Searching S3 docs

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sevobal
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Searching S3 docs

Post by sevobal »

Hi,
I'm searching for a S3 documentation, which deescribes programming a s3 video card by ports, because my notebook has a s3 video card. So where can I find information about this? I'm very interested in commands / ports for setting the video mode and fpr accessing the lfb.

Thanks :)
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Dex
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Post by Dex »

You need to fish bits from here and there where you can find bits of info. Like here: http://www.probo.com/timr/savage40.html

Note: The first thing to search for is, name + data sheet eg: S3 data sheet, if that does not work, try linux driver's etc.
Last edited by Dex on Fri Mar 30, 2007 10:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by ~ »

It looks like the questions every time turn more and more "ideological".

Would you please give pointers to the things you have found until now about that, seboval, to better point us in helping? =;
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Brendan
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Post by Brendan »

Hi,
~ wrote:Would you please give pointers to the things you have found until now about that, seboval, to better point us in helping? =;
The only information I've been able to find is a text file describing the registers for the S3 family of video cards. I can't remember where this text file came from or when I downloaded it (it's just what I found in my personal archive). I've attached this text file...

I've also got a book here called "Programmer's Guide to the EGA, VGA, and Super VGA Cards" by Richard F. Ferraro (see here). This contains a chapter for the S3 video cards - about 32 pages of information including (assembly) source code examples for card detection, extended register locking/unlocking, line draws, bit blits, hardware cursor, etc.

Despite all of this, I don't think anyone can really understand the internals of any SVGA card without first having very good knowledge/experience with standard VGA. I'd do VGA then something like Cirrus Logic just to gain experience before working on S3 (but I'd do S3 before I attempted something like Intel's 865).


Cheers,

Brendan
Attachments
s3.zip
Raw S3 register information
(21.43 KiB) Downloaded 34 times
For all things; perfection is, and will always remain, impossible to achieve in practice. However; by striving for perfection we create things that are as perfect as practically possible. Let the pursuit of perfection be our guide.
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Happy Egghead
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Post by Happy Egghead »

The S3 file above comes from VGADOC4b.zip which is full of the same for about 20 or so different video cards. I'm sure that whenever I get around to doing anything than printing out big verbose error messages it will come in useful.
The file can be downloaded from -
http://www.medical-papers.com/download/vgadoc4b.zip/


Another good source of code I've seen is the FreeBE/AF project. The driver files include code to switch video modes, block transfer etc.. and aims to support some of the hardware acceleration features of video cards. Some of the drivers are written to use the BIOS but the Trident and Nvidia drivers say they are full portable.
The file can be downloaded from -
http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/freebe/
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