GVP EGS 110/24 Board Drivers?

[steveski]

I've just picked up a GVP EGS 110/24 Board and find that there's no default pass through for the video, I'm guessing this time I require drivers. Interestingly the main GVP 2000 040 Combo board will still take over the CPU but functions fully once the drivers are installed. Alas here nothing shows up at all. Unfortunately the printed A4 manual that came with the card doesn't actually provide any installation steps, not event explain of the floppy driver style power connector needs to be attached. I tried with and without.

Amiga Hardware Database doesn't appear to have a link to drivers https://amiga.resource.cx/exp/egs110 but I can download file .dms files for the EGS 28/24 https://amiga.resource.cx/exp/egs28
There's really very little information about this that I can find and I'm wondering if the 28/drivers will actually be enough. The EGS 28/24 according to Amiga Hardware Database supports these screen modes
1600×1280×8 interlace
1152×864×16 interlace
800×600×24 non-interlace

and the EGS 110/24
1600×1280×24
3200×2560×8

so in using 1600x1280 am I confined to 8 bit using the 28/24 drivers?

I saw mention somewhere that picasso 96 drivers support the EGS cards, but it isn't listed as supported in the Aminet readme for Picasso 96.

Anyone have experience with the 110/24?




Edit: Regarding that RCA connector… from here https://amiga.resource.cx/exp/egs110

View attachment 2562623

 

[YouKnowWho]

@steveski - Thank you! FINALLY we have proof of life in the wild. AMAZING! No joke...I was thinking about this card recently, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Please, keep sharing your discoveries and progress because we'd love to know about this fantasy piece of A2000 hardware.

 

[steveski]

@steveski - Thank you! FINALLY we have proof of life in the wild. AMAZING! No joke...I was thinking about this card recently, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Please, keep sharing your discoveries and progress because we'd love to know about this fantasy piece of A2000 hardware.

yeah I bought the accelerator and wondered what the pins and socket was on the back then heard about this card. A couple of sellers I’ve dealt with on eBay had seen them but they seem to be the rarest item around. Here’s some more photos for those interested. The seller I got this from also bundled in this external IV24 splitter and claimed the IC was an upgrade for the EGS board. I can’t find anything about that detail. Maybe someone on Amibay has an idea. Here’s some more of this unicorn.

 

[YouKnowWho]

SN - ...19? NINETEEN? WOW. That gives me enough confidence to say there are probably single digits of these surviving, if that. Just imagining this board rotting inside an A2000 at some e-waste dump is enough to bring tears to my eyes.

OK, regarding this IV24 story. I have an IV24 and as strange as what you say sounds, that connector at the back of the 110/24 looks like a match for the breakout box, which you have verified, right? Is the IV24 chip a pin match for U26 on the board? I think I count 28 pins on the chip and 32 on the U26 110/24 socket. But flip side of the board...do those extra left-over pins have any traces? Can you confirm? It sounds very very tempting to line up pin 1 on chip and socket and give it a go, but that's very easy for me to say. If I was in your shoes and I actually had to experiment with this chip inside this crazy rare card I may chicken out.

Additionally, IV24 has a built in flicker-fixer. If similar capability is built into this board, then perhaps that is why it has no input for switching. At the same time, is the Amiga video signal available in the CPU socket for something like this to be attached to an Accelerator to do flickerfixing automatically? Do you get standard 15khz signal out of it without any drivers? At this time I have not had a sitdown to test the IV24 as an RTG card, but it claims to have that capability, so why not the other way around? A powerful card like 110/24 having IV24-card capability? And, with this configuration, you still can have a Toaster in your 2000!

EDIT: Also, how does this card show up, if it does at all? The point of this G-Force attachment was to go faster than Zorro II. So...does it show up at Zorro III on an Amiga 2000? Can we see the System Information/Config screens showing this card alive and working in a 2000 and how it is being reported? I think it was the only card ever made for G-Force accelerators to use that faster 32-bit bus, so it would be cool to know how it is seen by the A2000, if at all.

EDIT 2: What's up with that RCA plug? Is that a 24bit color video output?

EDIT 3: I think your IV 24 splitter box differs from the IV24 box. I don't have mine handy, but I do recall VGA connection in/out on it as per this image from Book...

 

[steveski]

@YouKnowWho Yep that cable has the same connector on both ends and they fit the breakout box AND the EGS card. The prior owner did give me the adf files for various EGS drivers. The ones actually labelled with my card in the filenames were actually for the EGS 28/24, shown in its UI. No change on reboot and I got this message "No LEGS installed" with a button "Go on". So I switched back to an earlier system driver image and installed the Picasso96 drivers from Individual Computers which has Spectrum 24 -> EGS 110 24. w00t!! But after the first reboot as the system was loading I got this

and pressing Reboot gave

But then it actually booted. Under picasso P96Prefs I see all these prefs, where you can see the Village-31., SPectrum and GVP110 are greyed. If I expand them I see options that aren't greyed, but I can't get any video on the VGA monitor plugged into the EGS 110/24



There's a bloke on eBay selling an IV24 board and he says that chip I have it for the IV24, he has that same version installed.

Not sure what that RCA is for. The manual doesn't mention anything about it.

 

[YouKnowWho]

Well, IV24 just stands for Impact Vision and probably 24bit, so why not have a version of it in EGS 110/24 and why would GVP re-invent the wheel on the IV24 chip and software? I'm still very very impressed that they did a custom breakout box for the 110/24, and that you have it. It is all news to me. I thought this was "just" a fast Amiga 2000 RTG card.

 

[steveski]

I’ll scan the paperwork that came with it. Lists some interesting details about what it’s supposed to be able to do.

 

[YouKnowWho]

We want to learn what GVP was cooking up here, especially with this IV24 surprise you sprung, so if you have the literature give us the bathroom reading please!

 

[steveski]

Here's the only document I received with the card. Anyone know what the EGS LC Zorro ii/iii was?

 

[steveski]

Regarding that RCA connector… from here https://amiga.resource.cx/exp/egs110

 

[YouKnowWho]

An input? So...a built-in TBC of sort? This thing is full of surprises. Maybe even more so because you have a "developer" version with maybe a bunch of prototype goodness that didn't make it out to the finished version for cost (or other) considerations. This board is full of surprises so far.

I'm thinking EGS-LC Zorro II/III is the EGS 28/24. Since this is a developer version, maybe the final marketing name has not been finalized so they called it LC in the manual you have. LC, which I'm thinking stands for Low Cost version of the EGS cards, isn't exactly screaming out "buy me" EGS 28/24 Spectrum on the other hand...sells. What did the 28 stand for in this card anyway? Oh...28MHz in 24bit, where as the other is 110 MHz...just figured that out looking at the specs. This EGS 110/24 is looking like a "Super"EGS+IV24+TBCPlus kind of a card, freeing up 3 Zorro slots AND a the Video slot in a 2000.

EDIT: This is a developer unit, and manual is dated May 17th, 1993. Interesting to consider what GVP were thinking here with the 110/24 and how it overlaps with Commodore road map. After all, Amiga 2000 is now an EOL machine, discontinued 1991. 3000 seems to be making little difference in the market. 4000 and 1200 are here just a few months. Surely GVP had previews of AGA and were continuing with this premium card for a computer no longer manufactured, but without doubt with the largest install base as far as big box Amiga are concerned. After all, just year prior, 1992, GVP give us G-Force 040. And while this EGS 110/24 is in development stage here still in May'93, trouble at Commodore was surely sensed and we are only one short year from bankruptcy. No wonder the EGS 110/24 is such a rare bird.

 

[YouKnowWho]

Oh oh, IV24 breakout box from a PAL version on offer out in the wild. Looks exactly like yours @steveski. That's a positive development. Looks like perhaps you simply have a PAL version of the IV24 breakout box, not something unique to the 110/24. That's great news and means you really shouldn't worry about using it.

EDIT: Does this mean there are separate NTSC and PAL versions of this EGS 110/24 card? Can you identify any markings related to this?