Re: [TCLUG:13550] Dual-Headed setup (Free hardware)

[Tim Neu <tim@tneu.visi.com>]

(C) 1989 Hercules Computer Technology... :-)

It says "Hercules" in big huge letters along the part of the PCB that is
not being used.  My guess is that it was one of the earlier models, and
that later, they decided that there was no advantage to wasting breadboard
space just to make it conform to IBM's "Full Slot" spec.   

The card itself only has components along 3/4 of the card, after that, the
rest of the breadboard is just for the logo, evidently. 

The Linux driver for this bad-boy is mgacon.o

#####[]

I do know exactly what you mean though - in the early days of my PC
computing adventure I replaced the existing MDA text-only video card in my
8088 with a brand-new half-length hercules clone...

I would use it myself, except I already have a serial vt220 terminal that
serves "all of my second console needs". 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
______         _ __         "If you don't have the freedom to use what you
  /           ' )  )               own - then you do not own anything."    
 / o ______    /  / _  . .    No apologies to Jack Valenti or the MPAA
/ <_/ / / <   /  (_</_(_/_  -- tneu@visi.com / http://www.visi.com/~tneu --

On Sat, 12 Feb 2000, Callum Lerwick wrote:

> > The video card is a full-length, 8 bit ISA card (although, part of the
> > card is just "extended to fit" the full length of the card - so you could
> > probably cut some of the extra breadboard off, if your ISA slots are not
> > full length)
> > 
> > The Hercules card itself is capable of SOME monochrome graphics
> > capabilities (and I think the XFree86 Mono server does support the card).
> > As I understand it though, current Linux software is not able to use the
> > graphics abilities of both the herc & another card at the same time - only
> > text mode herc with graphics on a 'normal' card.  (or, just herc by
> > itself)
> 
> Are you sure its a Herc? If its that huge, It could be the original IBM
> MDA display adapter. No graphics, just text...
> 
> It may be the original Herc card, which was also pretty huge, though I'm
> pretty sure it was slightly smaller than IBM's... Does it say Hercules
> on it? :)
> 
> The only one's I've seen myself rather than in really old PC tech books
> are newer much more integrated half-size clone cards, single chip with
> some RAM... (Have a few laying about here, plus one monitor, my firewall
> used to be running on it before I replaced it with an Alpha...)
> 
> And someone's probably going to ask... The herc added monochrome
> bitmapped graphics to IBM's MDA, IIRC the resolution was 720x384...
> 
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