SuperMac VidCards - Timeline Development - Links

[Trash80toG4]

Couldn't find a general "Peripherals" forum, is there one and should this be moved there?

I think it's time to flesh out what information is available on LEM and wherever else I can dredge it up. Tried to group by series rather than alphabetically.

Spectrum/24 v. 1.0 - undocumented - Rev.A?
___ Board (c)1988
_____ ROM 1.0 (c)1989
_____ ROM ___ (c) ____




Spectrum/24 Series II - Missing link? Has anybody got one?

Spectrum/24 v.___ - undocumented - Rev.B
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM _____
_____ ROM ___ (c) ____


Spectrum/24 Series III -
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM 1.0 (c)1989
_____ ROM ___ (c)____


QuickDraw Accelerator - DaughterCard Detail


Spectrum/24 Series IV -
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____

Spectrum/24 Series V -
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____


Spectrum/24 PDQ -
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____



Spectrum/24 PDQ+ -
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____


Spectrum/8 -
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____

Spectrum/8 Series II -
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____

Spectrum/8 Series III -
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____




Spectrum/8*24 PDQ -
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____



Spectrum Power 1152 -
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____


ColorCard
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____


QuickDraw Acceleration DaughterCard Pic?


ColorCard 24
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____


Thunder/24 -
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____



Thunder II GX -
___ Board (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____
_____ ROM ___ (c)____

Spectrum/24 v.1.0 (wholly undocumented) I've been trying to set up intermittently for the last ten years. SuperMac Spectrum/24 Project

I've never been much interested in SuperMac. I'm an avid Radius collector, so I have information on several cards.

From: https://wiki.preterhuman.net/SuperMac_Technology interesting company info.

• SuperMac Dual PDS Adapter
• SuperMac DigitalFilm
• SuperMac Storm Tech DSP
• SuperMac Spectrum/8
• SuperMac Spectrum/8 Series III
• SuperMac Spectrum/8 PDQ
• SuperMac Spectrum/24 Series III
• SuperMac Spectrum/24 Series IV
• SuperMac Spectrum/24 Series V
• SuperMac Spectrum/24 PDQ+
• SuperMac Spectrum Power 1152
• SuperMac Spigot NuBus
• SuperMac SpigotPower AV
• SuperMac Monochrome Video Card
• SuperMac Thunder/8
• SuperMac Thunder/24
• SuperMac Thunder II
• SuperMac Thunder II GX
• SuperMac Color Card
• SuperMac Color Card 24
• SuperMac VideoSpigot LC
• SuperMac DataFrame 20
• Cinepak

 

[Trash80toG4]

Notes:

 

[Trash80toG4]

Hoping folks will chime in with data and pics that I can edit into IP table.

 

[retr01]

@BFEXTU?

 

[jasa1063]

I have a Spectrum/8*24 PDQ with a 1.39 version BIOS. Here is a front & back view.

 

[BFEXTU]

I have lots of old datasheets I was planning to make a site at some point. Also, I need to get a better scanner.

 

[Trash80toG4]

Datasheets sound great. I have a good selection for my Radius collection, but nothing on SuperMac AFAIK.

Thanks @jasa1063 that makes makes the 5 pics for the 15 entries attached in about ten hours! Too tired today, but I'll scope out the boards and update the data points.

 

[joshc]

I put that wiki page together, I dug up most of the info from old Macworld magazines. If there is any info out there about Series II cards, old Macworld and MacUser magazines should have them.

 

[BFEXTU]

I have original SuperMac flyers for a number of products and also own various cards (Spec/8 II, Spec/8 III, ColorCard, a Spec/24 III, a newer rev PDQ (not the original PDQ), a Thunder (which is basically just a PDQ with a different ROM), a Spec/8 SI board, an original VideoSpigot and a few Apple video cards. I may have others - not sure. For printed stuff, I need to get a good document scanner and look to see what I have. I also have boxes of old MacWeeks, Macintosh Todays, also probably MacWorld and MacUser, maybe even some UK mags, etc.

At the moment, I am screwing around with custom video timing and Mac II FPU testing, along with a Mac II rebuild so that I can do some FPU programming. I have RC16A, -25A and -33A versions of the MC68882 and am trying to figure out if there is any downside to underclocking the -33 version at 16Mhz on the Mac II (min spec is 16.67Mhz...but). It seems to work fine, the FPU is much faster internally, the FPU benchmarks are definitely faster, but QuickDraw seems to be slightly slower. However, I did my earlier testing before replacing the HMMU with a PMMU. So, I have to go back and do some re-testing to figure out why things are different and whether or not the FPU bus timing is to blame. If so, the sweet spot compromise might be the RC25A. It is faster than the RC16A, but still within spec for a 16Mhz clock. I will have to see which version of the '882 my IIx uses. I think it is also an RC16A '882.

In my video testing, I have re-encountered the fact that earlier versions of SuperVideo had some issue in 32-bit mode. I am using v2.49 at the moment and it gets random "memory error from mdev" errors when trying to load in 32-bit mode with 32Mb of RAM installed in the Mac II. It could also be coming from the firmware of the old card. I need to get the 2.7+ version to see if it was fixed or not. Maybe. I think SuperVideo 3.0 eliminated all of the custom timing...so not as useful in this instance. Further, I rediscovered the fact that the timing granularity in custom modes leads to sync and timing alignment issues, not to mention late activation (secondary init). I hope to wrap up my Mac II testing over the weekend.

Generally speaking, the Mac II form-factor and mid-size variants (II, IIx, IIfx, IIcx, IIci) were always my favorites for doing video card development, debug and testing -- 3 or 6 slots, flat/easy access, etc.

 

[BFEXTU]

I recruited Oscar the Dancing Oscillator to help me knock some of the pixel dust out of my head and made a quick spreadsheet for calculating video timing values for the TMS34061 on early SuperMac Spectrum cards (Spectrum/8, ColorCard, Spectrum/24). It is an update from the original VideoHelper 1.0 from 1988.


Oscar the Dancing Oscillator

The attached spreadsheet is just an initial version. I will modify it to include working values for the 2 SVGA configurations. I will also bring forward the oscillator calculator, if for no other reason than to appease Oscar. It includes a timing diagram, and by looking at the spreadsheet formulae and SuperVideo info, you should be able to develop an understanding about how to make, and/or modify, the calculations.

As long as you know the H & V resolutions (that must be one of the built-in ones the cards support), the oscillator frequency and front port, back porch and sync values, it will generate the input for a custom config in SuperVideo. When you create a custom config for one of these earlier boards, it will probably load at secondary init -- when the desktop is drawn. So, if it is your primary monitor, the screen may remain black until boot completes. I will update the configs after I do some more debugging.

Strictly speaking, the VESA SVGA timing values should be correct, but that doesn't mean that they are going to work. There may need to be timing compromises based on the horizontal /8 clock divider (at 40 and 50Mhz, in this case), depending on how the loss of granularity affects timing compatibility vs. the standard. Anyway, I should be able to get them working with a little signal poking.

 

[BFEXTU]

Here is VideoHelper 1.0 from 1988 with information about programming early SuperMac cards. It went to power users who wanted to use custom configurations. Amazing that it still exists! It's certainly not perfect, but has a lot of interesting information.

 

[JDW]

I recruited Oscar the Dancing Oscillator to help me...

View attachment 8690
Oscar the Dancing Oscillator

Forgive my being off-topic, but we seriously need an Animated GIF of that little guy! Not only that, but a vintage Mac app of just him doing a dance, with controls which allow the user to adjust his dance -- or shall I say, "oscillation" -- speed!

 

[retr01]

I can do that. Lemme know if you guys would like that.

 

[retr01]

Here is a starting point I have for Oscar the Dancing Oscillator:

 

[BFEXTU]

I don't think Oscar ever realized he would be such a famous dancer when he did his first Megahertz Mambo at Madame Mac's Dot Clock Dance Academy. They grow up so fast.

 

[BFEXTU]

Here is a starting point I have for Oscar the Dancing Oscillator:

View attachment 8709

Just use the original. Oscillators are not rectangular boxes.

 

[Trash80toG4]

LOL! Fab tangent!

VESA TIMINGS GENERATOR - now publicly available! Worksheets missing from online sample of the full version:

VESA Coordinated Video Timing Generator (CVT)

This is the video timing generator I use for finding suitable reduced blanking settings for P2.

forums.parallax.com

Reduced Blanking for LCD optimization is very interesting, been wondering about that for the longest.

@BFEXTU hoping the formulas in these LCD opto worksheets will help in translating standard VESA Timing values into the required input parameters for SuperVideo?

 

[BFEXTU]

As you can see from the VideoHelper2.0 spreadsheet in my post above, the standard VESA SVGA timing values for 800x600 are well-known, easy to calculate, and should be correct. If you wouldn't mind, could you please remove the image in your post or convert it to a thumbnail? It does not appear to relate to 800x600 60Hz @ 40Mhz or 800x600 72Hz @ 50Mhz and takes up a huge amount page space. Thanks for posting the public domain link to the calculator.

Here are the relevant timings - if you see any errors, let me know:


Problems in display from the card probably have to do with issues relating to the card and/or how it uses the TMS34061 vs. not having the correct base timing values. Also, as I mentioned, there is an issue that relates to resolution because of the /8 and /16 horizontal dividers on the early cards.

 

[Trash80toG4]

OOPSIE!!

Neophyte here, definitely not gonna be able to spot anything amiss or add anything at the computation level.

Could you post a screenshot of the SuperVideo inputs window with the relevant values for SVGA/60Hz in place so I can just plug 'em in and try it? By my read of the manual, it should spit out the frequency of the crystal I need to order?

An appendix of such pages would make a wonderful extension of the manual I scanned.

 

[retr01]

Just use the original. Oscillators are not rectangular boxes.

Do you mean that oscillators are not square boxes?

The New and Updated Oscar the Dancing Oscillator! Here is Oscar at his standing starting point: