From Voodoo Graphics to VSA-100 and beyond

[Carsten]

3Dfx Voodoo Graphics

Also known as SST1, the Voodoo Graphics was almost a failure as bad as the NV1 had been for Nvidia. Story goes that nobody was willing to manufacture and market the boards, which were using 2 MiByte of framebuffer along with 2 MiByte of texture memory, because it was too expensive for a small set of games. Luckily for 3dfx and the whole industry, memory prices came down a lot in just the right time and then there was no one who wouldn't want a Voodoo Graphics card any more!



Working with two chips, one being the pixel processor and the other doing the texturing work, it was build on a 500nm process and had two separate interfaces to the respective 2 MiByte partitions for framebuffer and textures, each being 64 bit wide. The boards used EDO-RAM. The chip was capable of bilinear texture filtering, perspective correction, using palletized textures for saving memory, alpha-blending, z-buffering (limited to 640x480 pixels) and a few other neat tricks not too common in the 3D world back then. The card worked on one pixel per clock which with its 50 MHz standard clock rate yielded a fillrate of 50 Megapixels/texels. The two things that set the Voodoo Graphics apart from anything else in its class was 3dfx' easy-to-use proprietary programming language called Glide and the ability to run in configurations consisting of up to 6 chips - as far as I know. Each pixel processor could communicate with three texturing chips, or so say my friends at Beyond3d.com, and each of those quartets could work in tandem with one other. The prohibitive cost of these setups prevented them from appearing in the consumer space.

Here you can find a copy of the original (I suppose) press release 3Dfx issued on November 6th, 1995. Some interesting passages:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 6, 1995--3Dfx Interactive, Inc., a company focused solely on developing technology for interactive 3D electronic entertainment, today announced Voodoo Graphics(tm), a 3D graphics accelerator specifically designed for 3D entertainment applications in the coin-operated/arcade and home consumer markets.

Designed to enable a new class of realistic and highly interactive 3D games, Voodoo Graphics offers expanded capabilities above and beyond the basic 3D functionality that will be found in commodity Windows and multimedia accelerators. Major consumer and coin-op OEMs and developers have announced support for the chipset.
"Voodoo Graphics was designed specifically to provide the highest quality, most intense 3D game experience available anywhere," said Gordon Campbell, chairman and CEO, 3Dfx Interactive. "While other manufacturers have designed 3D for a diverse set of graphics applications, our focus has always been interactive entertainment. The support we're receiving from the industry indicates our course of action is the right one."


In separate announcements, 3Dfx Interactive revealed that Orchid Technology and FMI Graphics Products, a business unit of Fujitsu Microelectronics, Inc. have signed OEM agreements to develop consumer 3D game boards based on Voodoo Graphics. In the coin-operated entertainment market Data East and Jaleco have announced support and are developing next generation arcade games utilizing Voodoo Graphics. 3Dfx Interactive is working with leading PC and coin-op game developers including Virgin Interactive Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Interplay Productions, Acclaim Entertainment, Mindscape, Sierra On-line, Looking Glass Technologies, Accolade, Domark, and over 50 other developers worldwide.


Voodoo Advantage
"All of the graphics processors that have been introduced for the PC barely meet the basic requirements for 3D," said Gary Tarolli, vice president and chief scientist, 3Dfx Interactive. "Our design goals were much higher and Voodoo Graphics incorporates state-of-the-art 3D features such as advanced texture-mapping techniques including texture compositing, texture morphing, and animated textures as well as superior filtering and MIP mapping functionality. When combined with our performance capabilities developers can produce really cool, interactive game experiences."
3D games require the combination of interactivity and visual realism. To achieve elementary 3D functionality, a graphics chip needs to support perspective correct polygons with point sampled texture mapping, Z- and double-buffering, Gouraud shading capabilities and standard VGA resolution. To take the gaming experience to the next level, 3Dfx Interactive has included level-of-detail (LOD) MIP mapping, bi-linear and advanced filtering and SVGA resolution support. In addition, the chipset delivers realistic imagery through sub-pixel correction, alpha blending, and anti-aliasing. Most importantly however, unlike other multimedia accelerators that suffer significant performance degradation when available 3D features are used, Voodoo Graphics was designed to simultaneously offer all of these features at real-time frame rates.


Voodoo Graphics also supports special effects for even greater game impact. These include per-pixel effects such as fog, translucency, and transparency, texture compositing, a variety of lighting techniques, texture morphing, animated textures, and reflection mapping. These features let game developers deliver the most realistic interactive entertainment on the market.
The Voodoo Graphics chipset supports full screen games under popular PC operating systems including Microsoft Windows 95, MS DOS, and Microsoft Windows 3.1 using 3D APIs including Microsoft's Direct3D, DirectDraw, 3D-DDI, and Reality Lab 2.0, as well as Intel's 3DR. The chipset also supports embedded operating systems for coin-op/arcade platforms. Development environments supported by the chipset include MS DOS, WindowsNT, Windows95, and Silicon Graphics' IRIX. Important development tools and APIs supported by Voodoo Graphics include Silicon Graphics' IRIS GL and OpenGL, AutoDesk's 3D Studio, MultiGen's GameGen, and Gemini Technology's OpenGVS.


"As a long-time SGI developer we're pleased that 3Dfx Interactive has gone beyond the basic 3D checklist by providing workstation-quality features and performance in their Voodoo Graphics 3D accelerator," said John Archdeacon, vice president, Gemini Technology. "Voodoo Graphics is a powerful, low-cost PC-based alternative to high-end graphics workstations. The combination of our OpenGVS software with 3Dfx hardware technology is going to offer our developers unprecedented 3D graphics price/performance."


Packaged in a two-chip set, the Voodoo Graphics architecture is a PCI Bus 2.1 compliant device that operates transparently with existing VGA and Windows accelerators via analog pass through or shared frame buffer implementations on Intel or RISC-based PCI platforms. The Voodoo Graphics chipset is priced at less than $75 in 20,000 piece quantities. On perspective correct, texture mapped, Z-buffered, filtered, LOD MIP mapped, fogged, alpha blended, 50-pixel triangles Voodoo Graphics delivers more than 45 megapixels per second fill rate and over 350,000 triangles per second polygon rates on a Pentium 90. The first chip, pixelfx, is the primary graphics controller and contains interfaces to the PCI bus and companion texture processing unit, texelfx. The 3Dfx Interactive pixelfx graphics controller is packaged in a 240-pin PQFP. texelfx, the advanced texture processing unit, is packaged in a 208-pin PQFP.



"3Dfx Interactive's announcement reflects a growing recognition that the Pentium(r) processor is ideal for multimedia applications and games," said Dev Bose, director of software development, Intel Software Technology Lab. "Complimentary solutions like the 3Dfx Interactive Voodoo Graphics accelerator are great for today's Pentium processor-based systems."
3Dfx Interactive, Inc., founded in 1994, is a privately held company headquartered in Mountain View, Calif. 3Dfx Interactive brings together a team of leading professionals from the PC, video game, semiconductor, and 3D graphics industries to provide new levels of interactive 3D electronic entertainment.

3Dfx Voodoo Graphics
Codename	SST-1 (notes: SST probably stands for Scott-Sellers-Tarolli, the founders of 3Dfx)
Type	3D add-on card, no 2D functionality
Year	1995
Manufacturing Technology	500 nm
No. of transistors	1 Million
Pixel throughput	1 Pixel per clock
Texel throughput	1 Texel per clock
Z/Depth throughput	1 Zixel per clock
Core Clock rate	50 MHz
Memory Clock rate	50 MHz
Memory Data rate	50 MT/sec.
Memory	2 MiByte Framebuffer + 2-4 MiByte Texture Memory
Memory Interface	2x 64 Bit (one for Framebuffer, one for Texture Memory)
Supported 3D-Features	Perspective Correction, Bilinear Filtering, Alpha Blending, Z-Buffer, Gouraud Shading, Multi-Texturing
Supported Resolutions	320x240, 512x384, 640x400, 640x480, 800x600 (without Z-Buffer)

Currently, I own two of the boards. One of them is the Orchid Righteous 3D, which is a standard configuration except for its nice print on the backside and a audibly switching mechanical relais when entering 3D mode.




The other is a Miro HiScore 3D (technically identical to the Canopus Pure 3D), which features a TV out and is equipped with 2 additional MiBytes of texture memory, making it a 6 MiByte card.

[Carsten]

3Dfx Voodoo Rush (SST-96)

(This posting is still in beta-stage, information herein not confirmed and exhaustive!)

The Voodoo Rush was introduced in late summer 1997 and did incorporate both a Voodoo Graphics chip set and a third-party chip for displaying 2D images such as the Alliance ProMotion AT25 or Macronix' MX86251FC. It can be seen as an attempt to enter the OEM space which were reluctant to build systems with Voodoo Graphics and a separate 2D accelerator because of both the external cabling and the validation required. The Voodoo Rush may also have been put into place in order to both fix one of the shortcomings of the original Voodoo Graphics and to capitalize on the need for a modern 2D accelerator.

The result however was disappointing. In general, the both publicly available combinations of the Voodoo Graphics chip set with 2D accelerators failed to achieve both the performance and the level of compatibility that the 3D part alone could boast with.

The cards varied wildly in appearance, some even incorporating a dual-PCB design, where the 2D and 3D parts were stacked on top of each other.

3Dfx Voodoo Rush
Codename	no internal name given
Type	2D/3D card with Voodoo Graphics plus third-party chip for 2D functionality (Alliance ProMotion AT25; AT3D or Macronix MX86251FC)
Year	1996
Manufacturing Technology	500 nm
No. of transistors	1 Million for the Voodoo chipset plus the respective 2D chip
Pixel throughput	1 Pixel per clock
Texel throughput	1 Texel per clock
Z/Depth throughput	1 Zixel per clock
Core Clock rate	50 MHz
Memory Clock rate	50 MHz
Memory Data rate	50 MT/sec.
Memory	2 MiByte Framebuffer + 2-4 MiByte Texture Memory
Memory Interface	2x 64 Bit (one for Framebuffer, one for Texture Memory)
Supported 3D-Features	Perspective Correction, Bilinear Filtering, Alpha Blending, Z-Buffer, Gouraud Shading, Multi-Texturing
Supported Resolutions	320x240, 512x384, 640x400, 640x480, 800x600 (without Z-Buffer)

Currently, I own two of these boards. The first one being a Hercules Stingray 128/3D (internal model no. S3318 TV) where the more common Alliance ProMotion AT25 lends its 2D capabilities to the Vooodoo Graphics chipset. It comes with 2 MiByte for the 2D chip and 2+2 MiByte for the Voodoo Graphics part of the card.



The other card is a 2theMax/Gainward (then also known as Cardexpert) Fantasy FX Dragon 2000. It uses the Macronix MX86251 chip (which require special drivers). It also comes with up to 8 MiByte, where 2 of them are reserved for the 2D chip and 2 are for Voodoo Graphics' framebuffer. 2 MiByte are presoldered to the card and another two can be added via drop-in sockets. I received mine with only two of the sockets populated, but the additional memory is not working.

[Carsten]

3Dfx Voodoo 2 with SLI

(This posting is still in beta-stage, information herein not confirmed and exhaustive!)

On November 3rd 1997, 3Dfx introduced the new generation of Voodoo via press release and scheduled an estimated availability for Q1 1998. The Voodoo 2 improved on its predecessor in a number of ways. Functionally, nothing very significant was added to the architecture with 3D performance being the main concern at that time and rightly so! Manufactured in 350 instead of Voodoo Graphics' 500 nm process tech, 3dfx was able to bump the clock speeds significantly to 90 MHz. Additionally, every Voodoo 2 card was outfitted with two texture chips (each with its own 2-4 MiByte of texture memory) making for a multi-textured fillrate of about 180 MTexels/sec. Thus Voodoo 2 was able to to multi-texturing at almost quadruple (more precisely: 3,6x) the rate of Voodoo Graphics.



Due to the larger default frame buffer, a single Voodoo 2 was able to accelerate games using a z-buffer in resolutions up to 800x600. Paired with a like card in Scan Line Interleave mode (for short SLI), where each card would do only half the vertical resolution, this was increased to a then might 1024x768.

The continued support for 3dfx proprietary Glide API provided customers with a usable base of dozens of accelerated games which would automatically benefit from the higher graphics power. Compatibility issues due to the larger memories were rare, but present. Third party tools soon offered a work around limiting the adressable memory for a given game to Voodoo Graphics levels.

The whole press release is shown at www.thefreelibrary.com and here's the interesting part:

SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- 3Dfx Interactive today announced plans for the introduction of their new standard in 3D acceleration, Voodoo 2 Graphics(TM). A generational leap beyond the Company's original award winning Voodoo Graphics chipset, Voodoo 2 will be available at the consumer level in the first Quarter of 1998 and will retail for under $300.

Voodoo 2 is an expandable architecture with a base configuration of a 192-bit memory architecture and 2.2 Gigabytes per second of memory bandwidth, delivering over 50 BOPS (Billions of Operations per Second). This configuration delivers an incredible 3 million triangles per second and 90 million dual-textured, bilinear-filtered, per-pixel MIP-mapped, alpha-blended, Z-buffered pixels per second, over three times the performance of the current Voodoo Graphics. Voodoo 2 contains a full floating-point hardware triangle setup unit for maximum triangle throughput on Pentium, Pentium Pro and Pentium II powered systems. Voodoo 2 is also an AGP-capable technology designed to utilize the higher bandwidth available through AGP and will support 3D games with resolutions up to 1024 X 768.

"We believe that Voodoo 2 will not only change the way people play games, but the way that people design games," said Greg Ballard, President and CEO, 3Dfx Interactive. "The original Voodoo Graphics and Voodoo Rush chipsets opened people's eyes to the possibilities of 3D gaming and the response has been overwhelming. We have once again set the standard by which all other 3D accelerators will be judged."

Since Voodoo 2 maintains full software compatibility with Microsoft's Direct3D, 3Dfx's Glide and OpenGL, current 3Dfx accelerated games will run on the new chipset. This new level of technology will not require the end user to purchase new software, as the current catalog of over 150 3Dfx enhanced titles will not only run on Voodoo 2, but will receive a noticeable improvement in performance.

Two technologies developed specifically for 3Dfx's arcade customers have now been made available to PC game players. The basic chipset for Voodoo2 contains two texture processing units that simultaneously apply two textures to a triangle for single-pass, single-cycle rendering of effects such as trilinear filtering, sophisticated lighting, spotlights and detail texturing. Dual texture units effectively double the texture fill rate and provide dramatic performance increases in games such as id Software's Quake and Quake 2, which will run upwards of 110 frames per second.

Customers will also be able to purchase a second board of the same type and connect the two for even faster gameplay. Voodoo 2 will automatically detect a second chipset and will begin operating in Scanline Interleave mode, where the first chipset draws the even scanlines of a frame while the second chipset draws the odd, reducing the amount of work per chipset by half and allowing each card to run at twice the speed. This high-end configuration expands to a 384-bit memory architecture with 4.3 Gigabytes per second memory bandwidth, achieving an amazing 180 million pixels per second.

Contrary to the claims made in the press release, all publicly available cards didn't come in AGP flavor and thus weren't able to utilize the modern graphics port. The 192 Bit memory bus mentioned in the press release consists of three separate 64 bit wide connections. One for the fixed 4 MiByte framebuffer and one for each of the two texture units' 2-4 MiBytes.

3Dfx Voodoo 2
Codename	SST-96 (notes: SST probably stands for Scott-Sellers-Tarolli, the founders of 3Dfx)
Type	3D add-on card, no 2D functionality
Year	1997 (announced), 1998 (released)
Manufacturing Technology	350 nm
No. of transistors	1 Million per chip
Pixel throughput	1 Pixel per clock
Texel throughput	2 Texel per clock (board level)
Z/Depth throughput	1 Zixel per clock
Core Clock rate	90 MHz
Memory Clock rate	90 MHz
Memory Data rate	90 MT/sec.
Memory	4 MiByte Framebuffer + 2-4 MiByte Texture Memory for eacht of the two texture units
Memory Interface	3x 64 Bit (one for Framebuffer, two for Texture Memory)
Supported 3D-Features	Perspective Correction, Bilinear Filtering, Alpha Blending, Z-Buffer, Gouraud Shading, Multi-Texturing
Supported Resolutions	320x240, 512x384, 640x400, 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 (single board without Z-Buffer)
Multi-Chip configuration	SLI, adding a second board connected via internal cable could double the theoretical figures and greatly improve 3D performance as well as enabling 1024x768 as generally usable 3D resolution

Currently, I own two of these boards (and a rather special one), one being the Creative Labs 3D Blaster Voodoo² (internal model no. CT6670). It is the fully equipped consumer version with a total of 12 MiBytes of video memory (EtronTech EM614163A-25) and a fairly standard model in every respect.



The other Voodoo 2 card according to the rather excellent ressource database at falconfly.de comes in from CMC and is called Orbit 3D (internal model no FQI3DFXV2). It is also equipped with 12 MiByte grand total memory (EliteMT M11B416256A M3462-UA -25J). No bells and wihstles on this one either.



Last but not least, I am one of the lucky persons to own a Quantum 3D board: It is called Obsidian2 SLI2 X24 and basically incorporates two 12 MiByte Voodoo2 cards on one single card albeit with two PCBs. In order to remove excessive heat beween the two planes, a fan is mounted at the right of the very long base PCB and blow air inbetween the PCBs. In total there are six chips (two framebuffer chips and 2x2 texture chips) working teamed up to render the image. 24 MiByte of EDO-RAM (Silicon Magic R9822 SM81C2256K16CJ-25, specced at 100 MHz) were an enourmous amount for that time. The cards works, but needs a special adapter cable called Medusa, which I do not have.