Fire GL2 User's Guide Information in this document is subject to change without notice. © 2000 Fire GL Graphics; All rights reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCING THE FIRE GL2.........................................................1 ABOUT YOUR FIRE GL2 ................................................................................ 1 Hardware Design................................................................................. 1 Operating Systems .............................................................................. 2 Typical Application Environments................................................... 3 System Requirements and Tools ..................................................... 3 Performance Overview...................................................................... 4 HOW TO USE THIS USER'S GUIDE ................................................................ 5 Manual Conventions ........................................................................... 5 Viewing the User's Guide Online .................................................... 6 Do you Need a Printout of the Online User's Guide? ............................................................. 6 QUICK INSTALLATION................................................................................... 7 Installation Steps .................................................................................. 7 INSTALLING THE FIRE GL2 ..............................................................8 INSTALLING THE HARDWARE ....................................................................... 8 Preparing your Computer................................................................. 9 Installing the Card ............................................................................... 13 Connecting the Cables and Completing the Installation ............................................................... 15 INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE......................................................................... 18 Before you Start: Information, Tips, and Hints............................ 19 Software Installation for Windows NT4.0.................................... 20 Software Installation for Windows 2000 ...................................... 21 Contents i FIRE GL2 SOFTWARE UTILITIES...................................................... 23 CHANGING THE VIDEO SETTINGS................................................................24 How to Switch to the Display Properties?....................................24 Setting Resolution, Refresh Rate and Color Depth..................................................................................25 Selecting your Monitor.......................................................................26 Adjusting the Monitor Display..........................................................29 MODIFYING APPLICATION PROFILES ............................................................32 REMOVING THE FIRE GL2 DRIVERS................................................ 35 TROUBLESHOOTING........................................................................ 36 COMMON PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS ......................................................36 TECHNICAL DETAILS ....................................................................... 39 FEATURES AND PERFORMANCE.....................................................................39 Hardware ...............................................................................................39 Software .................................................................................................42 PIN ASSIGNMENTS...........................................................................................42 VIDEO MODES .................................................................................................44 BLOCK DIAGRAM............................................................................................45 TRADEMARKS AND REGULATORY.................................................. 46 TRADEMARKS...................................................................................................46 DISCLAIMER......................................................................................................47 EMI COMPLIANCE INFORMATION .................................................................48 ii Contents INTRODUCING THE FIRE GL2 ABOUT YOUR FIRE GL2 HOW TO USE THIS USER'S GUIDE QUICK INSTALLATION ABOUT YOUR FIRE GL2 Hardware Design The Fire GL2 is an AGP/ATX card based upon the IBM RC 1000/ GT 1000 chipset. The RC1000 256 bit graphics rasterizer provides the functionality of a VGA controller, a 2D/3D raster engine with geometry pipeline setup processor, and a 300 MHz RAMDAC. It also supports video streaming by providing color space conversion and a bilinear scaling unit. The GT1000 hardware geometry engine is a complete tranformation and lighting engine with hardware implementation of the full open OpenGL pipeline and most of the Direct3D geometry pipeline. Introducing the Fire GL2 1 Operating Systems The Fire GL2 supports the following operating systems: Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6 (or higher) Microsoft Windows 2000 Linux - 2.2.x kernels, C Library 1.2 (LibC 6.2) How to obtain Linux drivers? Download from www.ati.com/support Service Pack Information for Windows NT 4.0 You must be running Windows NT 4.0, updated with Service Pack 6 (or newer) prior to installing the Fire GL2 drivers. The Service Pack is available from Microsoft's web page, www.microsoft.com. For most languages you can perform the Service Pack 6 update from the Fire GL CD when you run the Quick Start utility. 2 Introducing the Fire GL2 Typical Application Environments Fire GL2 offers outstanding 2D/3D performance in Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Linux. Fire GL2 is optimized and certified for professional 3D graphics in the following business environments. Mechanical Engineering Analysis (MEA) Mechanical Computer Aided Design (MCAD) Electrical Design Automation (EDA) Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) Digital Content Creation (DCC) Business Economic Modeling 3D Game Development System Requirements and Tools What do you need to install and use your Fire GL2? Motherboard with free AGP slot Pentium II CPU or better System interrupt (IRQ) which is free. This may have to be reserved in the computer's BIOS. For help with this theme, refer to the manual for your mainboard. Supported operating system: Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6 (or newer) Microsoft Windows 2000 CD-ROM drive A screwdriver to remove and reinstall the PC cover screws and card mounting screws. See your PC manual for specific requirements. Fire GL CD-ROM for Fire GL2 Introducing the Fire GL2 3 Performance Overview Note: For more detailed information on features and performance please refer to the section Technical Details. Hardware Performance 32-bit RGB TrueColor 2D and 3D acceleration Accelerated, double-buffered 32-bit TrueColor up to 1920 x 1200, at 75 Hz refresh rates 24-bit Z-buffer, 8-bit double-buffer, 8-bit single-buffer overlay Video engine supports YUV conversion, point and bilinear scaling Software Features Multiprocessor system support ThreadSafe OpenGL 1.2 ICD support for dual processors. Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) in Intel Processors Supports AMD AthlonTM processor-based systems with 3DNow! technology Customized application settings for individual ISV applications DDC2B monitor support on all operating system platforms 4 Introducing the Fire GL2 HOW TO USE THIS USER'S GUIDE For your convenience, this online User's Guide has been formatted as an Adobe® Acrobat® PDF file. This format gives you great flexibility when using this documentation. Many hyperlinks provide easy access to any information you may want. To make it useful in a printed format, too, a - hyperlinked - table of contents and page numbers are provided. Because it was designed to be used online and printed, some of the images may not print clearly or appear very clearly on screen. Manual Conventions Your Fire GL2 User's Guide is organized in a standard, familiar way. A few icons are used to point out important information: This icon marks useful tips or important operational notes. This icon is a warning about possible electrical/software hazards or problems. Introducing the Fire GL2 5 Viewing the User's Guide Online You can also read the User's Guide online--important hypertext links, such as Table of Contents entries, World Wide Web, and email addresses are active. Place your mouse cursor over Table of Contents entries or main headings. If the hand icon changes to a pointing index finger, simply click and you will move to that place in the document. Some email or World Wide Web addresses inside this manual may be active as well. Go directly to a Web, FTP site, or email program simply by clicking on an active link. Displaying the provided bookmark and thumbnail views may help you with the orientation and navigation in the User's Guide. This manual might be displayed with slightly-reduced magnification in your Reader. If you experience any difficulty reading certain files online, use the Reader's Zoom To feature from the View menu and increase the magnification to about 133%. To view some screenshot images perfectly clear you may need a larger magnification. Do you Need a Printout of the Online User's Guide? You can easily print this User's Guide to access it off-line. The manual then will look like any standard document with a table of contents and page numbers. For printing the User's Guide, a print resolution of 600 dpi is recommended. 6 Introducing the Fire GL2 QUICK INSTALLATION Brief instructions on how to get to work with the Fire GL2 in the shortest possible time. Recommended for experienced users and system administrators only. For more detailed information on installation and operation of your graphics accelerator, please refer to the corresponding sections of the Fire GL2 User's Guide. Installation Steps 1. De-install the drivers and software for your old graphics card. 2. Set the display driver to Standard VGA. Disable any on-board graphics solution on the motherboard. 3. Shut down and disconnect your computer system. 4. Remove the installed (AGP, PCI, or ISA) VGA card. 5. Install the new Fire GL2 card. 6. Reassemble and connect your computer system. 7. Install the Fire GL2 drivers and configuration software from the Fire GL CD: automatic Quick Start utility or Start > Run > START EXE Introducing the Fire GL2 7 INSTALLING THE FIRE GL2 INSTALLING THE HARDWARE INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE INSTALLING THE HARDWARE The hardware installation includes the following steps: Preparing your Computer Installing the Card Connecting the Cables and Completing the Installation 8 Installing the Fire GL2 Preparing your Computer Information Before you Start What do you need to use your Fire GL2? System Requirements and Tools Motherboard with free AGP 1.X slot for the Fire GL2 card. System interrupt (IRQ) which is free. This may have to be reserved in the computer's BIOS. For help with this theme, refer to the manual for your mainboard Pentium II CPU or better Supported operating system: Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 6 (or newer) Windows 2000 A screwdriver to remove and reinstall the PC cover screws and card mounting screws. See your PC manual for specific requirements. Fire GL CD-ROM for Fire GL2 Your Fire GL2 is optimally configured to be combined with digital flat-panel (DFP) TFT LCD displays and digital CRT displays. You can also connect the Fire GL2 to highresolution MultiSync or multi-frequency monitors or other VGA monitors. Note: You can use the full power of the graphics card only if your monitor supports the horizontal (kHz) and vertical (Hz) refresh rates as required by the graphics card. Refer to your monitor's documentation for recommended refresh rates. What type of monitor do you need? Installing the Fire GL2 9 Where are the drivers? Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 drivers are provided on the Fire GL CD. Linux drivers are available for downloading from www.ati.com/support. Are you installing your Fire GL2 in place of a card from another manufacturer? Before you shut down your computer and remove the installed graphics solution , we recommend that you un-install the old card first: Use the uninstall program for your existing card, if one is available. Consult the documentation for your old card if necessary. If no uninstall program is available, install the standard VGA driver via the Display Properties applet. For more information refer to Setting the Display Driver to Standard VGA. Please refer to the manual or contact your motherboard manufacturer to determine how to disable your on-board graphics. The card has been designed to take advantage of 'plug­n-play' without requiring additional hardware installation or configuration. The illustrati ...