Finally I've found the cards, via finding the old Real3D crew.
There is a whole story behind the cards, but to make it short, R3D/100 never came to the market with only engineering samples, and demo cards produced , initially it was aimed at the mid/high end range of PC/Workstation, but didn't catch on because it was a 3D only part, to fix that, work started on the Lightning/110, which included an iXMicro Twin Turbo 2D add on PCB.
Oh and did you know the R3D/100 was initially going to have a 3rd chip on there? A complete T&L chip, due to the immense cost it was dropped.
Unfortunately, drivers have been long lost, and no one knows where they are, so no testing, even if the boards would be fully functional (which they most likely are.)
The reason why you have never seen these boards is because when Lockheed-Martin sold the remains of Real3D to Intel, they were told by Intel to dispose of every single piece of hardware, documentation etc. so it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. A huge dumpster was brought in the main hall, and was filled with everything they had been working on for years. The Lightning was close to production at that point.
Some took some out of the dumpster to remember how much effort and time they had spend on the projects.
Apart from that, I've got a Cobra prototype which would have been released in 1999, not much known about it, I'm trying to get in contact with the engineer who worked on it. The project was cancelled, but I'm not sure if that was because of the nearing demise of Real3D or because the project didn't work out as planned.
I received some Marketing Material as well (4 caps, 5 keyrings, and poster). Poster shows the Pro-1000 image generator, and some demo's/games that were programmed for the R3D/100.
The second R3D/100 is missing two caps, repairs are scheduled for that board. Apart from that the second board has got a big scratch near the first chip, which seemingly has damaged a trace or two quite badly.
Enjoy!!
R3D/100
#2
Lightning/110
2D Module
- Real3D Cobra
- Marketing Material
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