Diamond Dot Clocks
John Carroll
graphics boards (I got it straight from the horse's mouth yesterday by calling
the technical "support" line). I have seen write-ups of people determining
these for the Diamond boards that use the ET3000/ET4000 chipsets using the
program clock.exe.
I have a Diamond SpeedStar Pro which uses some flavor of the Cirrus Logic
chipset. Is there a similiar program such as clock.exe that will work for this
chip? When I run clock.exe (which I'd love to have the source to if someone
has it) on my PC it only reports 4 dot clocks, all below 50 MHz. I know that
this can't be correct based on the performance achievable through "proper"
channels (read MS-MOSS/MS-Windows using BIOS calls).
Another question: When I 'startx' (I'm using Linux) the X Server reports the
dot clocks that it recognizes and then the one it's using for the chosen
resolution. I've been told that these are not to be trusted without
confirmation from the manufacturer of the adapter (when hell freezes over it
looks like). Anyone have ideas on this?
I'm basically trying the optimize the usage of my hardware when running X and
this is vital information for doing so based on the video tutorials in the
distribution.
E-mails or postings would be appreciated from anyone "in the know".
Thanks in advance,
John Carroll
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David E. Wexelblat
The Diamond SpeedStar Pro uses a Cirrus 5426 chipset, which has a built-in
programmable clock generator (and RAMDAC, too). The SpeedStar Pro is an
exception to the "not supported" policy, because they actually left the
bloody hardware alone, so it functions just like every other 5426 board.
Since the clocks are programmable, the clocks printed by the server are
exact. You can trust them.
People should still avoid Diamond.
--
David Wexelblat <dw...@mtgzfs3.att.com> (908) 957-5871 Fax: (908) 957-5305
AT&T Bell Laboratories, 200 Laurel Ave - 3F-428, Middletown, NJ 07748
XFree86 requests should be addressed to <xfr...@physics.su.oz.au>
"If you don't expect too much from me, you might not be let down."
-- Gin Blossoms, "Hey Jealousy"
John Carroll
: programmable clock generator (and RAMDAC, too). The SpeedStar Pro is an
: bloody hardware alone, so it functions just like every other 5426 board.
: Since the clocks are programmable, the clocks printed by the server are
: exact. You can trust them.
:
: People should still avoid Diamond.
Agreed, but I faxed a truely venemous letter to the SS PRO Product manager
saying I would trade the board in (still under 30-day $ back w/Gateway) for the
ATI unless they would give me the clock timings.
As you've said, the chips are standard Cirrus 5426. I know my letter to them
seems somewhat anal given this fact, but why not publish that in the user's
manual? I had no way of knowing that this was the case until now. They
immediately faxed me some copies of charts showing the various
available clock speeds for the resolutions the board supports. The pages they
sent have "Copyright 1993 -- Cirrus Logic, Inc." on the bottom of them as if
they came from a Cirrus manual. In the end they keep a customer and I don't
have to deal with trading my board in.
I'm a victim of the fact that Gateway has chosen Diamond as the vendor of
choice for the low-end SVGA cards they ship with their systems. Had I known
about or had access to the info. regarding Diamond's policies and the many
incompatabilities XFree has with most of their boards I would have upgraded my
SVGA card BEFORE having the system shipped. As it turns out I lucked out and
got their somewhat standard card and all is well.
The main reason I wanted the exact clock speeds is because I'm a perfectionist
and want to really experiment with XFree and see what my best configuration
will end up being, and the clock rates are necessary to do this without using
just random shots in the dark. Part of the greatness of Linux is the
"do-it-yourself" aspect to it, and I want to be able to this with XFree as
well.
If I find that there is something to be gained by using configurations other
than those in the standard SVGA ModeDB, I'll post here for everyone.
:
: --
: David Wexelblat <dw...@mtgzfs3.att.com> (908) 957-5871 Fax: (908) 957-5305
: AT&T Bell Laboratories, 200 Laurel Ave - 3F-428, Middletown, NJ 07748
:
: XFree86 requests should be addressed to <xfr...@physics.su.oz.au>
:
: "If you don't expect too much from me, you might not be let down."
: -- Gin Blossoms, "Hey Jealousy"
--
Peter Brouwer
>If I find that there is something to be gained by using configurations other
>than those in the standard SVGA ModeDB, I'll post here for everyone.
>
This also depends on the monitor. I cranked up the refresh rate ( vertical ).
This can only be done if you know the clock's available on the video board and
of course the maximum vertical refresh rate that is accepted by the monitor.
So I think there will be people interrested in the Diamond Speedstar Pro clock
timings. If they are published by Cirrus and the info is not yet included in
the ModeDB, could this info be included than?
--
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John Carroll
: In <1993Sep30.1...@dbsoftware.com> jc...@dbsoftware.com (John Carroll) writes:
:
:
: >If I find that there is something to be gained by using configurations other
: >than those in the standard SVGA ModeDB, I'll post here for everyone.
: >
: This also depends on the monitor. I cranked up the refresh rate ( vertical ).
: This can only be done if you know the clock's available on the video board and
: of course the maximum vertical refresh rate that is accepted by the monitor.
:
: So I think there will be people interrested in the Diamond Speedstar Pro clock
: timings. If they are published by Cirrus and the info is not yet included in
: the ModeDB, could this info be included than?
I did not sign any kind of non-disclosure agreement so I don't see why not.
I'll try to piece that together. Who should I send it to so that it may be
included in future distributions?
John
David Dawes
>In <1993Sep30.1...@dbsoftware.com> jc...@dbsoftware.com (John Carroll) writes:
>
>
>>If I find that there is something to be gained by using configurations other
>>than those in the standard SVGA ModeDB, I'll post here for everyone.
>>
>This also depends on the monitor. I cranked up the refresh rate ( vertical ).
>This can only be done if you know the clock's available on the video board and
>of course the maximum vertical refresh rate that is accepted by the monitor.
>
>So I think there will be people interrested in the Diamond Speedstar Pro clock
>timings. If they are published by Cirrus and the info is not yet included in
>the ModeDB, could this info be included than?
Since the Cirrus chip (used by the Speedstar Pro) is programmable, the
clock values Diamond might use aren't relevant to XFree86. XFree86
programs a set of clock values. These values are reported when you start
the server with no clocks line in your Xconfig file. Since X is programming
the values, the reported values are accurate (because they are not probed).
If you want to see details of this, take a look at the cirrus driver source
which is included with the XFree86 LinkKit. If you are tempted to change
the programmed values, be aware that the Cirrus data book states that the
max clock allowed is 80MHz (although I'm told this has been updated to
85MHz for at least some of the chipsets).
David
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Dawes <da...@physics.su.oz.au> DoD#210 | Phone: +61 2 692 2639
School of Physics, University of Sydney, Australia | Fax: +61 2 660 2903
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