On Thu, Mar 25, 2021 at 1:01 AM John Ames via cctech <[email protected]> wrote:
> Huh - wacky. Still pretty curious how it works just on a basic "how > the hey does the framebuffer even function" level, but that's > certainly interesting. Does make me feel less guilty about planning to > cannibalize it for a homebrew project later, though! > It's a text mode, which generates the screen image using rasterized fonts from the text + attributes stored in video memory. There is no frame buffer. With that little RAM it can support the text modes easily enough, but none of the graphics modes. Warner > On 3/24/21, Camiel Vanderhoeven <[email protected]> > wrote: > > It's neither X nor ethernet. These worked with a special controller card > > that had 4 RJ45 connectors. That allowed four users to share a single > > Windows NT system. > > ________________________________ > > From: cctech <[email protected]> on behalf of John Ames via > > cctech <[email protected]> > > Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2021 4:41 AM > > To: cctalk <[email protected]>; cctech <[email protected]> > > Subject: MaxSpeed VGA MaxStation > > > > So, some months ago, I was in an electronics surplus store and picked > > up what was obviously an X terminal - tiny metal slab with a VGA > > connector, serial & parallel, AT keyboard, and RJ45 "communication" > > port. I got it bare, without the external PSU that would've gone with > > it, and I've since been unable to determine just what the heck I'm > > supposed to feed this thing. It's a standard barrel jack, but there's > > no markings on the case or the PCB to give any clue as to what > > voltage/amperage or polarity it expects, and Google has been no help > > at all. Does anyone have any recollection of these things? Any idea > > what they want for juice? > > > > To throw an extra mysterious wrinkle into this, when I popped open the > > case to get a look at the PCB, I found that, apart from the CPU, DART, > > and ROM, the only non-glue ICs on the board were an 8K SRAM and a > > W82C476 RAMDAC - but 8K isn't even remotely enough for a VGA screen, > > not even a monochrome one at VGA resolution! Am I missing something on > > how these things operated? Given this, my only guess would be some > > kind of insane networked-framebuffer scheme where the host would blast > > video data in on the fly, but there's no way this was even 100Mbps > > Ethernet, and 10Mbps isn't nearly fast enough to transfer 150KB at > > 60FPS, and there's no memory to buffer it for a slower refresh. What > > in the heck is going on here? > > > > This e-mail (including any attachments) may contain privileged, > > confidential, proprietary, private, copyrighted, or other legally > protected > > information. The information is intended to be for the use of the > individual > > or entity designated above. If you are not the intended recipient (even > if > > the e-mail address above is yours), please notify us by return e-mail > > immediately, and delete the message and any attachments. Any disclosure, > > reproduction, distribution or other use of this message or any > attachments > > by an individual or entity other than the intended recipient is > prohibited. > > >
