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High-Tech Video circa 1991

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    #1

    High-Tech Video circa 1991

    I found this dual-head ATI ISA 2MB video card in my junk recently.

    A number of interesting (to me) design features:

    NO Electrolytic Caps - instead 4 brown suitcase shaped SMT caps.

    2 removable memory chips each 1024MB one is marked "EVEN" the other is "ODD'.
    Both made by AMD.

    A bunch of removable BIOS type chips and two fixed ones at left side of the card, All are Siemens or Texas Instruments.

    Card is "MADE IN CANDA".

    What replaces the electrolytics on this card? Why is the memory grouped into "ODD" and "EVEN"? What is the purpose of the removable ICs on the left-hand side of the card?
    What would have been attached to the connector on the top edge of the card?.

    Obviously there was a major paradigm shift in electronic circuit design afer this card was made,

    I find this stuff interesting. Anybody care to comment?
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    #2
    Re: High-Tech Video circa 1991

    Wow. If you didn't tell me this was a video card, I would never have known.

    Comment

      #3
      Re: High-Tech Video circa 1991

      that's a ATI VGA Wonder XL (introduced in 1988) with 256KB-1MB video memory.
      the ODD/EVEN chips are the BIOS of that card.
      judging by all the 8 video RAM sockets (on the left) being populated, i'd guess that this is the 1MB version.

      the 4 brown-yellow-ish capacitors are surface mount tantalums

      Comment

        #4
        Re: High-Tech Video circa 1991

        There are tons of capacitors on that card, just not electrolytic ones. There's the 4 big yellow ones, and many more smaller brown ones. I've seen the same in some more recent cards. Some of the original Radeons had no electrolytic caps.

        Chips on the left are 20-pin DRAM modules.

        The top connector is a VGA feature connector. It could be attached to a 3d accelerator, video capture card, etc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature_connector

        As for the chips with odd/even on them - I'm not quite sure. The memory is on the left, so I'm fairly sure it's not memory. Perhaps they're DACs? Odd and even could be referring to the scan lines for interlaced video.

        Comment

          #5
          Re: High-Tech Video circa 1991

          SC11486CN appears to be a color palette chip.

          From looking at other ISA cards, I'm now going to guess the two large AMD chips are BIOS chips.

          Comment

            #6
            Re: High-Tech Video circa 1991

            According to Wikipedia

            ATi VGA Wonder XL (May 1991)

            * Sierra RAMDAC adds support for 15-bit colour in 640x480@72 Hz, 800x600@60 Hz
            * Supports a flicker-free vertical refresh rate of 72 Hz
            * 256KB, 512KB or 1MB DRAM
            * Original MSRP: $229, $349, $399 respectively

            A feature of ATI cards at the time was a mouse port, and this card does have an extra port between the two VGA heads, which would seem to be a mouse port. I guess most mice at the time were serial, and this card allowed you to use the new-fangled PC mouse.

            Comment

              #7
              Re: High-Tech Video circa 1991

              Those yellow "suitcases" are Tantalum caps. Tantalum is a rare earth element and is expensive Tantalum's are very pricey compared to standard electrolytic caps. But they're reliable like ceramics and can last forever.

              A dual head card in the 90s man whoever bought that card must have had the big bucks.
              Elements of the past and the future combining to make something not quite as good as either.

              Comment

                #8
                Re: High-Tech Video circa 1991

                You're in Markham, ATI is a little west of you, in Richmond Hill on High Tech Road. Unfortunately, their headquarters there is most likely no longer in use.
                "We have offered them (the Arabs) a sensible way for so many years. But no, they wanted to fight. Fine! We gave them technology, the latest, the kind even Vietnam didn't have. They had double superiority in tanks and aircraft, triple in artillery, and in air defense and anti-tank weapons they had absolute supremacy. And what? Once again they were beaten. Once again they scrammed [sic]. Once again they screamed for us to come save them. Sadat woke me up in the middle of the night twice over the phone, 'Save me!' He demanded to send Soviet troops, and immediately! No! We are not going to fight for them."

                -Leonid Brezhnev (On the Yom Kippur War)

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: High-Tech Video circa 1991

                  I love your original post, you said the chips are marked 1024mb, LOL. you mean K!

                  I found some old 16-bit ISA video cards in a goodwill gaylord that are bigger then my gtx 285's
                  Cap Datasheet Depot: http://www.paullinebarger.net/DS/
                  ^If you have datasheets not listed PM me

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: High-Tech Video circa 1991

                    Ahh the good old days. ATI VGA Wonder. Love'd them. And Canadian too eh!
                    I can't quite remember what the edge connector was for, I remember supporting a few that had daughter cards pluggen in there.
                    36 Monitors, 3 TVs, 4 Laptops, 1 motherboard, 1 Printer, 1 iMac, 2 hard drive docks and one IP Phone repaired so far....

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Re: High-Tech Video circa 1991

                      Top card edge connector is a VESA Feature connector.
                      Last edited by brethin; 03-21-2011, 08:52 PM. Reason: .

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