From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware
The Elsa Winner/2 comes up here every now and then as a topic. Today
there is something new.
I have this card in its original packaging, complete with manuals and software. The floppy disks say 'Copyright 1995 by ELSA GmbH'. Most of
the manuals are in German, only the programming examples are in English.
The manuals are ring-bound books!
http://www.franken-online.de/ymmv/src/elsa-wnr-images.tar.gz
The card is an 8514/A clone, but with non-interlaced modes up to a
resolution of 1280x1024 pixels. It works at 60Hz on my LCD monitor.
Elsa has equipped the graphics card for the ISA and MCA bus with either
1MB or 2MB video memory, with the 82C480 or 82C481 graphics chips from
Chips & Technology and with the TLC34075 or TLC34076 RAMDAC chips. The respective combination of the components results in a performance
spectrum that ranges from a maximum resolution of 1024x768 pixels with
256 colors to a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 with 64K colors.
My card (2MB, 82C480, TLC34076) can display the following resolutions
640x480 pixels, 265 colors
640x480 pixels, 16M colors
800x600 pixels, 256 colors
1024x768 pixels, 256 colors
1280x1024 pixels, 256 colors
I would like to have the version with the 82C481 graphics chip.
Elsa provides drivers for various CAD programs. There is also a graphics driver for Windows 3.1x, which offers 256 colors in all resolutions as
well as 16M colors at a resolution of 640x480 pixels and a graphics
driver for OS/2 2.x that provides 256 colors in all resolutions.
http://www.franken-online.de/ymmv/src/elsa-wnr-fdimages.tar.gz
(Unfortunately, the floppy disk part 2 of the CAD drivers is not readable.)
Nothing earth-shattering, a high-resolution 8514/A clone with ergonomic refresh rates, were it not for the X server from XI Graphics (Xaccel),
which is supposed to support this Elsa card:
https://web.archive.org/web/19970616015725/http://www.xinside.com/bd/elsa.ax/index.html
The last version of Xaccel that supports this graphics card is version
6.0 from 2000.
https://archive.org/details/accelerated-x-6.0
(The file and directory names must be reconstructed, then the software
will run.)
I say 'is supposed to support' because I have not yet managed to get
Xaccel to work with the Elsa Winner/2. The X server starts with
1280x1024 and 256 colors, then the system freezes (Slackware 10.2).
With the CL GD5428 SVGA and the XGA, Xaccel runs perfectly, even with
32K/64K colors (Slackware 10.2).
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