From: Terry Kennedy [terry@gate.tmk.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2001 5:59 PM
To: Info-VAX@Mvb.Saic.Com
Subject: Re: Oxygen VX1 now supported and orderable

Fred Kleinsorge <kleinsorge@star.zko.dec.com> writes:
> It is a unmodified, off the shelf card from 3DLabs.  But do take care, PC
> card makers feel free to keep the box the same, and change everything
> inside.  The 3DLabs Marketing Name is the Oxygen VX1 (32mb), the actual chip
> inside is the Permedia-3.  And just to confuse people, 3DLabs has a tendency
> to interchange it in literature with their Glint stuff.
>
> But the cost differential between the street price and Compaq price probably
> isn't worth going out and getting it off the street, and then being worried
> about getting support.

  Since this card still isn't in the Compaq price file (and thus isn't
orderable as an option, though maybe it would come with a complete sys-
tem) I decided to buy the cards elsewhere.

  I ordered 'em from buy.com, their part number 10243432. They were $174.95
when I bought them, but they're up to $189.95 now. Perhaps due to demand
from dissatisfied Elsa GLoria owners... 8-)

  I plopped them into my DS10's running VMS V7.2-1 (which are current on
patches, including the VX1) and they were recognized right away and DEC-
windows came up fine. Performance at 1280 x 1024, 8BPP, 70Hz was great,
with blistering scrolling. Going to 24BPP and 75Hz slowed it down quite a
bit, but it is still incredibly better than the GLoria.

  Fred, can you post any tuning tips? For example, at 75Hz am I causing
memory contention between screen updates and host access to the memory?
Would selecting 32BPP enable optimizations in the driver (eliminating
packing/unpacking of 3-byte data)? Is there enough of a gain in 16BPP to
use that instead of 24 or 32?

  For folks who are contemplating this card, it's definitely worth it. I
can finally put all my GLoria cards (and those of my customers) in the
trash compactor and watch them die...

  As Fred says, if you want support it's best to wait for Compaq to put
it in the price file. If you're a hobbyist, need it *now*, or are price-
conscious, you can get these cards now on the 'net (and perhaps in 
stores). The part number on my boxes say 01-000023-002 and the barcode
UPC is 6 14375 99370 8.

  3Dlabs says they have refurbished ones in stock for $130.00. See:
http://shop.3dlabs.com/, then click on "Refurbished Oxygen Cards".

  In any case, make sure you get the PCI one...

        Terry Kennedy             http://www.tmk.com
        terry@tmk.com             Jersey City, NJ USA