User's Guide
DISCLAIMER The manufacturer (MFR) reserves the right to make changes to this document and the products which it describes without notice. The MFR shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions made herein; not for incidental or consequential damages resulting from the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.
Table of Contents 1 ABOUT FIRE GL1................................................... 5 HARDWARE FEATURES............................................................ 6 SOFTWARE FEATURES ............................................................. 6 PROFESSIONAL 3D RENDERING ............................................ 7 CARD LAYOUT ........................................................................ 8 2 HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL ................................ 9 MANUAL CONVENTIONS ......................
Table of Contents 6 TROUBLESHOOTING...............................................37 COMMON PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS ............................... 37 A TECHNICAL DETAILS ..............................................40 FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE ............................................. 40 Hardware........................................................................ 40 Software.......................................................................... 41 Hardware Performance ...........................
1 ABOUT FIRE GL1 ♦ HARDWARE FEATURES ♦ SOFTWARE FEATURES ♦ PROFESSIONAL 3D RENDERING ♦ CARD LAYOUT Diamond Fire GL1 is based upon the IBM 256-bit Graphics Rasterizer, integrating the functionality of a VGA controller, a 2D/3D Raster Engine with Geometry Pipeline Setup processor, and a 250 MHz RAMDAC in a single package.
HARDWARE FEATURES ♦ IBM 256-bit Graphics Rasterizer ♦ 32 MB SGRAM used for unified framebuffer, Z-, Alpha-, Overlay-, Window ID and Clip/Stencil buffers, and texture storage ♦ Single short form factor AGP and PCI versions ⇒ AGP ATX/NLX bus, AGP2x version 2.0 compliant, with sideband addressing ⇒ PCI bus 32-bit 33/66 MHz version 2.
♦ Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions (70 New Instructions) in the new Intel Processors ♦ Customized application settings for individual ISV applications ♦ Multithreaded OpenGL pipeline and ThreadSafe OpenGL 1.2 ICD support for dual processors. ♦ Multihead display driver supports up to 4 screens ♦ DDC2B monitor support on all operating system platforms PROFESSIONAL 3D RENDERING ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Full OpenGL 1.
CARD LAYOUT Fire GL1 with AGP bus interface 1 2 3 IBM 256-bit Graphics Rasterizer with fan SG-RAM chips - also on solder side DB-15 monitor connector 4 Flash BIOS PROM 5 Oscillator 6 3.
2 HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL For your convenience, this online User’s Guide has been formatted as an Adobe® Acrobat® PDF file. This format gives you great flexibility when using this documentation. You can easily print this manual to access it off-line; it will look like any standard document with a table of contents and page numbers. You can also read it online—important links, such as table of contents entries, worldwide web, and email addresses are active.
3 INSTALLING FIRE GL1 ♦ INSTALLING THE HARDWARE ♦ INSTALLING SOFTWARE INSTALLING THE HARDWARE Notes: ♦ If you plan to set up a multi-monitor system you must install the primary display adapter and the drivers first, before installing additional graphics cards. With the drivers provided you can operate a maximum of four Fire GL1 Graphics Accelerators. The drivers are designed exclusively to support Fire GL1 Graphics Accelerators with the Windows NT 4.
System Requirements and Tools To use this card, you must have the following: ♦ a motherboard with free PCI/AGP 1.X slots for the number of Fire GL1 cards you want to install. ♦ a Pentium II PC (or better) ♦ Windows NT 4.0 operating system with Service Pack 4 (or newer) ♦ A screwdriver to remove and reinstall the PC cover screws and card mounting screws. See your PC manual for specific requirements.
It is recommended that you set your display driver to Standard VGA before you shut down your computer and remove the installed (AGP, PCI, or ISA) VGA card. Some systems have an integrated graphics solution on the motherboard. Please refer to the manual or contact your motherboard manufacturer to determine how to disable your onboard graphics.
6. Click Close and OK as often as necessary to accept the changes. 7. Windows asks you if you want to restart your computer. Click No. 8. Shut down your computer. You are now ready to remove your old graphics card and install your new Fire GL1 card. Opening the Computer Cabinet Warning! Prevent static electric damage. Avoid touching any electronic components.
Installing the Card To install your Fire GL1 PCI or AGP card, follow these steps: 1. Locate the AGP or an available PCI slot. View of the AGP slot (dark color) View of a PCI slot (light color) 2. Remove the metal slot cover. Save the screw to secure the graphics card later. 3. Hold the card by the edges and position it directly above the AGP or PCI slot. AGP and PCI cards are designed to fit one way only. Be sure your card is properly aligned. 4. Insert your Fire GL1 card firmly into the AGP or PCI slot.
Installation in an AGP or PCI expansion slot a b c a Fire GL1 card b Card edge connector c Expansion slot Reassembling Your Computer ♦ Secure ribbon cables and gently push them down and out of the way before you replace the system cover. ♦ Replace the computer cover. ♦ Reconnect any peripheral equipment cables you may have disconnected.
Connecting the Monitor Cable Securely attach your monitor's data cable to the 15-pin VGA output connector (3) on the card. Attach the cable to the monitor according to the monitor's instructions.
After Installing the Card If you have correctly installed the card, operating system messages will appear on your monitor when the boot procedure is finished. To enjoy the full benefits of your new Fire GL1 card in your PC, you will need to install a package of basic drivers. Refer to Installing Software. To enable and set up a multi-monitor configuration use the MultiScreen dialog in the Display Properties menu after you have installed the FireGL1 drivers. If your system does NOT boot as it should...
Additional Instructions ♦ Switch on your monitor before you switch on your computer. Failing to do so could damage your monitor. ♦ Note that your monitor is running in standard modes and that higher refresh rates etc. are not available at this stage of the installation! After you have successfully installed the Fire GL1 drivers, use the dialogs in the Display Properties menu allow to adjust the video settings.
INSTALLING SOFTWARE Now that you have installed the Fire GL1 hardware and rebooted your computer, complete your installation using the following directions for your operating system. You will need to install a package of basic drivers ♦ if you install the card to your system ♦ if you are re-installing or upgrading your operating system Important — You must have Microsoft Windows NT Service Pack 4 installed prior to installing the Fire GL1 drivers.
Tips and Hints The software installation procedure later in this chapter describes how to install the drivers for your graphics card after you have installed the new card for the first time and have rebooted your computer. This section offers some additional tips if you want or need to install the graphics card drivers in a special working scenario, for example, if you have re-installed your operating system, or if you want to perform a manual installation.
2. Click Start Installation. Note: The installation routine now checks if your Windows NT 4.0 is correctly updated with Service Pack 4. If not, you are prompted if you want to install the drivers and Service Pack 4 at this time – if the appropriate language version is available on the SuperCD. If the SuperCD cannot install the Service Pack to your system, the driver installation aborts. Obtain Windows NT Service Pack 4 from Microsoft, update your Windows NT4.0, and run the the Quick Start utility again. 3.
4 FIRE GL1 SOFTWARE UTILITIES ♦ CHANGING THE VIDEO SETTINGS ♦ MODIFYING APPLICATION PROFILES As part of its Windows NT drivers, Fire GL1 installs additional property pages to your Display Properties control panel. They are named Monitor, Adjustment, MultiScreen, Configuration, and Information. Use the Configuration dialog to customize application profiles for individual application settings. Refer to page 33 for more information.
CHANGING THE VIDEO SETTINGS The dialogs in the Display Properties menu allow setting and adjusting the video settings to suit your requirements best. ♦ Settings: set resolution and color depth ♦ Monitor: choose monitors and display refresh rates ♦ Adjustment: adjust the monitors’ display ♦ MultiScreen: set up multiple monitor configuration - available only if additional graphics accelerators are installed To access the Diplay Properties menu: 1. Start Windows NT 4.0. 2. After Windows NT 4.
Setting Resolution and Color Depth Select the Settings dialog in the Display Properties window. ♦ Set the resolution and color depth that best suit your requirements and your monitors' performance. ♦ Also set the refresh rate for the monitor on your first or primary display adapter. Notes: (1) The resolution and color depth setting applies to all monitors in a multi-monitor configuration.
Choosing Monitors and Display Refresh Rates 1. Select the Monitor dialog in the Display Properties window. For each Fire GL1 Graphics Accelerator in your system you can customize the settings of the connected monitor. For more information on setting up the monitor(s) refer to the context sensitive online help. 2. Click the tab for the card where the monitor you want to set up is attached.
3. Set the desired operation mode for the selected monitor. Custom Modes Use resolution and refresh rates for this monitor as specified in the Settings dialog in Display Properties. This option allows you to take full advantage of the resolution/refresh rate capabilities of the video chip. Warning! Selecting a resolution or refresh rate that your monitor does not support can permanently damage the monitor.
DDC Monitor Select this option and click the Apply or OK button if you want the driver to automatically decode the monitor's DDC (Display Data Channel) information on each reboot/NT 4.0 start. To detect a new DDC monitor immediately, click the Detect now button. An error message will be displayed if the connected monitor does not support DDC. The Refresh Rate section displays the maximum refresh rate supported by the monitor for the currently selected resolution. 4.
3. Monitor Tuning: With the buttons in the Move and Size sections you can tune the position and size of the monitor's display for the indicated resolution and refresh rate. Notes: (1) Use the hardware setting controls on your monitor, if available, to adjust your display size or position - instead of the software controls in 'Adjustment - Monitor Tuning.' Check the documentation of your monitor for information on your monitor's hardware controls.
♦ Sync Polarity: If you do not get a satisfactory display with the default sync polarity setting for the current resolution, you may try and change the settings. ♦ Undo: Click this button to undo the last change you made (when you clicked Apply). If you have made a modification that causes your screen to go blank or to be unreadable, the keyboard shortcut for ‘Undo’ is Alt-U. ♦ Default: Click this button to set the Monitor Tuning to the manufacturer's default settings.
4. Gamma Correction Adjustment: Adjust the monitor's gamma correction for optimal brightness with the red, green and blue slider bars. Note: You cannot adjust Gamma Correction for 256-color modes When these sliders are changed the gamma correction table modifies each pixel's color value. The brightness produced at the face of the display is proportional to the input voltage raised to the power gamma. This nonlinearity must be compensated to achieve correct reproduction of the image's brightness.
Setting Multiple Monitor Configuration 1. Select the MultiScreen dialog in the Display Properties window. Refer to the context online help for more information on setting up your MultiScreen configuration.
2. Select your monitor combination in the Define Desktop dropdown list. Click the Apply or OK button to enable your multimonitor setting. Notes: Click on a monitor icon in the MultiScreen dialog to identify the corresponding monitor. For example, if you click on the monitor icon 2 in the MultiScreen dialog, your second monitor will display a 2.
MODIFYING APPLICATION PROFILES Using the Configuration dialog in the Display Properties menu you can individually configure each application’s settings.
For some of the most popular applications the optimal configuration profile is factory-set by default. Select the application from the list in the Configuration Profiles section. This will add necessary Windows NT registry settings. Click Apply and, if prompted, restart Windows NT. If you experience problems with your application, or if you want to try to optimize the performance of your system on specific applications, you may modify the configuration settings. 1.
1. Click the Add button in the Configuration Profiles section and enter the new application for which you want to set the configuration parameters. 2. To modify the configuration settings of a specific application, for example, HOOPS, select the application from the list in the Configuration Profiles section and click the Modify button. 3.
5 REMOVING THE FIRE GL1 DRIVERS This section describes how to properly remove your graphics card software from your system should you need to do so. To install or uninstall the Fire GL1 drivers, you need administrator rights or you must be logged on as a user with administrator rights under Windows NT. Before removing the Diamond Fire GL1 video driver, please close all open application programs and disable any anti-virus software that is running on your computer until the driver is removed! 1.
6 TROUBLESHOOTING Your board is a complex electronic device and can only be repaired by authorized technical personnel with special equipment. Do not attempt to change or repair any parts of this product. Doing so will render your warranty invalid. COMMON PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS If you experience a problem using the Fire GL1, check the following sections for advice on how to solve your problem. FAQs Frequently Asked Questions and their answers may be found at the web sites of ATI Inc. Go to www.ati.
Screen image defects appear Check if your monitor supports the resolution, horizontal (kHz) and vertical (Hz) refresh rates as required by the graphics card. Check for your current resolution, refresh rate, and color depth settings in the Settings and Monitor dialogs of the Display Properties. Warning! Be sure that both video card and monitor support resolution and refresh rates you select. Incompatible resolution/refresh rate selection may result in monitor damage.
Checking for address and interrupt conflicts ♦ It is necessary to ensure that the I/O and memory addresses reserved for the graphics board are not used by other hardware devices. ♦ The integrated on-board VGA controller of your Fire GL1 uses the following addresses (hex): I/O Address Standard VGA I/O: 3B0-3DF Memory Addresses: Video RAM: A000-BFFF Video ROM: C000-C7FF Note: You cannot change the addresses of your Fire GL1.
A TECHNICAL DETAILS ♦ FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE ♦ HARDWARE PERFORMANCE ♦ PIN ASSIGNMENTS ♦ VIDEO MODES ♦ BLOCK DIAGRAM FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE Hardware ♦ Design: Single short form factor AGP and PCI versions ♦ AGP ATX/NLX bus, AGP2x version 2.0 compliant, with sideband addressing ♦ PCI bus 32-bit 33/66 MHz version 2.
♦ 32 MB SGRAM used for unified framebuffer, Z-, Alpha-, Overlay-, Window ID and Clip/Stencil buffers, and texture storage ♦ 100 MHz clock on raster engine and frame buffer ♦ 64 KByte BIOS FlashROM, reprogrammable by software ♦ 32-bit RGBα True color 2D and 3D acceleration ♦ TrueColor screen resolutions up to 1920 x 1200, doublebuffered ♦ 24-bit Z- buffer, 4-bit double-buffer, 8-bit single-buffer overlay ♦ Video engine supports YUV conversion, point and bilinear scaling Software ♦ OpenGL 1.
Hardware Performance (As tested on an Intel Xeon 450, 128M RAM, 1280x1024, TrueColor, 60 Hz.
VIDEO MODES All video modes comply with VESA DMT (Discrete Monitor Timing) or VESA GTF (General Timing Format) standards. Windows NT Resolution Color Bits α Bits Line Frequency (kHz) 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 1600 x 1200 1792 x 1344 1920 x 1200 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 31.5, 37.9, 37.5, 43.3 37.9, 48.1, 46.9, 53.7 48.4, 56.5, 60.0, 68.7 64.0, 80.0, 91.1 75.0, 81.3, 87.5, 93.8 106.3 83.0 74.5, 94.
BLOCK DIAGRAM AGP2x (PCI) System Interface OASIS Graphics Engine System Bus Interface Raster Engine VGA Unit Pixel Cache Utility Bus Interface Flash ROM 64KB 44 DMA BLT Unit Video Engine Palette DAC and I/O Display Timing Generator Frame Buffer Interface Frame buffer 32 MBytes SGRAM RGB Out Sync Out DDC2B Ctl FAN Control
B GLOSSARY 3D Three-dimensional 3D-DDI 3D device driver interface, software interface (3D-API) from Microsoft, higher level 3D-APIs like OpenGL and 3DR may be implemented in Windows 95 3DR 3D software interface (3D-API) from Intel, supporting Microsoft's GDI DDI, DCI and 3D-DDI ADI AutoDesk Device Interface AGP The Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) is a new technology developed by Intel for Pentium II based systems. AGP is a dedicated graphics port, separate from the existing PCI bus.
Artifacts Blurred or "blocky" portions of degraded image quality in a digital video. ASCII American Standards Committee on Information Interchange. A standard used by IBM and compatible computers to represent numbers and characters in binary form. Bandwidth Required capacity for the data volume and transmission rate. BIOS Stands for Basic Input-Output System. Code in your computer's ROM (Read Only Memory) that provides the power-on self-test and other operating functions.
CGA IBM Color Graphics Adapter, one of the first color graphics standards. Either 320x200 pixels with four colors or 640x200 pixels with two colors can be displayed. Chrominance Portion of a video signal that corresponds to color values and includes information about hue and saturation. This color component essentially complements the brightness or luminance component of a color video picture. Clipping Limiting the drawing area to any rectangular area by cutting its edges.
Digital Display Also called TTL. A type of monitor that switches signals ON or OFF to determine display color. Types of digital displays include the IBM Enhanced Color Display or Monochrome Display. Digitize Process of turning an analog signal into digital data. Digitizer Input device in the CAD area, used for scanning printed graphics or drawings, i.e. converting them to digital computer graphics. Direct3D 3D software interface (3D-API) from Microsoft for Windows 95 and Windows NT. Uses DirectDraw.
EEPROM Electrically erasable programmable read only memory; used like a ROM permanent memory chip, but can be programmed and erased to replace DIP switches and jumpers on new graphics boards. EGA IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter, which allows 640 x 350 pixels with 16 colors. Enhanced Color Display (ECD) IBM Enhanced Color Display capable of 640 x 350 resolution. Expansion Board Device used to expand a computer's capability.
Gamma Correction The brightness produced at the face of the display is proportional to the input voltage raised to the power gamma. This nonlinearity must be compensated to achieve correct reproduction of the image's brightness. The effect of display gamma is to darken the midtones relative to the dark and light regions. The gamma correction adjustment affects the entire screen display. The possible setting range is 0.3 - 4.0. The default setting is 1.0.
Horizontal Frequency Rate at which a monitor displays each scan line, usually measured in kilohertz (kHz). The value must be set depending on the operating limits of the monitor in order not to damage it. Hue Synonym for color. I/O Port Input/Output port. An address used to access a hardware device. Indexed 16 and 256 Color Images Indexed color images contain a color table in the file. This table lists all the colors that could be used in the file.
Line Drawing This is a hardware function of the graphics processor chip. The CPU supplies only the starting and ending coordinates of a line. The graphics processor then does the rest of the work drawing the line. Luminance Portion of a video signal corresponding to brightness value - essentially the blackand-white foundation of a color video picture. MDA IBM Monochrome Display Adapter. Monochrome Display Monitor that displays information in one color only; sometimes called a black & white display.
Palette Selection of colors from which to choose. Your board provides as many as 16.7 million simultaneous colors from a palette of 16.7 million. This capability is sometimes referred to as TrueColor. It is believed that the human eye can discern no more than 16.7 million colors. PCI bus Peripheral Component Interconnect bus - system of parallel data lines to transfer information between individual system components, especially to expansion boards.
RAM Random Access Memory - memory that can be read from and written to. Rasterization Rendering 3D images to a 2D screen is called rasterization. Real-time 3D graphics cards take 3D coordinates from the CPU for a given frame of animation and render them to the screen, calculating perspective, viewpoint, and visibility of objects as well as rendering surfaces and textures on to surfaces. RealColor Normally designates a 15 bits per pixel or 16-bpp graphics mode, i.e. 32,768 or 65,536 colors.
Saturation Amount of gray in a color determining the intensity and purity of a color. A color with a high saturation value is optically very intensive. A color with a low saturation value appears weak (i.e. with less color content).
V-Sync Length of the vertical synchronization pulse for a monitor, given in microseconds. Variable Frequency Display (VFD) Monitor that is capable of displaying a wide range of resolutions through its ability to sync to a wide range of horizontal and vertical scan frequencies. Vertical Frequency Rate at which the monitor screen is refreshed. Usually measured in hertz (Hz). VESA Video Electronics Standard Association - consortium for the standardization of computer graphics.
C TRADEMARKS Trademarks Adobe and Acrobat are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated, which may be registered in certain jurisdictions. ATI is a registered trademark of ATI Technologies Inc. in Canada, the United States and/or other countries. Fire GL is a trademark of ATI Technologies Inc. in Canada, the United States, and/or other countries.
EMI COMPLIANCE INFORMATION D FCC Compliance Information FCC - DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY FOR A CLASS B DIGITAL DEVICE We, the Responsible Party ATI Research Inc.- Fire GL Graphics 4 Mount Royal Avenue, Marlborough, MA 01752-1978 USA; Phone: (508) 303-3900 declare that the product Fire GL1 AGP/PCI complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. The compliance with those standards is confirmed in accreditation certificates.
CE Compliance Information EMC Directive 89/336/EEC and Amendments 92/31/EEC and 93/68/EEC, Class B Digital Device EN 55022/CISPR 22, Limits and Methods of Measurement of Radio Interference Characteristics Information Technology Equipment.
