Antique gfx card question

D

DanNeely

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I've got an ancient matrox PCI card from a 10yo dell P1 system. In addition to the standard vga port it also has a female connector with 15pins in two rows. Does anyone know what that connector was actually intended to be used for?
 
I might be wrong but I think that was the port input used for those first wave of LCD monitors. I remember seeing a similar port on an just as old ATI card that I pulled out of a machine I found near some trash cans haha.
 
ryan_975 said:
I found this so far, but I doubt that is the right port since it's for Apple displays and you've said it came out of a Dell.

http://www.technick.net/public/code/cp_dpage.php?aiocp_dp=pinconvid_apple_studio_disp_15
http://www.technick.net/public/code/cp_dpage.php?aiocp_dp=pinconvid_macintosh
Click to expand...

I'm not sure how to test without using an oscope, but that layout looks the same.

While being a Dell might argue against it, I got the machine 3rd hand and can't contact the original owner to see if it was a replacement card. It doesn't have dell printed on it anywhere, and the machine itself is old enough that the only propriety parts are the PSU and frontpanel connectors. IIV(aguely)RC old highend OEM systems used to use brandname cards as bragging points, and since the 233mhz chip first came out in mid '97 this was potentially a highend box.
 
I did quite a bit of searching after my last post and it seems you have a Matrox Mystique or Mystique 220. However I can't find what that port is actually for, but I did find that it is NOT a Macintosh compatibile port.
 
It was used in conjunction with the "Rainbow Runner" Upgrade Card as far as I can remember. You could either piggyback a ram upgrade on your Millenium/Mystique or said Rainbow Runner video capturing / processing card which then used the mentioned connector via a special cable for V I/O
 
The connector (HD15) is for old fixed frequency monitors. Back in the day, VGA monitors came in fixed-frequency and multisync. If you've ever seen a monitor sit there and click while a game is loading, you've seen it go through multiple frequencies and resolutions. Fixed frequency monitors operated at typically 60Hz and no other frequency. Old Sun, SGI, and other workstations used fixed frequency, so there was a large installed base at one time. PC manufacturers (like Dell) wanted compatibility with these monitors so that people could pull out old Sun systems and the like and replace them with PCs.

Rainbow runner, etc. are piggybacked onto the PCB and didn't connect externally.
 
PurduEE said:
The connector (HD15) is for old fixed frequency monitors. Back in the day, VGA monitors came in fixed-frequency and multisync. If you've ever seen a monitor sit there and click while a game is loading, you've seen it go through multiple frequencies and resolutions. Fixed frequency monitors operated at typically 60Hz and no other frequency. Old Sun, SGI, and other workstations used fixed frequency, so there was a large installed base at one time. PC manufacturers (like Dell) wanted compatibility with these monitors so that people could pull out old Sun systems and the like and replace them with PCs.

Rainbow runner, etc. are piggybacked onto the PCB and didn't connect externally.
Click to expand...

Thank you.
 
PurduEE said:
The connector (HD15) is for old fixed frequency monitors. Back in the day, VGA monitors came in fixed-frequency and multisync. If you've ever seen a monitor sit there and click while a game is loading, you've seen it go through multiple frequencies and resolutions. Fixed frequency monitors operated at typically 60Hz and no other frequency. Old Sun, SGI, and other workstations used fixed frequency, so there was a large installed base at one time. PC manufacturers (like Dell) wanted compatibility with these monitors so that people could pull out old Sun systems and the like and replace them with PCs.

Rainbow runner, etc. are piggybacked onto the PCB and didn't connect externally.
Click to expand...

nope, try again. :p just kidding.

jackknife said:
It was used in conjunction with the "Rainbow Runner" Upgrade Card as far as I can remember. You could either piggyback a ram upgrade on your Millenium/Mystique or said Rainbow Runner video capturing / processing card which then used the mentioned connector via a special cable for V I/O
Click to expand...

You seem to be correct. I found this

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/media/common/user_manuals/mill/milleng.pdf

On page 26 it describes the 15pin port as a "Media XL Media adapter connector"

and this

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/media/common/user_manuals/myst/mysteng.pdf

On page 22 it states that it is the Rainbow Runner's input/output connector and it's pinout.
Code: 
1-2 Reserved
3 Y out (luminance)
4 C out (chroma)
5 Composite out
6 Y in (luminance)
7 C in (chroma)
8 Composite in
9-15 Ground

Rainbow Runner Studio manual
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/media/common/user_manuals/rr_studio_tv/rrsteng.pdf
 
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