The information below on the ViRGE is from http://www.s3.com/products/download/povirge.doc. This was a MS Word format file that I converted into HTML on the PC directly, no changes. The link off http://www.s3.com/products/products.html to get the file only has the options for 'MS Word format' and 'Adobe Acrobat format', these might be hard for most normal Amiga users to view.

High-Performance Integrated DRAM-based
2D/3D Graphics and Video Accelerator

· High-performance 64-bit 2D/3D graphics engine

· Integrated 135 MHz RAMDAC and clock synthesizer

· S3 Streams Processor for accelerated video

· S3 Scenic Highway for direct interface to live video and MPEG-1 peripherals

· Pin compatible with S3 Trio64V+Ô

S3d Graphics Engine Features

· High performance 2D Windows acceleration

· Flat and Gouraud shading for 3D

· High quality/performance 3D texture mapping

· Perspective correction

· Bi-linear and tri-linear texture filtering

· MIP-Mapping

· Depth cueing and fogging

· Alpha blending

· Video texture mapping

· Z-buffering

S3 Streams Processor Features

· Supports on-the-fly stretching and blending of primary RGB stream and RGB or YUV (video) secondary stream

· Each stream can have a different color depth

· High-quality hardware-assisted video playback with horizontal interpolation

· Support for IndeoÔ , CinepakÔ , and software and hardware-accelerated MPEG-1 video

S3 Scenic Highway Interface

· Philips SAA7110/SAA7111 video digitizers

· S3 Scenic/MX2 MPEG-1 audio/video decoder

 

High Screen Resolution (Non-interlaced) Support

· 1280x1024x256 colors at 75 Hz refresh

· 1024x768x64K colors at 75 Hz refresh

· 800x600x16.7M colors at 75 Hz refresh

High-Performance Memory Support

· 64-bit DRAM memory interface

· 2- and 4-MByte DRAM video memory

· Single-cycle EDO operation

Non-x86 CPU Support

· Big endian/little endian byte ordering

· Relocatable addressing

Industry-Standard Local Bus Support

· Glueless PCI 2.1 bus interface

· Glueless VESAÓ VL-BusÔ interface

PCI Bus Mastering for Display List Processing and Video Capture Support

Multimedia Support Hooks

· S3 Scenic Highway

· VESA advanced feature connector

· 8- and 16-bit bi-directional feature connector

Full Software Support

· Drivers for major operating systems and APIs: [WindowsÓ 95, WindowsÓ 3.11, WindowsÓ NT, OS/2Ó 2.1 and 3.0 (WarpÔ ), ADI 4.2], Direct 3DÔ , BRenderÔ , RenderWareÔ and OpenGLÔ

Green PC/Monitor Plug and Play Support

· Full hardware and BIOS support for VESA Display Power Management Signaling (DPMS) monitor power savings modes

· DDC monitor communications

Extensive Static/Dynamic Power Management

Industry-Standard 208-pin PQFP package

 

ã Copyright 1995,1996 S3 Incorporated. All rights reserved. If you have received this document from S3 Incorporated in electric form, you are permitted to make the following copies for business use related to products of S3 Incorporated: one copy onto your computer for the purpose of on-line viewing, and one printed copy. With respect to all documents, whether received in hard copy or electronic form, other use, copying or storage, in whole or in part, by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, is permitted without the prior written consent of S3 Incorporated, P.O. Box 58058., Santa Clara CA 95052-8058. S3 and True Acceleration are registered trademarks of S3 Incorporated. The S3 Corporate Logo, S3 on Board, S3 on Board design, S3d design, Vision968, Trio, Trio64, Trio64V+, Trio64UV+, Trio64V2/DX, Trio64V2/GX, ViRGE, ViRGE/VX, S3d, Scenic, Scenic/MX2, Scenic Highway, Sonic, Sonic/AD, DuoView, Cooperative Accelerator Architecture, Streams Processor, MIC, Galileo, Native-MPEG, No Compromise Integration, No Compromise Acceleration and Innovations in Acceleration are trademarks of S3 Incorporated. Other trademarks referenced in this document are owned by their respective companies. The material in this document is for information only and is subject to change without notice. S3 Incorporated reserves the right to make changes in the product design without reservation and without notice to its users.

The S3Ó ViRGEÔ integrated 3D video/graphics accelerator (hereinafter referred to as ViRGE) enables development of compelling interactive entertainment, education, and presentation applications for the mainstream personal computing world.

64-bit S3d Engine

The S3dÔ Engine provides 2D acceleration for excellent Windows applications performance and a full-featured high-performance 3D rendering engine for games and other interactive 3D applications.

 

The S3d Engine incorporates the key Windows accelerator functions of BitBLT, line draw and polygon fill. 3D features include flat shading, Gouraud shading and texture mapping support. Advanced texture mapping features include perspective correction, bi-linear and tri-linear filtering, MIP-Mapping, and Z-buffering. The S3d Engine also includes direct support for utilizing video as a texture map. These features provide the most realistic user experience for interactive 3D applications.

 

Other advanced features of the S3d Engine include S3 proprietary compressed texture formats for improved performance and reduced memory requirements, as well as support for S3’s MUX buffering (pat. pend.) feature, which allows for Z-buffering support with no additional memory requirement.

Streams Processor

The S3 Streams ProcessorÔ provides the stretching and YUV color space conversion features required for full screen video playback with both software CODECs and hardware MPEG-1 sources.

 

The Streams Processor allows simultaneous display of graphics and video of different color depths. For example, it is possible to display 24 bpp-equivalent video on top of an 8-bit graphics background. This saves memory bandwidth and storage capacity while permitting higher frame rates.

 

S3 Scenic Highway

The S3 Scenic HighwayÔ allows lowest cost direct connection to S3’s Scenic/MX2 MPEG-1 audio and video decoder as well as video digitizers such as the PhilipsÓ SAA7110/SAA7111.

 

 

 

DRAM Size

 

Resolutions Supported

2

MB

4

MB

640X480X4*

4

4

640X480X8

4

4

640X480X16

4

4

640X480X24

4

4

640X480X32

4

4

800X600X4*

4

4

800X600X8

4

4

800X600X16

4

4

800X600X24

4

4

1024X768X4*

4

4

1024X768X8

4

4

1024X768X16

4

4

1024X768X24 (IL)

 

4

1152X864X8

4

4

1280X1024X4*

4

4

1280X1024X8

4

4

1280X1024X16 (IL)

 

4

1600X1200X4*

4

4

1600X1200X8 (IL)

4

4

 

* 4 bits/pixel modes are not accelerated and use standard VGA/VESA drivers.