http://i4.ebayimg.com/01/i/03/5d/46/52_3.JPG

That image shows the front part of a Voodoo5 6000 AGP 128MB Rev.A 3700, My aim this time is those array of pins also called as the Vesa connector.

The Vesa connetor is located on many Voodoo cards and other branded cards.

What I would like to know is what is it meant for, I would like to make use of it to find out why it was placed on our cards.

I hope someone can help me on this one :)

Friendly Regards,

Obi-Wan Kenobi.

This is the so called "Feature Connector".

It is dated from the times where another Device (e.g. a TV- ,Video-, MPEG- or Decoder Card) needed this to connect to the VGA Card due to otherwise insufficient Bus performance (e.g. ISA or VESA Local Bus).

With newer PCI Standards, this Feature connector lost alot of importance, as Features were either directly integrated onto the Video Cards themself, or were able to use the PCI Bus without performance degradation.

It was also called "VGA pass through" Connector, used for the old TIGA oder 8514/A Standards.
I haven't seen any Add-On Board requiring this Connector in a very long time.
(basically a very old compatibility feature, like the A20 Gate or Memory Hole at 16MB Option still present in many modern Motherboard BIOS'es)

VESA Standard :
(Video Electronics Standards Association)
That was basically the Standard for different Video Modes, back in times where those were constantly developing for higher Resolutions like VGA, SVGA, XGA etc...

In the very old days, each Video Chip had its own manufacturers "standards" how to address different Video Modes, which made running Graphical Applications a messy business. Compatibility was missing across manufacturers, thus this Standard was formed, which allowed to address a standardized Video Mode, using the same paramaters for all Cards.
In early DOS days, this required a small TSR Driver (Terminate and Stay Resident), which had to be loaded as a background Program. It intercepted and translated all Init Calls for Video Modes, in order to achieve the needed compatibility (UNIVBE was developed as a Universal VESA Driver in those days, often the only help if you couldn't find a suitable Driver for your Card).

Later, the VESA Standard was integrated into the Video BIOS to make things more compatible and simple.

I remember very well how I had to look for a suitable TSR Driver for my Oak Tech VGA, 512kb HiColor ISA Card *g*

ah Thank you very much FalconFly :) I do remembet the Universal VESA driver, man that was a very long time ago :D

Oh Yeah. I remember, I needed that driver to play the orginal Need for Speed. Then came Need for Speed II SE (GLIDE) and that's when the fun really started ;)

You mean the "Need for Speed, The"?

That was a great game!