video cards for zx1 systems?

Hi all,

If I head down to the local computer shop and buy a common AGP video
card (I'm thinking Nvidia FX5600 or Matrox P650-type hardware here), can I expect this to work in a zx6000? Do video cards for Itanium systems need a special BIOS, in order for them to work during boot (i.e. will I be able to see EFI or do I have to boot "blind"?), or do normal PC video cards work unchanged?

Any data points would be welcome - here's one to add to the list: My
old AGP GeForce 3 card leads to the six beeps of death on my zx6000.

Thanks in advance,

Duraid

The officially supported list is pretty small; Radeon 7000, Nvidia
Quadro 2EX, Nvidia Quadro 4 980 XGL, ATI FireGL (need X 4.3). I've only been able to try a couple outside of this list. I haven't had much luck with Matrox. Unoffically, the older Quadro 2 card that shipped in BigSur systems works. I would guess that most ATI Radeon based cards work. Haven't had a GeForce to try, but I would have assumed that it would work. I've used a Rage 128 under X, but I don't remember if I was using it for my console.

The cards are normal PC video cards, but that's also the reason
that the supported list isn't longer. The BIOS on the card contains an x86 option ROM. Execution of the option ROM is emulated in firmware since the zx1 boxes are legacy free. The beep code you're getting means that firmware hung. Do you get anything out of the serial console when this happens? Might want to make sure you system is up to the latest firmware as well.

Alex

Alex Williamson                             HP Linux & Open Source Lab

A couple of additions to Alex' comments. There's now a working driver for the ATI FireGL X1 and Z1 cards and those cards will begin shipping early to mid September as an officially supported product configuration from HP. This driver works with the shipping Red Hat AW 2.1 bits(i.e. Xfree 4.1). The Nvidia Quadro products(eg. 900/750/550/380) should work, though we haven't tested them all. Nvidia claims(unofficially) that the newer consumer cards(GeForce4) should work, but I've heard of some spotty results.

Avoid any card that requires a separate power connection if you're putting it in a zx6000. There is no officially supported way to power those cards(eg. FX2000, FX3000) from the AGP/PCI card cage on a zx6000, although they work just fine in a zx2000. I'm not familiar enough with the form of the consumer FX cards to know if there are versions that need external power, but I wouldn't be surprised, given how much power they require.

Jeff Burrell
HP Workstations
Linux R&D

-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Williamson [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, August 01, 2003 1:33 PM
To: Duraid Madina
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Re: video cards for zx1 systems?

The officially supported list is pretty small; Radeon 7000, Nvidia Quadro
2EX, Nvidia Quadro 4 980 XGL, ATI FireGL (need X 4.3). I've only been able to try a couple outside of this list. I haven't had much luck with Matrox. Unoffically, the older Quadro 2 card that shipped in BigSur systems works. I would guess that most ATI Radeon based cards work. Haven't had a GeForce to try, but I would have assumed that it would work. I've used a Rage 128 under X, but I don't remember if I was using it for my console.

The cards are normal PC video cards, but that's also the reason that the
supported list isn't longer. The BIOS on the card contains an x86 option ROM. Execution of the option ROM is emulated in firmware since the zx1 boxes are legacy free. The beep code you're getting means that firmware hung. Do you get anything out of the serial console when this happens? Might want to make sure you system is up to the latest firmware as well.

Alex

Alex Williamson                             HP Linux & Open Source Lab
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