1 Supported hardware

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The current S3 Server supports the following S3 chipsets: 911, 924, 801/805, 928, 732 (Trio32), 764 (Trio64), 864, and 964. The S3 server will also recognise the 866, 868 and 968, but it has not been tested these chipsets. If you have any problems or success with these, please report it to us.

Nevertheless, this is not enough to support every board using one of these chipsets. The following list contains some data points on boards that are known to work. If your card is similar to one of the described ones, chances are good it might work for you, too.

S3 801/805, AT&T 20C490 (or similar) RAMDAC

8 and 15/16 bpp

Note: the AT&T20C490 RAMDAC is not automatically detected by the server. You need to provide a `Ramdac "att20c490"' entry in your XF86Config.

Real AT&T 20C490 or 20C491 RAMDACs work with the "dac_8_bit" option. Some clones (like the Winbond 82C490) do not.

S3 805 VLB, S3 GENDAC (RAMDAC + clock synthesizer)

8 and 15/16 bpp

 ClockChip "s3gendac"
 RamDac    "s3gendac"

S3 801/805, AT&T 20C490 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip

8 and 15/16 bpp

Note: the AT&T20C490 RAMDAC is not automatically detected by the server. You need to provide a `Ramdac "att20c490"' entry in your XF86Config.

 ClockChip "icd2061a"
 RamDac    "att20c490"
 Option    "dac_8_bit

S3 805, Diamond SS2410 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip

8 bpp only.

requires `Option "nolinear"'

S3 928, AT&T 20C490 RAMDAC

8 and 15/16 bpp

Note: the AT&T20C490 RAMDAC is not automatically detected by the server. You need to provide a `Ramdac "att20c490"' entry in your XF86Config. Also, the server's RAMDAC probe reportedly causes problems with some of these boards, and a RamDac entry should be used to avoid the probe.

Real AT&T 20C490 or 20C491 RAMDACs work with the "dac_8_bit" option. Some clones (like the Winbond 82C490) do not.

S3 928, Sierra SC15025 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip

8, 15/16 and 24(32) bpp

Supports 8bit/pixel RGB in 8bpp and gamma correction for 15/16 and 24bpp modes

24 bpp might get ``snowy'' if the clock is near the limit of 30MHz. This is not considered dangerous, but limits the usability of 24 bpp.

D-step (or below) chips cannot be used with a line width of 1152; hence the most effective mode for a 1 MB board is about 1088x800x8 (similar to 2 MB, 1088x800x16).

S3 928, Bt9485 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip

8, 15/16 and 24(32) bpp

Supports RGB with sync-on-green if "sync_on_green" option is provided and board jumper is set for BNC outputs.

VLB linear addressing now occurs at 0x7FCxxxxx so that 64MB or more main memory can be supported without losing linear frame buffer access.

Option "stb_pegasus"

The "dac_8_bit" option is always selected on this board.

S3 928, Bt485 RAMDAC, SC11412 Clockchip

8, 15/16 and 24(32) bpp

Option "SPEA_Mercury"
ClockChip "SC11412"

The "dac_8_bit" option is recommended.

S3 928, Bt485 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip

8, 15/16 and 24(32) bpp

Option "number_nine"

The "dac_8_bit" option is recommended.

S3 928, Ti3020 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip

8, 15/16 and 24(32) bpp

Supports RGB with sync-on-green

Option "number_nine"

The "dac_8_bit" option is recommended.

S3 864, AT&T20c498, ICS2494 Clockchip

The ICS2494 is a fixed frequency clockchip, you have to use X -probeonly (without a Clocks line in XF86Config) to get the correct clock values.

8, 15/16 and 24(32) bpp

S3 864, AT&T20c498 or STG1700 RAMDAC, ICD2061A or ICS9161 Clockchip

8, 15/16 and 24(32) bpp

S3 864, STG1700 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip

8, 15/16 (and probably 24(32)) bpp

S3 864, 20C498 or 21C498 RAMDAC, ICS2595 Clockchip

8 and 15/16 bpp

ClockChip "ICS2595"

Clockchip support is only preliminary and on some machines problems with the first mode after startup of XF86_S3 or after switching back from VT have been seen; switching to next mode with CTRL+ALT+``KP+'' and back seems to solve this problem

Mirage P64 with BIOS 4.xx uses the S3 SDAC.

S3 864, S3 86C716 SDAC RAMDAC and Clockchip

8, 15/16 and 24 bpp

ClockChip "s3_sdac" (should be detected automatically)

S3 864, ICS5342 RAMDAC and Clockchip

8, 15/16 and 24 bpp

ClockChip "ics5342" RAMDAC "ics5342"

S3 864, AT&T21C498-13 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip

8, 15/16, 24(32) bpp

Option "number_nine"
Option "dac_8_bit" (recommended)

S3 964, AT&T 20C505 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip

8, 15/16, 24(32) bpp

S3 964, Bt485 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip

8, 15/16, 24(32) bpp

S3 964, Bt9485 RAMDAC, ICS9161a Clockchip

8, 15/16, 24(32) bpp

Option "SPEA_Mercury"

S3 964, Ti3020 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip

8 bpp only

S3 964, Ti3025 RAMDAC, Ti3025 Clockchip

8 bpp, 15, 16 and 24(32) bpp

Option "number_nine"

There are some known problems with the GXE64 Pro support, including some image shifting/wrapping at 15/16/24 bpp.

We have found that #9 no longer support the GXE64 Pro at 1600x1200. They do however have a new (and more expensive) board called the GXE64Pro-1600 which uses a 220MHz RAMDAC instead of 135MHz part used on the other boards. It is not known at this stage whether the GXE64Pro-1600 will work with XFree86 3.1.

S3 764 (Trio64)

8/15/16/24 bpp

Note: there are some display wrapping problems with the Trio64 at 8bpp which have not yet been fixed.

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