Cirrus Logic
Cirrus Logic was a graphics chipset manufacturer for the IBM PC and its compatibles. Founded in 1984 in Silicon Valley, their chipsets became very popular due to their low cost and high degree of compatibility. During the early 90s, when compared to other Windows graphics accelerator cards from Trident, Oak, and Paradise (Western Digital), the Cirrus Logic usually outperformed them all.
In 1991 the company acquired Crystal Semiconductor, an audio mixer/DSP chip company.
CL-GD410 / CL-GD420
The CL-GD410 and 420 was an ISA Super VGA chipset. This chipset can be found on the Video7 VEGA VGA card.
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CL-GD510 / CL-GD520
The CL-GD510 and 520 was an ISA Super VGA chipset, called "Eagle II". This chipset was known for its 100% hardware CGA emulation. Most cards that bore this chipset came with both 9-pin and 15-pin D-SUB sockets to support pre-VGA monitors and VGA/SVGA/Multisync monitors. The core was typically clocked at 40 MHz, as was the memory. I have one of these cards - it is an almost full-length 8-bit ISA card that runs the Eagle II VGA chipset. I dumped the VGA BIOS v2.12 here (the file is 64 KB but I believe the Eagle II is just in the first 32 KB so you will need to edit the file to make it work for re-burning). The Ultimate Oldschool PC Font Resource has this card's incredible font in its collection:
Used on the MaxLogic MX675, VIP VGP-II, Morse KP800-16, and VG-1000.
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CL-GD5320
The CL-GD5320 was an ISA Super VGA chipset. These cards, since they were VGA only, came with just the 15-pin D-SUB. The core clock ran at 40 MHz. Found on the CVGA-V3-256, VP442, VP44.
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CL-GD5401 The CL-GD5401 was an ISA Super VGA chipset, also known as Acumos VGA, or AVGA1. This was the first fully-integrated VGA chip to market. They were sold on the basis of low price rather than high performance, but despite this, both the AVGA and AVGA2 are top performers! Found on the EIZO VA30, KT-AVGA1-V2, and Cornerstone ImageAccel PC161i cards. Some of these cards are 16-bit ISA but still work in an XT's 8-bit ISA slot in "compatibility" mode:
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CL-GD5402
The CL-GD5402 was an ISA Super VGA chipset, also known as Acumos VGA, or AVGA2. Like the AVGA1, the AVGA2 was sold on the basis of low price rather than high performance, but despite this, both the AVGA and AVGA2 are top performers! Found on RT-3201 |
CL-GD5410
The CL-GD5410 was an ISA Super VGA chipset. It was installed on low-to-mid range DRAM-based cards (accelerated), and some laptops. It is known for being among the first to integrate the graphics card components into a single chip (built-in RAMDAC and clock generators).
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CL-GD5420 / 5421
The CL-GD5420 was an ISA Super VGA chipset. Highly integrated (15-bit RAMDAC and PLL). The 5421 is a 16-bit RAMDAC. The core clock runs at 75 MHz, and memory at 50 MHz. Found on:
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CL-GD5422 / 5424
The CL-GD5422 was an enhanced version of the CL-GD5420, with a 32-bit memory bus, 15/16/24-bit RAMDAC. It offered 1280 x 1024 interlaced or 1024 x 768 non-interlaced maximum resolution. The CL-GD5422 supported hardware acceleration for both 8-bit and 16-bit color depths. It was one of the lowest-priced SVGA controllers to support both. The core clock runs at 80 MHz, and memory at 50 MHz. A VESA Local Bus version of the 5422 is called the CL-GD5424. Found on:
The CL-GD5424 was also the integrated VGA chipset used on AST Bravo 486 computers.
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CL-GD5425
A TrueColor VGA controller with TV out.
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CL-GD5426
A hardware BitBLT engine. 15-pin D-SUB only. Core clock runs at 80 MHz, memory at 50 MHz. Found on:
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CL-GD5428
An enhanced version of the CL-GD5426 with a faster BitBLT engine. Core clock runs at 80 MHz, memory at 50 MHz. Found on:
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CL-GD5429 / CL-GD5430
An enhanced version of the CL-GD5428, and the first in their new "Alpine" series of chips. It supports a higher memory clock speed and has memory-mapped I/O. The CL-GD5430 is similar but has a 543X core (32-bit host interface). Used on the Diamond SpeedSTAR SE VLB, FCC ID J6NGD543XPCI, ProLink MVGA-AlpinePCI.
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CL-GD5434 / 5436
The Alpine family chip with 64-bit internal memory interface. Only supports 64-bit mode if equipped with 2 MB memory. Commonly equipped with 1 MB. The CL-GD5436 was simply an optimized version of the 5434. Found on:
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CL-GD5440
A CL-GD5430 with motion-video acceleration (CL-GD54M40 has integrated filters). The core clock runs at 86 MHz, the memory at 60 MHz. Found on:
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CL-GD5446
64-bit Alpine VisualMedia accelerator. 2D-only. Adds motion-video acceleration to the CL-GD5436. Found on:
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CL-GD546X
The Laguna VisualMedia family of 2D, 3D, and video accelerators. the CL-GD5464 and 5465 include 3D acceleration (PCI or AGP). These chips use a single channel of RDRAM memory, providing up to 600 MB/s bandwidth. The '62 lacks 3D acceleration. All include a BitBLT engine, video windows, and 64×64 hardware cursor. Found in MSI motherboard add-in, MS4415 |
CL-GD5480
64-bit Alpine accelerator with 100 MHz SGRAM. |
Launched: 1991
