Hello,

I was talking with G1nX and he was wondering if I had the spare BIOSes I mentioned in my post in the eBay discussion. And indeed I do!

I posted them in a 3dfx area on my server: http://jrrver.homeserver.com/jrr/3dfx/bioses/. I believe they're largely BIOSes for Voodoo 4 Engineering samples, with a couple of older V5 6k BIOSes as well. I got the .rar years ago from Aquoes over at x3dfx.

I also tossed some other random files that I had around into the parent directory: http://jrrver.homeserver.com/jrr/3dfx/

I think everyone probably has access to the 3dfx driver source code by now, but it's there in case you don't. The 3dfx_source_code.rar is the proper sauce; the 3dfx_source_code folder seems to only have text files and whatnot... I'm not sure if it came from the source.rar or not, so I put it up just in case.

I think napalm_spec.rar contains the register information for VSA-100's in whole or part...

rampage_drivers are just that -- prototype drivers for rampage... for the two extant rampage cards, heh. I don't know if they even work; I got 'em years ago from NuAngel, I think.

6000AGP.pdf is some super-hi-res marketing document for the 6k. I don't know if it's official or not, but it looks nice.

I hope someone fines some of it useful and/or interesting!

From: http://jrrver.homeserver.com/jrr/3dfx/3dfx_historical_documentation/Voodoo3cmds.pdf


Quote:

PLL/DAC: Avenger contains 3 independent PLL’s for clock generation. The PLL’s are totally programmable giving the capability to change video, graphics, and memory clocks to any specified frequency. Avenger supports a high speed 300 MHz ramdac, capable of doing 1600x1280 @ 76Hz refresh.

Now, I'm not a hardware programmer/engineer but this sounds to me like it should be possible to set the clock frequencies for memory and graphics independently?

Wonder if this is also true for Napalm.

Hello faster memory! :D

Edit; small hickup I think;

Quote:

Graphics core and memory interface now all run on a master graphics clock

:'(

Edit; and some newfound hope;

Quote:

Programming of PLL depends on device ID: id==5 -> m, n, k are all fully programmable; id==4 -> m is fixed to 0x18 (24d); see section 9

(I'm just typing this as I'm reading the file, so might be a bunch of edits :P)

Edit; and some stuff to trample that hope again;

Quote:

Register Name Address Bits R/W Description pllCtrl0 0x40-0x43 31:0 R/W Video Clock PLL pllCtrl1 0x44-0x47 31:0 R/W GRX Clock PLL pllCtrl2 0x48-0x4b 31:0 R/W AGP PLL.

No pllCtrl for Mem Clock PLL.

I think that, even if you could set the clocks, you'd be limited by what the actual chip can run. Maybe the memory chips could be a little OC'd, but I think the max for V3/4/5-era memory is like 183 MHz. V3 might be clocked at 143.

I feel like there have been BIOSes written for the varying cards that attempt to run the graphics memory at different rates, but I don't remember if they were ever successful or not... Again, I think you're limited by the capabilities of the chips themselves.

That's an amazing assortment of goodies. Downloading it all now!. :)

Thank you val_parthen for sharing these bits of 3dfx history much appreciated.
Cheers,
G1nX

Hehe, just reading napalm_spec.doc; the first system level diagram names the chip 'Avenger+'. So true :P

Someone could reach the site? :(

goriath wrote on 29.11.10 at 14:20:28:

Someone could reach the site? :(

Hi Goriath,

Sorry, one of the hard drives in my server died over the weekend. As soon as the replacement drive arrives from Newegg the link will be back.

Sorry 'bout that!

No prob ;)

Thank you

Sorry for the massive delay -- I had more trouble getting my server up than I expected.

Hopefully it's up now, though! Please let me know -- I'll do my best to fix it.

Happy Holidays!

val_parthen wrote on 19.12.10 at 08:28:22:

Sorry for the massive delay -- I had more trouble getting my server up than I expected. Hopefully it's up now, though! Please let me know -- I'll do my best to fix it. Happy Holidays!

Thank you mate, I have appreciated it a lot!

I have downloaded all the stuff, but still I can't retrieve the file called "GL.c++" :(; it seems the page cannot be find anymore: http://jrrver.homeserver.com/jrr/3dfx/3dfx_historical_documentation/GL.c++

goriath wrote on 19.12.10 at 20:20:38:

val_parthen wrote on 19.12.10 at 08:28:22: Sorry for the massive delay -- I had more trouble getting my server up than I expected. Hopefully it's up now, though! Please let me know -- I'll do my best to fix it. Happy Holidays! Thank you mate, I have appreciated it a lot! I have downloaded all the stuff, but still I can't retrieve the file called "GL.c++" :(; it seems the page cannot be find anymore: http://jrrver.homeserver.com/jrr/3dfx/3dfx_historical_documentation/GL.c++

I think Windows Home server doesn't like to share files with +'s in the filename. I renamed the file to be GL.cpp: http://jrrver.homeserver.com/jrr/3dfx/3dfx_historical_documentation/GL.cpp and it seems to be much better. :)

Cheers!

Thank you ;)!