PA-RISC information - since 1999

HP Visualize fx Intel

Overview

HP Visualize
fx+ © 2000 HP

HP offered Visualize fx video adapters for its Intel-based Visualize P-Class and X-Class NT workstations in the late 1990s, first developed for HP Kayak workstation. Visualize fx adapters for Intel were AGP, AGP Pro and often dual-slot cards with PCI. They had impressive speeds for 3D design and CAM/CAD use cases but were only offered for a few years for HP Windows NT workstations and in small quantities.

HP Visualize
fx6 © HP 1998

Similar to their Unix Visualize FX brethren, fx and fx+ integrated PA-RISC FPU cores into their graphics accelerator with a Cirrus Logic 2D graphics chip for GUI (GD5480), at least on the AGP-PCI dual slot cards. The Visualize graphics accelerator ASIC consisted of 2 integer ALUs, 2 floating-point multipliers, 2 floating point divider/square root units and dual control, possibly based on PA-7200 PA-RISC CPU and/or FPU.

^ - there might have been separate AGP Pro versions
Product naming and documentation was slightly perplexing at the time.
Device Color
resolution		 Chips
or cores		 RAM 3D Out Bus
Visualize fx2 24-bit
1600x1200		 0 Texture
2 Geometry
2 Raster		 18 MB SGRAM Hardware
OpenGL		 VGA AGP dual with PCI
AGP 64-bit 66 MHz
Visualize fx4 24-bit
1600x1200		 0 Texture
2 Geometry
2 Raster		 18 MB SGRAM Hardware
OpenGL		 VGA AGP dual with PCI
AGP 64-bit 66 MHz
+ fx texture 1 Texture 16 MB SDRAM Hardware daughter board
Visualize fx6 24-bit
1600x1200		 0 Texture
2 Geometry
2 Raster		 18 MB SGRAM Hardware
OpenGL		 VGA AGP dual with PCI
AGP 2X 64-bit 133 MHz
+ fx texture 2 Texture 32 MB SDRAM Hardware daughter board
Visualize fx2+ 24-bit 0 Texture
1 Geometry
2 Raster		 18 MB SGRAM
opt. Texture		 Hardware
OpenGL		 VGA AGP dual with PCI
AGP 2X 64-bit 133 MHz
– maybe also AGP Pro^
Visualize fx4+ 24-bit
1600x1200		 0 Texture
2 Geometry
2 Raster		 18 MB SGRAM
opt. Texture		 Hardware
OpenGL		 VGA AGP dual with PCI
AGP 2X 64-bit 133 MHz
– maybe also AGP Pro^
Visualize fx6+ 24-bit
1600x1200		 0 Texture
3 Geometry
2 Raster		 18 MB SGRAM
opt. Texture		 Hardware
OpenGL		 VGA AGP dual with PCI
AGP 2X 64-bit 133 MHz
– maybe also AGP Pro^
+ fx+ texture 1 Texture 16 MB SDRAM - - daughter board
Visualize fx5 32-bit
1900x1200		 1 Texture
3 Geometry		 64 MB SDRAM Hardware
OpenGL		 VGA AGP 2X 64-bit 133 MHz
AGP Pro?
Visualize fx10 32-bit
1900x1200		 1 Texture
6 Geometry		 64 MB SDRAM Hardware
OpenGL		 VGA
DVI		 AGP 2X 64-bit 133 MHz
AGP Pro?
and possible more...

Visualize fx cards for Intel-based computers were first developed for HP Kayak personal workstations and marketed as part of their product lineup, which later got renamed to Visualize personal workstations (with Intel Pentium III).

HP Visualize FX Texture
fx+ texture © 2000 HP

Care had to be taken in selecting correct AGP slots and cards, as not all fx cards were compatible with all systems, with specific cards designated for some systems. Drivers were available for Intel-based computers on Windows NT and later 2000. At least fx5 and fx10 supported OpenGL 1.1, GDI, DirectDraw, and Direct3D.

Some part numbers for Visualize NT adapters – incomplete and a bit confusing:

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Documentation

Announcements

Drivers

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