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Information for Chips and Technologies Users David Bateman (dbateman@ee.uts.edu.au), Egbert Eich (Egbert.Eich@Physik.TH-Darmstadt.DE) 28th July 1997 1. Introduction The Chips and Technologies range of chips are primarily manufactured for use in laptop computers, where their power conservation circuitry is of importance. They can however be found in a few "Green" video cards for desktop machines. This release of XFree includes support for o Linear Addressing o 16/ 24 bits per pixel o Fully programmable clocks are supported o H/W cursor support o BitBLT acceleration of many operations using XAA Most of the Chips and Technologies chipsets are supported by this driver to some degree. 2. Supported Chips ct65520 (Max Ram: 1Mb, Max Dclk: 68MHz@5V) ct65525 This chip is basically identical to the 65530. It has the same ID and is identified as a 65530 when probed. See ct65530 for details. ct65530 This is a very similar chip to the 65520. However it additionally has the ability for mixed 5V and 3.3V operation and linear address- ing of the video memory. (Max Ram: 1Mb, Max Dclk: 56MHz@3.3V, 68MHz@5V) ct65535 This is the first chip of the ct655xx series to support fully pro- grammable clocks. Otherwise it has the the same properties as the 65530. ct65540 This is the first version of the of the ct655xx that was capable of Information for Chips and Technologies Users Information for Chips and Technologies Users supporting Hi-Color and True-Color. It also includes a fully pro- grammable dot clock and supports all types of flat panels. (Max Ram: 1Mb, Max Dclk: 56MHz@3.3V, 68MHz@5V) ct65545 The chip is very similar to the 65540, with the addition of H/W cursor, pop-menu acceleration, BitBLT and support of PCI Buses. PCI version also allow all the BitBLT and H/W cursor registers to be memory mapped 2Mb above the Base Address. (Max Ram: 1Mb, Max Dclk: 56MHz@3.3V,68MHz@5V) ct65546 This chip is specially manufactured for Toshiba, and so documenta- tion is not widely available. It is believed that this is really just a 65545 with a higher maximum dot-clock of 80MHz. (Max Ram: 1Mb?, Max Dclk: 80MHz?) ct65548 This chip is similar to the 65545, but it also includes XRAM sup- port and supports the higher dot clocks of the 65546. (Max Ram: 1Mb, Max Dclk: 80MHz) ct65550 This chip started a completely new architecture to previous ct655xx chips. It includes many new features, including improved BitBLT support (24bpp color expansion, wider maximum pitch, etc), Multime- dia unit (video capture, zoom video port, etc) and 24bpp uncom- pressed true color (i.e 32bpp mode). Also memory mapped I/O is pos- sible on all bus configurations. (Max Ram: 2Mb, Max Dclk: 80MHz@3.3V,100MHz@5V) ct65554 This chip is similar to the 65550 but has a 64bit memory bus as opposed to a 32bit bus. It also has higher limits on the maximum memory and pixel clocks (Max Ram: 4Mb, Max Dclk: 100MHz@3.3V) ct65555 Similar to the 65554 but has yet higher maximum memory and pixel clocks. It also includes a new DSTN dithering scheme that improves the performance of DSTN screens. (Max Ram: 4Mb, Max Dclk: 110MHz@3.3V) ct68554 Similar to the 65555 but also incorporates "PanelLink" drivers. This serial link allows an LCD screens to be located up to 100m from the video processor. Expect to see this chip soon in LCD desk- top machines (Max Ram: 4Mb, Max Dclk: 110MHz@3.3V) ct64200 This chip, also known as the WinGine, is used in video cards for desktop systems. It often uses external DAC's and programmable clock chips to supply additional functionally. None of these are currently supported within the driver itself, so many cards will only have limited support. Linear addressing is not supported for Information for Chips and Technologies Users this card in the driver. (Max Ram: 2Mb, Max Dclk: 80MHz) ct64300 This is a more advanced version of the WinGine chip, with specifi- cation very similar to the 6554x series of chips. However there are many difference at a register level. A similar level of accelera- tion to the 65545 is included for this driver. (Max Ram: 2Mb, Max Dclk: 80MHz) 3. XF86Config Options The following options are of particular interest to the Chips and Technologies driver. Each of them must be specified in the `svga' driver section of the XF86Config file, within the Screen subsections of the depths to which they are applicable (you can enable options for all depths by specifying them in the Device section). Option "noaccel" This option will disable the use of any accelerated functions. This is likely to help with some problems related to DRAM timing, high dot clocks, and bugs in accelerated functions, at the cost of performance (which will still be reasonable on VLB/PCI). Option "no_bitblt" (Chips 65545 and later) This option will disable the use of the BitBLT engine which the 65545 and above have. If you can use the "noaccel" option to cor- rect a problem, then this option might be better to use. It still allows the use of generic speedups. Option "xaa_no_color_exp" (Chips 65545 and later) This option will have the effect of disabling the use of monochrome colour expansion. In particular this effects text and bitmaps. It is useful for problems related to image writes, and possible accel- eration problems. In general this will result in a reduced perfor- mance. Note that this option replaces the "no_imageblt" option used in XFree 3.2. Option "xaa_benchmark" (Chips 65545 and later) Turns on the XAA acceleration benchmarks. Information regarding what graphics primitives are accelerated and their relatives speeds will be printed when the X server starts. videoram 1024 (or another value) This option will override the detected amount of video memory, and pretend the given amount of memory is present on the card. Note that many ct655xx chips only allow up to 1Mb of videoram, and the amount should be correctly detected. Option "nolinear" (Chips 65530 and later) By default linear addressing is used on all ct655xx chips. However this might be broken in some implementations. It is possible to turn the linear addressing off with this option. Note that H/W acceleration and 16/24bpp are only supported with linear Information for Chips and Technologies Users addressing. MemBase 0x03b00000 (or a different address) This sets the physical memory base address of the linear frame- buffer. Typically this is probed correctly, but if you believe it to be mis-probed, this option might help. Also for non PCI machines specifying this force the linear base address to be this value, reprogramming the video processor to suit. Note that for the 65530 this is required as the base address can't be correctly probed. Option "sw_cursor" (Chips 65545 and later) This disables use of the hardware cursor provided by the chip. Try this if the cursor seems to have problems. Option "STN" The server is unable to differentiate between SS STN and TFT dis- plays. This forces it to identify the display as a SS STN rather than a TFT. Option "use_modeline" The flat panel timings are related to the panel size and not the size of the mode specified in XF86Config. For this reason the default behaviour of the server is to use the panel timings already installed in the chip. The user can force the panel timings to be recalculated from the modeline with this option. However the panel size will still be probed. Option "fix_panel_size" For some machines the LCD panel size is incorrectly probed from the registers. This option forces the LCD panel size to be overridden by the modeline display sizes. This will prevent the use of a mode that is a different size than the panel. Before using this check that the server reports an incorrect panel size. This option can be used in conjunction with the option "use_modeline" to program all the panel timings using the modeline values. Option "no_stretch" When the size of the mode used is less than the panel size, the default behaviour of the server is to stretch the mode in an attempt to fill the screen. A "letterbox" effect with no stretching can be achieved using this option. Option "lcd_center" When the size of the mode used is less than the panel size, the default behaviour of the server is to align the left hand edge of the display with the left hand edge of the screen. Using this option the mode can be centered in the screen. This option is reported to have problems with some machines at 16/24bpp, the effect of which is that the right-hand edge of the mode will be pushed off the screen. Option "hw_clocks" (Chips 65535 and later) On chips 65535 and later, the default is to use the programmable Information for Chips and Technologies Users clock for all clocks. It is possible to use the fixed clocks sup- ported by the chip instead by using this option. Typically this will give you some or all of the clocks 25.175, 28.322, 31.000 and 36.000MHz. The current programmable clock will be given as the last clock in the list. On a cold-booted system this might be the appro- priate value to use at the text console (see the "TextClockFreq" option), as many flat panels will need a dot clock different than the default to synchronise. The programmable clock makes this option obsolete and so it's use isn't recommended. Option "use_vclk1" (Chips 65550 and later) The HiQV series of chips have three programmable clocks. The first two are usually loaded with 25.175 and 28.322MHz for VGA backward compatibility, and the third is used as a fully programmable clock. On at least one system (the Inside 686 LCD/S single board computer) the third clock is unusable. This option forces the use of VClk1 as the programmable clock. TextClockFreq 25.175 It is impossible for the server to read the value of the currently used frequency for the text console from the chip with the ct6554x series of chips. Therefore the server uses a default value of 25.175MHz as the text console clock. For some LCDs, in particular DSTN screens, this clock will be wrong. This allows the user to select a different clock for the server to use when returning to the text console. Option "mmio" This enables the use of memory-mapped I/O to talk to the BitBLT engine. By default memory-mapped I/O is not enabled on the 6554x series of chips, and is only usable on 6554x's with PCI buses. This option has no effect when not using the BitBLT engine (e.g. when using "no_bitblt"), or for the 65550 which can only use MMIO for access to the BitBLT engine. On 65545 PCI machines MMIO is enabled by default because the blitter can not be used otherwise. Option "suspend_hack" This option sets the centering and stretching to the bios default values. This can fix suspend/resume problems on some machines. It overrides the options "lcd_center" and "no_stretch". Option "use_18bit_bus" (Chips 65540/45/46/48) For 24bpp on TFT screens, the server assumes that a 24bit bus is being used. This can result in a reddish tint to 24bpp mode. This option, selects an 18 bit TFT bus. For other depths this option has no effect. Chipset "ct65546" (or some other chip) It is possible that the chip could be misidentified, particular due to interactions with other drivers in the server. It is possible to force the server to identify a particular chip with this option. Option "sync_on_green" (Chips 65550/54/55 and 68554) Composite sync on green. Possibly useful if you wish to use an old Information for Chips and Technologies Users workstation monitor. The 65550/54 internal RAMDAC's support this mode of operation, but whether a particular machine does depends on the manufacturer. Option "fast_dram" (Chips 65550/54/55 and 68554) This option sets the internal memory clock (MCLK) registers to 38MHz. The default value programmed by the BIOS is usually OK, but some machines can accept a faster MClk to achieve a better perfor- mance. One machine known to work well with this option is the Toshiba 720CDT. Note that newer machines often have an MClk greater than 38MHz, and so this option might actually slower the machine down. This option is generally not recommended. 4. Modelines When constructing a modeline for use with the Chips and Technologies driver you'll needed to considered several points * Virtual Screen Size It is the virtual screen size that determines the amount of memory used by a mode. So if you have a virtual screen size set to 1024x768 using a 800x600 at 8bpp, you use 768kB for the mode. Fur- ther to this some of the XAA acceleration requires that the display pitch is a multiple of 64 pixels. So the driver will attempt to round-up the virtual X dimension to a multiple of 64, but leave the virtual resolution untouched. This might further reduce the avail- able memory. * 16/24 Bits Per Pixel Chips later than the ct65540 are capable of supporting Hi-Color and True-Color modes. These are implemented in the current server. The clocks in the 6554x series of chips are internally divided by 2 for 16bpp and 3 for 24bpp, allowing one modeline to be used at all depths. The effect of this is that the maximum dot clock visible to the user is a half or a third of the value at 8bpp. The 6555x series of chips doesn't need to use additional clock cycles to dis- play higher depths, and so the same modeline can be used at all depths, without needing to divide the clocks. Also 16/24 bpp modes will need 2 or 3 times respectively more video ram. * Frame Acceleration Many DSTN screens use frame acceleration to improve the performance of the screen. This can be done by using an external frame buffer, or incorporating the framebuffer at the top of video ram depending on the particular implementation. The Xserver assumes that the framebuffer, if used, will be at the top of video ram. The amount of ram required for the framebuffer will vary depending on the size of the screen, and will reduce the amount of video ram available to the modes. Typical values for the size of the framebuffer will be 61440 bytes (640x480 panel), 96000 bytes (800x600 panel) and 157287 bytes (1024x768 panel). Information for Chips and Technologies Users * H/W Acceleration The H/W cursor will need 1kB for the 6554x and 4kb for the 65550. On the 64300 chips the H/W cursors is stored in registers and so no allowance is needed for the H/W cursor. In addition to this many graphics operations are speeded up using a "pixmap cache". Leaving too little memory available for the cache will only have a detri- mental effect on the graphics performance. * VESA like modes We recommend that you try and pick a mode that is similar to a standard VESA mode. If you don't a suspend/resume or LCD/CRT switch might mess up the screen. This is a problem with the video BIOS not knowing about all the funny modes that might be selected. * Dot Clock For LCD screens, the lowest clock that gives acceptable contrast and flicker is usually the best one. This also gives more memory bandwidth for use in the drawing operations. Some users prefer to use clocks that are defined by their BIOS. This has the advantage that the BIOS will probably restore the clock they specified after a suspend/resume or LCD/CRT switch. The driver is capable of driving both a CRT and a flat panel display. In fact the timing for the flat panel are dependent on the specification of the panel itself and are independent of the particular mode chosen. For this reason it is recommended to use one of the programs that automatically generate XF86Config files, such as "xf86config" or "XF86Setup". However there are many machines, particular those with 800x600 screen or larger, that need to reprogram the panel timings. The reason for this is that the manufacturer has used the panel timings to get a standard EGA mode to work on flat panel, and these same timings don't work for an SVGA mode. For these machines the "use_modeline" and/or possibly the "fix_panel_size" option might be needed. Some machines that are known to need these options include. Modeline "640x480@8bpp" 25.175 640 672 728 816 480 489 501 526 Modeline "640x480@16bpp" 25.175 640 672 728 816 480 489 501 526 Options: "use_modeline" Tested on a Prostar 8200, (640x480, 65548, 1Mbyte) Modeline "800x600@8bpp" 28.322 800 808 848 936 600 600 604 628 Options: "fix_panel_size", "use_modeline" Tested on a HP OmniBook 5000CTS (800x600 TFT, 65548, 1Mbyte) Modeline "800x600@8bpp" 30.150 800 896 960 1056 600 600 604 628 Options: "fix_panel_size", "use_modeline" Test on a Zeos Meridan 850c (800x600 DSTN, 65545, 1Mbyte) Information for Chips and Technologies Users The NEC Versa 4080 just needs the "fix_panel_size" option. 5. Troubleshooting The cursor appears as a white box, after switching modes There is a known bug in the H/W cursor, that sometimes causes the cursor to be redrawn as a white box, when the mode is changed. This can be fixed by moving the cursor to a different region, switching to the console and back again, or if it is too annoying the H/W cursor can be disabled with the "sw_cursor" option. The cursor hot-spot isn't at the same point as the cursor With modes on the 6555x machines that are stretched to fill the flat panel, the H/W cursor is not correspondingly stretched. This is a small and long-standing bug in the current server. You can avoid this by either using the "no_stretch" or sw_cursor" options. The lower part of the screen is corrupted Many DSTN screens use the top of video ram to implement a frame accelerator. This reduces the amount of video ram available to the modes. The server doesn't prevent the user from specifying a mode that will use this memory, it prints a warning on the console. The effect of this problem will be that the lower part of the screen will reside in the same memory as the frame accelerator and will therefore be corrupt. Try reducing the amount of memory consumed by the mode. There is a video signal, but the screen doesn't sync. You are using a mode that your screen cannot handle. If it is a non-standard mode, maybe you need to tweak the timings a bit. If it is a standard mode and frequency that your screen should be able to handle, try to find different timings for a similar mode and fre- quency combination. For LCD modes, it is possible that your LCD panel requires different panel timings at the text console than with a graphics mode. In this case you will need the "use_modeline" and perhaps also the "fix_panel_size" options to reprogram the LCD panel timings to sensible values. `Wavy' screen. Horizontal waving or jittering of the whole screen, continuously (independent from drawing operations). You are probably using a dot clock that is too high (or too low); it is also possible that there is interference with a close MCLK. Try a lower dot clock. For CRT's you can also try to tweak the mode timings; try increas- ing the second horizontal value somewhat. Crash or hang after start-up (probably with a black screen). Try the "noaccel" or "no_bitblt" options. Check that the BIOS set- tings are OK; in particular, disable caching of 0xa0000-0xaffff. Disabling hidden DRAM refresh may also help. Hang as the first text is appearing on the screen on SVR4 machines. This problem has been reported under UnixWare 1.x, but not tracked Information for Chips and Technologies Users down. It doesn't occur under UnixWare 2.x and only occurs on the HiQV series of chips. It might affect some other SVR4 operating systems as well. The workaround is to turn off the use of CPU to screen acceleration with the "xaa_no_color_exp" option. Crash, hang, or trash on the screen after a graphics operation. This may be related to a bug in one of the accelerated functions, or a problem with the BitBLT engine. Try the "noaccel" or "no_bit- blt" options. Also check the BIOS settings. It is also possible that with a high dot clock and depth on a large screen there is very little bandwidth left for using the BitBLT engine. Try reduc- ing the clock. Chipset is not detected. Try forcing the chipset to a type that is most similar to what you have. The screen is blank when starting X One possible cause of this problem is if the kernel has been com- piled with the "APM_DISPLAY_BLANK" option. It appears that this option doesn't work as specified and can cause the Xserver to blank when starting X. In all cases the kernel should be compiled without this option. If the problem remains a CRT/LCD or switch to and from the virtual console will often fix it. Textmode is not properly restored This has been reported on some configurations. Many laptops use the programmable clock of the 6554x chips at the console. It is not always possible to find out the setting that is used for this clock if BIOS has written the MClk after the VClk. Hence the server assumes a 25.175MHz clock at the console. This is correct for most modes, but can cause some problems. Usually this is fixed by switching between the LCD and CRT. Alternatively the user can use the "TextClockFreq" option described above to select a different clock for the text console. Another possible cause of this problem is if the kernel is compiled with the "APM_DISPLAY_BLANK" option. As mentioned before, this option should be disabled. I can't display 640x480 on my 800x600 LCD The problem here is that the flat panel needs timings that are related to the panel size, and not the mode size. There is no facility in the current Xservers to specify these values, and so the server attempts to read the panel size from the chip. If the user has used the "use_modeline" or "fix_panel_size" options the panel timings are derived from the mode, which can be different than the panel size. Try deleting theses options from XF86Config or using an LCD/CRT switch. I can't get a 320x240 mode to occupy the whole 640x480 LCD There is a bug in the 6554x's H/W cursor for modes that are doubled vertically. The lower half of the screen is not accessible. The servers solution to this problem is not to do doubling vertically. Which results in the 320x240 mode only expanded to 640x360. If this is a problem, a work around is to use the "sw_cursor" option. The Information for Chips and Technologies Users server will then allow the mode to occupy the whole 640x480 LCD. After a suspend/resume my screen is messed up During a suspend/resume, the BIOS controls what is read and written back to the registers. If the screen is using a mode that BIOS doesn't know about, then there is no guarantee that it will be resumed correctly. For this reason a mode that is as close to VESA like as possible should be selected. It is also possible that the VGA palette can be affected by a suspend/resume. Using an 8bpp, the colour will then be displayed incorrectly. This shouldn't affect higher depths, and is fixable with a switch to the virtual console and back. The right hand edge of the mode isn't visible on the LCD This is usually due to a problem with the "lcd-center" option. If this option is removed form XF86Config, then the problem might go away. Alternatively the manufacturer could have incorrectly pro- grammed the panel size in the EGA console mode. The "fix_panel_size" can be used to force the modeline values into the panel size registers. Two machines that are known to have this problem are the "HP OmniBook 5000" and the "NEC Versa 4080". My TFT screen has a reddish tint in 24bpp mode The server assumes that the TFT bus width is 24bits. If this is not true then the screen will appear to have a reddish tint. This can be fixed by using the "use_18bit_bus" option. Note that the reverse is also true. If the "use_18bit_bus" is used and the TFT bus width is 24bpp, then the screen will appear reddish. Note that this option only has an effect on TFT screens. I can't start X-windows with 16 or 24bpp Firstly, is your machine capable of 16/24bpp with the mode speci- fied. Many LCD displays are incapable of using a 24bpp mode. Also you need at least a 65540 to use 16/24bpp, and the amount of memory used by the mode will be doubled/tripled. The correct options to start the server with these modes are startx -- -bpp 16 5-6-5 RGB ('64K color', XGA) startx -- -bpp 16 -weight 555 5-5-5 RGB ('Hicolor') startx -- -bpp 24 8-8-8 RGB truecolor Note that there is currently no "-bpp 32" mode in the Xserver, although the 65550 is capable of this. A general problem with the server that can manifested in many way such as draw- ing errors, wavy screens, etc is related to the programmable clock. Many poten- tial programmable clock register setting are unstable. However luckily there are many different clock register setting that can give the same or very simi- lar clocks. The clock code can be fooled into giving a different and perhaps more stable clock by simply changing the clock value slightly. For example 65.00MHz might be unstable while 65.10MHz is not. So for unexplained problems not addressed above, please try to alter the clock you are using slightly, say in steps of 0.05MHz and see if the problem goes away. Information for Chips and Technologies Users For other screen drawing related problems, try the "noaccel" or "no_bitblt" options. A useful trick for all laptop computers is to switch between LCD/CRT (usually with something like Fn-F5), if the screen is having problems. If you are having driver-related problems that are not addressed by this docu- ment, or if you have found bugs in accelerated functions, you can try contact- ing the XFree86 team (the current driver maintainer can be reached at dbate- man@eng.uts.edu.au or Egbert.Eich@Physik.TH-Darmstadt.DE), or post in the Usenet newsgroup "comp.windows.x.i386unix". 6. Disclaimer Xfree, allows the user to do damage to their hardware with software. Although the authors of this software have tried to prevent this, they disclaim all responsibility for any damage caused by the software. Use caution, if you think the Xserver is frying your screen, TURN THE COMPUTER OFF!! 7. Acknowledgement The authors of this software wish to acknowledge the support supplied by Chips and Technologies during the development of this software. 8. Authors Major Contributors (In no particular order) o Nozomi Ytow o Egbert Eich o David Bateman o Xavier Ducoin Contributors (In no particular order) o Ken Raeburn o Shigehiro Nomura o Marc de Courville o Adam Sulmicki o Jens Maurer We also thank the many people on the net who have contributed by reporting bugs and extensively testing this server before its inclusion in XFree 3.2 Generated from XFree86: xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/doc/sgml/chips.sgml,v 3.12.2.6 1997/07/28 14:17:31 dawes Exp $ Information for Chips and Technologies Users CONTENTS 1. Introduction ............................................................ 1 2. Supported Chips ......................................................... 1 3. XF86Config Options ...................................................... 3 4. Modelines ............................................................... 6 5. Troubleshooting ......................................................... 8 6. Disclaimer ............................................................. 11 7. Acknowledgement ........................................................ 11 8. Authors ................................................................ 11 i