20.15 Galaxy Karte

Die Galaxy VME Karte

Galaxy is a VMEbus card which suits Atari Mega STE and TT computers, and provides a (S)VGA graphics display adapter and 10 megabit ethernet interface.

Die Galaxy Karte ist eine Grafik/Ethernetkarte für den VME Bus. Die Karte wird daher auch nur im Atari MegaSTe und dem Atari TT eingesetzt.

Graphics specifications

* Pixel clock rates up to 130 MHz.
* 16-bit colour (65,536 colours).
* This means resolutions of up to 1280x1024 at 76 Hz on typical SVGA monitors.
* 4 megabytes of video RAM (16 megabytes optional).
* High speed drawing performed in hardware makes screen refreshes very fast. * I believe this is the fastest video card available for the TT.
* Accelerated driver for fVDI (free VDI) supplied.

Ethernet specifications

* 10 megabit ethernet interface.
* Attachment unit interface (AUI).
* MAU/transceiver not supplied.
* Driver for MiNT is supplied.

Full information on the hardware is available to developers who would write other drivers (e.g. for Linux or MagiC). As of November 2000, the first cards are available. Ethernet firmware is not finished yet, so currently the cards are available with graphics only (i.e. NO ETHERNET SUPPORT). If you are interested in buying a graphics only card please contact me.

Pricing and ordering information.

For pricing in your local currency, contact a local dealer or send email to me. The following prices do not include freight. To get a rough idea of the price, divide the New Zealand dollar figures by 2 for US dollars or 3 for UK pounds.

You can order products directly from me, but unless you live in New Zealand, you may be better off contacting a local Atari dealer who stocks the item you require. Please consult the List of International Dealers to see which dealer is nearest to you. Otherwise, contact me with your address and order and I'll get back to you with the postage cost and we can arrange a method of payment.

User groups, clubs, shops, contact me for information on quantity discounts. Dealership enquiries invited.

Contact me at the following address

Mario Becroft
PO Box 332
Kumeu
Auckland 1250
New Zealand
Email: mb@gem.win.co.nz
Telephone or fax: (09) 412 9700

User report from usenet

Has anyone here tried the Galaxy GC made by Mario Becroft in his TT or MegaSTe ? I'd like to hear some more about it. I know several people who would like to buy the card but since there is not much info they are reluctant. Thanks in advance for any info.
Cheers
Dan

Answer

I got my GALAXY card about two weeks ago for my TT. It's a very professional piece of hardware. I didn't care about ethernet since I al;ready have a pocket ethernet adapter.

Anyway, it does use fVDI and a couple other programs. It supports from 640x480 at 16bit all the way up to 1280x1024 at 16 bit color right now with more modes to come (ie different color depths).

It appears to be running like a dream! All the image programs display their pictures in gorgeous color. SpeedoGDOS is actually runnning from 50% to 100% faster with fVDI installed! And all my "clean" GEM programs work like a dream. The only problems I'm having with it are:

Calamus - MGI and invers decided not to support 16-bit color depth, just 256 colors and 24-bit or higher color. This is currently being corrected.

Freedom2 - But then that';s not quite a clean program from what I hear. I've never been happy with it anyway.

Thing 0.59 - Its a demo, though. Demos of higher versions work fine. But my version doesn't say "Shareware" all over it. I guess I shouldn't be such a cheap bastard ;-).

Vision 4.0 - There's a problem with the driver handling the tool buttons. This is being fixed.

Other than that, everything else I run works like a dream, including GEMview, 1stGuide, TOSWin2, AtariWorks, IdealList, MultiTOS, BOXkite, Luna, qed, WenSuite, and CAB. The web browsers operate at almost usable speeds with the card since no dithering is necessary! Everyone with a TT should spend the money for this card if they want a better display! It makes a huge difference over the normall TT low and medium! I strongly suggest this card to anyone!

Jeffrey Armstrong (jba4@po.cwru.edu)
Case Western Reserve University