DOS Days

GXi / #9GXi / GXi Lite

The Number Nine GXi was launched in late 1991, and was the second card in the GX family, the first being the GX that used the original and earlier TIGA chip, TMS-34010.

Released October 1991
Bus ISA 16-bit
Chipset Texas Instruments TMS-34020 TIGA
Standards MDA, Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA
Memory 1 MB DRAM + 1 MB VRAM (upgradable to 2 MB)
Ports 9-pin DSUB (RGB analogue video out)
Part #  
FCC ID  
Price At launch: $2,495, Later: $1,024 - $1,995
See Also  

It was able to support screen resolutions of up to 1280 x 1024 with its TIGA (Texas Instruments Graphic Architecture) graphics coprocessor which could process up to 10 million instructions per second. Designed for high-resolution Windows 3.0 and 3.1 and CAD work, the GXi also came with hardware zoom and pan & scroll capabilities.

The card was able to handle 24-bit TrueColor colour depths which meant 16.7 million colours.

Overall, six GXi configurations were available to buy based on a variety of price points. The two entry-level options were not upgradable but supported resolutions up to 1024 x 768 with pricing from $1,024 to $1,295. The other four levels of card were upgradable and cost from $1,280 to $1,995. An optional floating-point math unit could be added to these, which added 128 KB of SRAM to aid CAD users with manipulating 3D objects.

GXi came with a solid suite of tools including the Hawkeye configuration application, Resolution Exchange, and Chameleon Cursor.

Number Nine also released a GXi Lite in 1991. This came is two flavours: Level 20 ($995) and Level 21 ($1,295). Level 21 added Windows' virtual screen capability with pan and zoom (something the GXi could do also), an AutoCAD display driver, and 1 MB of DRAM memory on top of the already-present 1 MB of VRAM. There was also an upgrade option for GXi Lite Level 20 owners to make it a full-blown Level 21 for $520. Like the main GXi, the Lite cards also ran a TMS34020.

All cards with a TMS34020 required a 41 KB TIGA TSR to be loaded for the Texas Instruments chip to be used.

 

Board Revisions

 

Competition

 

In the Media

 

Setting it Up


Downloads

Operation Manual
(missing)

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Original Utility Disk
(missing)

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