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World first(?) all digital VGA video 486 PC

J

juj

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Jan 25, 2022
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Hi all,

I'd like to showcase something I find super cool :)

Meet my 80 MHz Cyrix 486 PC, the first PC I personally owned, purchased in 1996.

crt_terminator_showcase.jpg

It has a Cirrus Logic CL-GD5422 VGA graphics card, and with the help of an add-on card, it outputs an all-digital video from the VGA card to my ASUS ProArt PA248QV flat panel display, like so:

pc_back.jpg

Pretty cool, eh! :)

If you are curious about what on earth is going on here, check out https://oummg.com/ and https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=92512 for more details!
 
A CRT is best for the full experience, but I admit at home it becomes a bit cumbersome on the desk with so many vintage machines, so an option for a LCD can be useful :)

And this looks nice.
 
juj said:
Hi all,

I'd like to showcase something I find super cool :)

Meet my 80 MHz Cyrix 486 PC, the first PC I personally owned, purchased in 1996.

View attachment 1252574

It has a Cirrus Logic CL-GD5422 VGA graphics card, and with the help of an add-on card, it outputs an all-digital video from the VGA card to my ASUS ProArt PA248QV flat panel display, like so:

View attachment 1252575

Pretty cool, eh! :)

If you are curious about what on earth is going on here, check out https://oummg.com/ and https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=92512 for more details!
Click to expand...
J, what a great system you have there and thanks for sharing the pics.
 
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Agent Orange said:
J, what a great system you have there and thanks for sharing the pics.
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Thanks, and sorry to raise an analog vs digital orthodoxy fight. There is nothing bad with CRTs for sure! This card can be useful for example for people who have had their CRTs break and cannot source a new one on eBay, or for people who have been using an analog->digital converter before, and have been disappointed by its video quality.

A great deal of care in the project has been taken to make sure that there would be as few drawbacks as possible for viewing the VGA output on a flat panel.
 
Interesting project. Not technically the world's first though; there were Matrox cards with digital output in the late 90s that will work in a 486 with PCI slots.
 
Plasma said:
Interesting project. Not technically the world's first though; there were Matrox cards with digital output in the late 90s that will work in a 486 with PCI slots.
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Yeah, great point. I guess that would then be "world first all-digital ISA VGA PC", or maybe "world first all-digital IBM XT/286/386 PC" might have sounded more impressive. :) PCI cards with DVI-D outputs surely did exist, so 486s could get on DVI-D natively.
 
Or just stop trying to find a "Worlds First" .. as its completely meaningless. And just showcase off your machine for what it is. It obviously means something to YOU.. Isnt that good enough? Giving a false title you cant actually prove is whats wrong with the internet on 99% of things.
 
My apologies. I would be happy to edit the title, but there does not seem to exist an edit button. EDIT: looks like edit support is timed, or edits don't apply to first post, or similar? Well, whatever..
 
Noticed there are no clear pictures of the card, so I guess I’m mildly curious if it’s an FPGA or a pre-baked encoder like the CH7033B.

Re: the title, as nitpickily noted all digital output chains are not “new” on 486’s. Early color laptops often used TTL interface LCDs that were driven by *essentially* the equivalent of the feature connector.
 
VERAULT said:
Or just stop trying to find a "Worlds First" .. as its completely meaningless. And just showcase off your machine for what it is. It obviously means something to YOU.. Isnt that good enough? Giving a false title you cant actually prove is whats wrong with the internet on 99% of things.
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Chill out man, no need to attack the guy over a silly title.
 
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Eudimorphodon said:
Noticed there are no clear pictures of the card, so I guess I’m mildly curious if it’s an FPGA or a pre-baked encoder like the CH7033B.
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Yeah, the current card prototypes contain some manual patches and hot glue and parts of the card unconnected, so we don't just yet have a picturesque image to present that wouldn't have caused confusion.

The design is based on an FPGA. This way we have a flexible control to provide different output mode configuration that is most useful for compatibility with different flat panel displays and e.g. for people who want to do video captures into OBS.
 
VERAULT said:
Did you read my statement..? How did you perceive that as an attack? I only said if it was important to him, thats good enough.
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Did you read it? "Giving a false title you cant actually prove is whats wrong with the internet on 99% of things" is pretty insulting and not on topic.
 
Timo W. said:
Nice. But given that most people *prefer* the look of a CRT, I don't see the point. But each to his own I guess.
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LCDs tend to suck when not used at native resolutions or when scaling is not linear. 320x240 on a widescreen kind of sucks. I still have a bunch of CRTs around for Amiga, DOS, Apple, C64/C128 etc. because of this.

I will say LCD is much better for modern machines at higher resolution with regards to text and eye strain.
 
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