based graphics acceleration using VRAM, max resolution 1024 by 768 px)
PG-1280 and SM-1280 (TI34010/TIGA-based coprocessor using DRAM + ASIC-based graphics acceleration using VRAM, max resolution 1280 by 1024 px)
PG-1281 and SM-1281 (TI34010/TIGA-based coprocessor using DRAM + ASIC-based graphics acceleration using VRAM, max resolution 128 0 by 1 024 px, revised and improved board version of PG-1280)
VG-1152 ( V ME-Bus G raphics, max resolution 1152 by 900 px for e.g. SUN VME-based workstations and servers Sun-3/Sun-4)
VG-1281 ( V ME-Bus G raphics, max resolution 128 0 by 1 024 px)
----
MG-3D (12-bit color,16-bit ISA, max 1024 by 768 px non-interlaced) and MG-3D Ultra (24-bit, 32-bit EISA, max 1280 by 1024 px non-interlaced) - "M" for "Modeling" or "Matrox" (?)

(...)lets AutoCAD users quickly shade a wire-frame three-dimensional model, and zoom, pan, twist, or rotate the drawing on any axis (...) edit 3-D wire-frame model. (...)EISA-bus computers, wil cost $5,995. It uses the C30 digital signal processor that is used in Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Sparcstaion .

Source: InfoWorld Apr 29, 1991

(...) use TI 340x0 family or proprietary coprocessors (...) to handle different shading algorithms. (...) In addition to custom ASIC processors, it also comes with a separate math coprocessor on-board to handle part of the heavy number crunching. Matrox has taken this high-end technology and incorporated some of it into its MGA chip set, which will provide esentials like 3-D acceleration, depth cueing, and Gouraud shading.

Source: InfoWorld Jan 12, 1993
Compared to Sun's GS the MG-3D line of accelerators are similar but sold directly by Matrox for PC workstations.
----
HiPer-VGA (S3 86C924-based Hi-Performance VGA controller, ISA, max resolution 1280 by 1024 px interlaced)
Matrox Impression 1024 (S3 86C911-based accelerator, ISA, max resolution 1028 by 1024 px non-interlaced)
The MGA (Multimedia Graphics Accelerator) line of graphics controllers including many hardware accelerated graphic features once found seaprated in multiple ASICs. Example products consisted of Matrox Impression and Matrox Ultra boards for ISA-, VL-, MCA- and later PCI-Bus leading to Matrox Millennium lines and successors.

Video with SunDiag tests running especially for the GS under SunOS 4.1.4 and SunView including showing some graphics, including starship Enterprise, standing upside down.

spiroyster wrote: Interestingly, my SM-1024 has an 'EGA in' DE-9 male connector and a 'VIDEO OUT' female DE-9. So it can possibly be used as a pass-thru for something else?

VGA passthrough?

spiroyster wrote: What did use this extra hardware, and what API's were employed for the job?

applications like AutoCAD, Microstation under DR- or MS-DOS. In most cases the graphics co-processor was an TI 34010, later models with TI 34020. So TIGA API (Texas Instruments Graphics Architecture) was used.

spiroyster wrote: ... hard to find proprietary software or documentation and examples to code so demos too.

software - no, e.g. AutoCAD 1x and drivers for your card but documentation unfortunatelly yes. I found some manual from Matrox about the QM-640 which is in fact the same architecture like the PG-/SM-640.

spiroyster wrote: P.S The SM/PG-640 are 8-bit ISA. later ones 16-bit ISA.

;-)

I have to find some architecture info about the MG-3D Ultra for comparing them directly with the GS / CG12 / SG3-1152.
And the sun goes down...

NICE! Some other 8514/A-based Matrox, the Matrox MG-108 and comparisons in InfoWorld magazine from Jul, 16 1990, p.51-73
https://books.google.de/books?id=KjwEAA ... &q&f=false

What a beauty.