A Linux PC, PCI 2.1 compliant, a monitor capable of 640x480, and a 3D accelerator board based on the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics (tm). It will work on a P5 or P6, with or without MMX.
There is currently no Linux Glide distribution available for any platform besides i586. As the Glide sources are not available for distribution, you will have to wait for the binary. Quantum3D has DEC Alpha support announced for 2H97. Please contact Daryll Strauss if you are interested in supporting this.
Currently, the most recent revision of the 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics (tm) chipset is supported under Linux. The Voodoo Rush (tm) chipset is not yet supported.
This section lists the boards that are currently known to work under Linux. There are no officially supported boards, as 3Dfx does not sell any boards. The information here is based on the latest Linux kernels, at time of writing, and lists the boards that have been tested, plus boards that might work, but have yet to be checked.
It is important to recognize that Linux support for a given board does not only require a driver for the 3D accelerator component. If a board features its own VGA core as well, support by either Linux SVGA or XFree86 is required as well. Currently, an add-on solution is recommended, as it allows you to choose a regular graphics board well supported for Linux. There are other aspects discussed below.
The following configurations have been tested:
1 pixelfx with 2MB frame buffer memory, 1 texelfx with 2MB texture memory
1 pixelfx with 2MB frame buffer memory, 1 texelfx with 4MB texture memory
1 pixelfx with 4MB frame buffer memory, 1 texelfx with 4MB texture memory
1 pixelfx with 2MB frame buffer memory, 2 texelfx chips with 2MB texture memory, each, for a total of 4MB texture memory
1 pixelfx with 4MB frame buffer memory, 2 texelfx chips with 2MB texture memory, each, for a total of 4MB texture memory. This configuration was the original "Obsidian Pro" which has been used for the 3DS Plug-in Project (now done with Datapath Realistorm). Datapath used to call this "Pro VR".
1 pixelfx with 4MB frame buffer memory, 2 texelfx chips with 4MB texture memory, each, for a total of 8MB texture memory. This configuration is now the intended target for the 3DS Plug-in Project (now done with Datapath Realistorm).
1 pixelfx with 2MB frame buffer memory, 2 texelfx chips with 4MB texture memory, each, for a total of 8MB texture memory.
aka 2440-SLI, aka XS-100, or just "SLI".
Two PCI boards, each with 1 pixelfx with 2MB frame buffer memory and 2 texelfx chips each with 4MB texture memory, each, for a total of 8MB texture memory per board. Texture have to be stored on both boards, so this does not equal 16MB texture memory. Video output is scan line interleaved for two times the standard fill rate.
The following boards have not yet been tested:
Boards that are not based on 3Dfx chipsets (e.g. manufactured by S3, Matrox, 3Dlabs, Videologic) do not work with the 3Dfx drivers and are beyond the scope of this document.
In this board, the 2D accelerator is mounted on a PCI card, and the Voodoo Rush (tm) chipset is mounted on a daughterboard. Currently, this board is neither supported by Linux Glide, nor by XFree86 accelerated servers. Reportedly, the XFree86 SVGA server works, according to a posting on the Mesa mailing list. It supports 8, 16 and 32 bpp.
# device section settings Chipset "AT24" Videoram 4032 # videomodes tested by Oliver Schaertel # 25.18 28.32 for 640 x 480 (70hz) # 61.60 for 1024 x 786 (60hz) # 120 for 1280 x 1024 (66hz)
Regarding the VGA component tied to the Voodoo Rush (tm) on this board, it is a Alliance Semiconductor's ProMotion-AT3D multimedia accelerator. XFree86's support for AT3D/AT24 will not be accelerated prior to XFree86 4.0, which is quite some time away.
Despite the fact that this board will be a single board integrated solution, it is essentially the same chipset combo (AT3D, Voodoo Rush (tm)), thus all disclaimers made above regarding the Hercules Stringray apply here as well. According to David E. Anderson from Intergraph, they will not be providing support for Linux at this time.