DOS Days
Old PC Computing Resource
Trident Microsystems, Inc.
Trident was a graphics chipset manufacturer for the IBM PC and its compatibles that started up in 1987. These cards are ubiquitous having been sold to OEMs in large quantities to be installed in their budget-oriented PC clones, and are generally considered to be low performers.
Don't be fooled by the model numbers that Trident uses for its ISA cards. The TVGA8900D is about the fastest chipset they produced for the ISA bus, followed by the 8900C. The 9000 range were designed for low-cost video cards and for motherboard onboard graphics.
TVGA-8800C
A Hercules/CGA/EGA/VGA and SVGA card. More Images
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TVGA-8900
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Impact III
Launched: 1991 "PROS: Low cost, widest software support
CONS: Slow performance The Trident Impact III costs only $12 more on the street than the rock-bottom Boca SuperVGA. Amazingly, for that low $172 price, you get the widest selection of drivers in the roundup. Trident provides 132-column drivers for Word and WordStar, plus 256-color drivers in all super-VGA resolutions for both Windows and AutoCAD. You don't get a menu for swapping drivers, though, and hardware installation isn't switchless. The board's speed could be better. In most of the key performance benchmarks, the Impact III hovered in the bottom third. If you like the idea of 132-column word processing in Word, this board is your best choice. Otherwise, bargain hunters would do better to opt for the superior performance, switchless installation, and even lower price of the Boca SuperVGA." PC World, August 1991
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TVGA-8900C / CL / CX2 LC2
These cards have the common "MUSIC" chip, which is an 8-bit DAC. The card supports up to 70ns DRAMs. BIOS version C4.3 is VESA 1.2 compliant. More Images |
TVGA-8900D
The Trident TVGA8900D Super VGA Controller was the successor to the TVGA8900CL and TVGA8900C VGA chipset, with the key improvement being faster performance through zero-wait state direct memory writes on the ISA bus and a faster DRAM clock (48 MHz). It also added support for 1 MB of linear memory addressing (no more bank switching). It required just 3 support chips: TKD8001 TrueColor DAC/clock chip and two 256x4 DRAM chips. Maximum resolution was 1024 x 768 non-interlaced in 256 colours at 72 Hz refresh rate, or 1280 x 1024 interlaced in 16 colours. With the optional TKD8001 TrueColor DAC it was able to run up to 800 x 600 in 64,000 colours. The TKD8001 TrueColor DAC came in two flavours: a 15/16-bit variant which provided support for 800 x 600 in up to 64,000 colours, or a 24-bit variant which meant 16.7 million colours at 640 x 480 resolution. Extended text modes included 132 columns x 25, 30, 43 and 60 rows. More Images |
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TVGA-9000i ("Surf")
The Trident TVGA-9000i was a more integrated version of the TVGA-9000C, with the DAC and clock also integrated into the single chip. It was designed to be put directly onto motherboards or low-cost video cards. The programmable internal clock could be run at up to 80 MHz. The embedded DAC is the 6-bit variant, supporting up to 800 x 600 interlaced or non-interlaced in 256 colours. Aside from that the TVGA9000i has the same specifications as the 8900C. In 2017, Sergey Kiselev reproduced a number of 8-bit ISA SVGA cards around the Trident 9000i chipset. These sold for around £60. You can see images of this here: |
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TGUI9680 / TGUI9680-1
The TGUI9360 is a "GUI and video accelerator", supporting FPM or EDO DRAM memory from as fast as 45ns down to 80ns on a 64-bit bus. The chip itself has an integrated 24-bit TrueColor DAC It supports resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 in 256 colours, 1024 x 768 in 64,000 colours, or 800 x 600 in 16.7 million colours. On the VESA Local Bus it runs at 50 MHz while on PCI it runs at 33 MHz. The TGUI9680-1 is a low-power version of the TGUI9680, but also adds acceleration for Cinepak, Indeo and MPEG CODEC standards. The TGUI9680 can be found on the following graphics cards:
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Blade 3D 9880
Much better than its forebear, the 9750, but still not a fast card. |