What is that chip on top of the Parhelia???

[K6-III]

Notice that in this pic from the Athlonxp.com review of the parhelia it has that chip where ours has a silkscreen....

What chip is that???

[Tempest]

It's the RSN chip

This was discussed before somewhere... Because it comes from Chrontel, it probably is some kind of TV-encoder chip.

[Greebe]

it's where the 10 bit TV/Video encoder chip would have been

[K6-III]

So it has since been integrated into the core....(correct me if I'm wrong)...or nod if I'm right...

[Greebe]

it's simply not there now... more good features down the drain

[Greebe]

has nothing todo with Banding

[thop]

if that information is not classfied do you, greebe, or any of the BBs have it? as i understand it you run on production samples.

[mmp121]

Originally posted by Greebe
it's where the 10 bit TV/Video encoder chip would have been

Does that mean that the P was designed with video capture capability? Or is that just better way of doing video out (10 bit) vs. whatever comes out of the DVI connector?

Also does that mean that there was a dedicated TV/OUT connection also? For example, between the dual DVI connectors?

[Greebe]

NDA

[dZeus]

TV Encoder = to tv, i.e. tv-out
TV Decoder = video capture

[K6-III]

If my thinking is correct, Parhelia was originally planned to be able to do Triplehead and DVDMax output onto a TV at the same time...

[Tempest]

AthlonXP has a good picture of what they claim is Parhelia's RAMDAC, and now that I compare the model numbers and other texts on that one to those on the "missing" chip, I think they match - although chip packaging is different.

...so that would make 'em both Chrontel's CH7301A DVI transmitters. I'm not much into electronics myself, but that part would seem to convert a digital graphics signal into either a DVI signal (up to 1600x1200) or an analog RGB signal.

[D0ug]

It does look like there is a place on the board between the 2 DVI connectors for an svideo port to be soldered to the board. The original G400 also had a place on the board between the 2 vga ports for a composite video connector, but matrox never released a card that had the connector on it as far as i know. Ive herd that there is a live composite signal on the board traces that run upto where the plug would be. The newer revision of the G400 dosnt have a place for a composite video port between the 2 vga ports, and there seems to be a small chip there that isnt anywhere on the original g400. ive no clue what the small chip does.

Here are some pictures. the 1st is an original g400 max with a place for a composite port, the 2nd is a newer revision g400 max without a place for the port, and the 3rd is the type of port that could probably be soldered onto the original g400 for a dedicated composite output.

Originally posted by mmp121


Does that mean that the P was designed with video capture capability? Or is that just better way of doing video out (10 bit) vs. whatever comes out of the DVI connector?

Also does that mean that there was a dedicated TV/OUT connection also? For example, between the dual DVI connectors?

[Greebe]

that's not a RAMDAC but one of the TDMS transmitters which you guessed it has nothing todo with the missing chip.

FYI the RAMDAC's are internal to the GPU

[Greebe]

wrong connector Doug... it's for an Svid output not composite vid out