From: hasty@netcom.com (Amancio Hasty Jr)
Subject: Re: ATI Mach32 and Xfree86 or XS3?
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 04:28:17 GMT

In article <1993Jan27.230901.25714@fcom.cc.utah.edu> terry@cs.weber.edu (A Wizard of Earth C) writes:
>In article <1993Jan26.220906.26671@netcom.com> hasty@netcom.com (Amancio Hasty Jr) writes:
>>In article <1993Jan26.162704.13442@usasoc.soc.mil> ted@usasoc.soc.mil (Mr. Ted Nolan) writes:
>>>Hello folks,
>>>

>Do you have the 805-S3 code ready to go yet?
>
>Is it still your recommendation that one get an 801-S3 until the 805-S3
>code is ready?
>

I haved had an S3 805 Vesa Local Bus card for about a month. My Actix
Engine32 S3 801 is faster than my S3 805 card, period.

About the 805, in my opinion the S3 805 has a hardware bug which prevents
the Vesa Local bus 805 cards from switching into Linear Mode. Without this
feature the 805 are usesless because it is one of the main reasons for buying
an 805 card. This is an issue that VGA manufacturers will have to address
with S3 corp. For instance, S3 corp, sent me an example of how to implement
Linear both  sources  and binary for DOS. Well, the nice example for the
805 froze my system. I tried their sample code with my 801 card and it
works, so at least I know the code works. If we don't use linear mode
writing or reading pixels is 10x times slower than the linear mode 
implementation. The comparison here is against doing data transfers via
data_transfer register in the S3 (For those who know the S3 architecture)

Linear Mode is a way to access the cache available in the 801 for doing 
byte reads or to post write to a FIFO.



There is also the issue of DRAM vs. VRAM. At high refresh rates the 801
will suffer in its performance. For instance, expect a 20% drop in
performance from going from 45Mhz interlace to 75Mhz .

The 928 cards are just around the corner about 3 weeks away, according
to Actix. The 928 are VRAM based and faster than the 801. As for XS3,
it should be easy to provide support for the 928. I have the 928 databook.
Projected xstones rating for the S3 928 (ISA card version) is around
120k+ xstones, for XS3.

The good news are that with my experimental X server here, I have been able to
generate 102K stones, at 1024x768 45Mhz interlace :-)

system: Orchid SuperBoard 486/50Mhz 256k k 8MB, 
vga card: Actix GraphicEngine32 (S3 801 ISA card).

Around 60Mhz it probably generates around 90k xstones.

If you ask me if performance is what you want I would go with the S3 928.
As for the ATI Ultra Pro, it has been reported that it generates about
100k xstones. As for the et4000, the fastest number that I have heard
is 16k xstones for a local bus et4000 card.

Can't wait till the 928 gets here because we will be faster than the 
sun workstation ipx/gx at high refresh values and probably faster than
most workstations under $10000 :-)


For those interested in getting info about S3 chipsets,
S3 corp Tel: 408-980-5400.

Enjoy,
Amancio Hasty


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