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PA-RISC Graphics Adapters

• CRX
• HCRX
• Visualize
• Visualize-FX
• HP FireGL
• Intel Visualize
• References

Overview

HP 9000 PA-RISC computers used almost exlusively custom HP graphics adapters. HP designed a variety of custom graphics cards for many different graphical use cases, from simple 1990s 2D design to more advanced CAD/CAM, 3D modeling and advanced scientific design. PA-RISC workstations were often used in these scenarios.

HP designed custom PA-RISC graphics adapters with a variety of HP chipsets and in diferent buses (GSC, SGC, etc.) and form factors. Some of the more advanced cards were immensely expensive (>$20k).

This article describes the 1990s-era HP-proprietary designs with custom HP buses and chips for most 32-bit workstations. Full support for these graphics cards is available in HP-UX, with incomplete support in other and open source systems – especially for 3D, acceleration and advanced features.

With PCI-based graphics cards in some of the later workstations, HP switched to off-the-shelf graphics chipsets from the Intel/i386 world, customized for HP workstations. Even later in many 64-bit workstations, HP switched to standard graphics cards altogether with sometimes custom HP-UX drivers.

CRX

CRX graphics adapters were available in various different configurations for both the SGC and GSC bus in their different formfactors. All of these adapters were officially only supported in HP-UX up to 10.20, some may still work with 11.00. They were often used in HP 9000 705, 710, 720, 730, 750 and 735 workstations

The CRX cards output a fixed resolution of 1280×1024. CRX cards for SGC bus in the DIO-II formfactor use BNC connecters with either one (grayscale), three (RGB) or four (RGB and sync), while cards for SGC and GSC in EISA formfactor and mainboard-integrated CRX use HD15 VGA connectors.

The Stinger CRX adapter, integrated into some of the older ASP-based workstations (older 715, 725), supports four different resolution/refresh-rate combinations, which can be changed via a DIP switch on the back of the machine or in the PDC.

CRX with Z-suffix denotes an additional 3D acceleration board with a hardware 24-bit Z-buffer. These combined adapters like CRX-24Z support the same visuals as stand-alone versions but always provide 3D acceleration. Hardware acceleration can only be used with Starbase, PHIGS, PowerShade or PEX APIs. CRX-48Z adapters are internal GSC or SGC interface cards with a separate external processing box, which provides RGB output connectors.

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Artist

When developing the HP 9000 712 workstation, HP integrated as much functionality in VLSI circuits as possible. This included re-developing an onboard version of the CRX adapter into the Artist graphics chip.

Artist graphics adapters were found in LASI-based workstations such as HP 9000 712, HP 9000 715 and were technically (almost) identical to CRX devices with much more supported resolutions and refresh rates. HP Artist had 1 MB VRAM as standard which could be extended to 2 MB.

HP aggressively integrated as much as circuitry possible with Artist to reduce manufacturing, manufacturing of the HP 712 graphics subsystem was a third of the CRX system, the entry level Artist itself only a fifth of CRX. Artist integrated almost everything but the VRAM into a single single CMOS26B VLSI at 80 MHz, while the internal DACs and color tables run at 135 MHz.

For Artist, HP developed HP Color Recovery Technology, a system to display millions of colors within the cost constraints of an 8-bit (8-plane) graphics system. At the time, users often chose 8-bit adapters due to the high cost of systems with 24 planes.

With HP Color Recovery, the system takes 24-bit data from an application an dithers it down to 8-bit for the frame buffer, from where it is scanned through a DSP to the display, wherex millions of colors can be viewed. Besides Artist, Color Recovery was also part of the HCRX-8 adapter.

Device	Resolution max	Color max	Double buffer	3D	Output	Bus and formfactor Part number
Artist	1024×768	8-bit	Hardware	-	VGA	GSC (integrated)
Artist ext. mem	1280×1024	8-bit	Hardware	-	VGA	GSC (integrated)

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HCRX

HCRX are the successors to the CRX graphics adapters and were shipped in systems with the GSC bus, either integrated into the mainboard or as a separate expansion board. They output a fixed resolution of 1280×1024 and use a HD15 VGA connector.

CRX with Z-suffix denotes additional 3D-acceleration board, containing a hardware 24-bit Z-buffer. These combined adapters like HCRX-24Z support the same visuals as stand-alone versions but always provide 3D acceleration. Hardware acceleration can only be used with Starbase, PHIGS, PowerShade or PEX APIs.

HCRX graphics adapters for HP 9000 PA-RISC workstations were suceeded by HP Visualize line of graphics cards. There was briefly a card called HCRX-48Z (A4244A) which was soon renamed and marketed as Visualize-48.

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Visualize

The HP Visualize line of graphics adapters were used in a large number of PA-RISC workstations integrated onto the mainboard and in expansion cards of various types. HP Visualize were the designated successors to HP HCRX graphics adapters:

• HCRX-8: No successor
• HCRX-8Z: Visualize-8 for $5,500
• HCRX-24Z: Visualize-24 for $7,000
• HCRX-48Z: Visualize-48 for $16,000

HP integrated parallel PA-RISC floating point technology from the PA-7200 processor (FPU) into Visualize graphics boards to increase scalable performance and speed up the graphics pipeline. Two FPU cells were added to the -8 and -24, and six cells into the -48. This was heralded as quite interesting and good but unusual.

All Visualize provide 2D hardware acceleration, used by HP’s X11 server on HP-UX. Visualize 3D hardware acceleration is available with Starbase, PHIGS, PowerShade or PEX APIs. Visualize cards have HD15 VGA or EVC connectors.

HP VisualEyes

Interestingly, HP very briefly called these cards HP VisualEyes before renaming and marketing them under HP VISUALIZE as successors to the HCRX line of adapters.

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Visualize-FX

HP Visualize-FX were video adapters and 3D accelerators for PA-RISC Unix workstation and a major redesign of their Visualize predecessors. The architecture of the graphics processors is PA-RISC based, the higher-end models in fact include more than four PA-RISC FPU cells to process the graphics.

Visualize FX were the first HP cards to support OpenGL X-Window Extension (GLX) in addition to the legacy 3D APIs (Starbase, PEX, PHIGS). FX adapters were only available as PCI bus cards, with some using two slots.

The EVC connector present on some cards needs an adapter cable to connect to a HD15 VGA monitor. These cards support a maximum resolution of 1600×1200 or 1280×1024 on older monitors. Both Sync-on-Green and Digital-Sync output signals are supported. They had all hardware and software double-buffering.

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HP FireGL

HP also sold a few third-party AGP (and PCI) video adapters for 3D for use in HP-UX Unix with its later PA-RISC workstations such as the c8000. They were possible modified for HP-UX (in the ROM?) with HP providing drivers for them for 64-bit workstations running HP-UX 11.00 and higher.