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Source: Kendall Bennett (KendallB@scitechsoft.com)
Moderator: Trevor Smith (trevor@haligonian.com)
-------------------------------------------------------

SciTech Display Doctor 7.0 for OS/2 BETA 8 has been released.


Where do you get it?
--------------------

You can download SciTech Display Doctor 7.0 for OS/2 BETA 8 from our
ftp site using the following URL:

  ftp://ftp.scitechsoft.com/sdd/beta/os2/sdd-os2-7.0.0-b8.zip 


What is SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2?
----------------------------------------

SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 brings SciTech's proven DOS and
Windows device support technologies to the OS/2 Operating System.
Although one of the core features of our DOS and Windows products is
the support for the VESA VBE/Core standard, the OS/2 version has
nothing at all to do with VESA services. Rather SciTech Display
Doctor for OS/2 incorporates the new SciTech Nucleus, Graphics
Architecture device driver technology to bring SciTech's device
support to the OS/2 platform. 

SciTech Nucleus is a binary portable, OS neutral, device driver
architecture. As binary portable drivers, SciTech can fully develop
and test the core device drivers in the DOS and Windows environments,
while being able to target any Intel x86 based OS as the runtime
environment (such as OS/2). This essentially allows the OS/2 product
to utilise the same SciTech binary device drivers as the DOS and
Windows versions of the product, improving the quality and
performance of the drivers for all supported operating systems.


Runtime Requirements
--------------------

SciTech Display Doctor for OS/2 requires a version of OS/2 Warp 3 or
OS/2 Warp 4 in order to run. More imporantly, it requires at least
Warp 3 with fixpack 35, or Warp 4 with fixpack 5 installed. If you
have a version with earlier fixpacks installed, SciTech Display
Doctor will refuse to install.


List of all supported chips:
----------------------------

This is a complete list of the various graphics cards that this
version of SciTech Display Doctor supports. Please note that this
list refers to the actual chips being used, not a board-level
implementation. Thus you will not see any products from Hercules or
STB on the list, but their products are supported because they use
S3, Cirrus, Tseng, etc. chips. Also, any card with less than 512KB of
memory cannot be supported by SciTech Display Doctor.  

 . Alliance ProMotion 6422, ProMotion AT24, ProMotion AT25
 . Alliance ProMotion AT3D
 . Cirrus Logic CL-GD5434, CL-GD5440, CL-GD5436, CL-GD5446
 . Cirrus Logic Laguna 5462, Laguna 5464, Laguna 5465
 . InteGraphics IGA1680, IGA1682, IGA1683, CyberPro 2000
 . InteGraphics CyberPro 2010
 . Intel i740
 . ATI Mach64 GX, Mach64 CX, Mach64 CT, Mach64 ET, Mach64 VT, 3D Rage
 . ATI Mach64 VTB, 3D Rage II, 3D Rage II+, Mach64 VT4, 3D Rage IIC
 . ATI 3D Rage Pro, 3D Rage LT Pro, Rage Mobility, Rage XL, Rage XC
 . ATI Rage 128
 . Matrox MGA Millennium, MGA Millennium II, MGA Mystique
 . Matrox MGA Mystique 220, MGA-G100, MGA-G200, MGA-G400
 . Cyrix Media GX, Media GXi, Media GXm
 . Macronix 86250, 86251
 . NVIDIA RIVA-128, RIVA-128ZX, RIVA-TNT, RIVA-TNT2
 . Philips 9710, 9712
 . Rendition Verite V1000, Verite V2100/V2200
 . S3 Vision 864, Vision 964, Vision 868, Vision 968, Trio32, Trio64
 . S3 Trio64V+, Trio64UV+, Trio64V2/DX, Aurora64V+, Virge, Virge/DX/GX
 . S3 Virge/VX, Virge/GX2, Virge/MX, Trio3D, Trio3D2x, Savage3D
 . S3 Savage4
 . Sigma Designs RealMagic 64 GX
 . SiS 6202, 6205, 6215, 5597/5598, 6326, 5595/530, 5595/620
 . Tseng Labs ET6000, ET6100
 . 3DLabs Permedia, Permedia 2, Permedia 2V
 . 3dfx Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo3

Note that there are many more chipsets that will work with our
existing legacy VBE/AF based drivers, that are not included in this
list. For a complete list of all chipsets supported in our prior
Windows and DOS products, please visit our web site. We are currently
in the process of moving all our existing device support code to our
new SciTech Nucleus device driver architecture. The above list only
lists those drivers that have been converted, and we won't be
supporting any chipsets not on the list until those drivers are
properly converted.


Changes in BETA 8:
------------------

. Fixed problems with the install script for Object Rexx. 

. Added workaround for crashes due to bugs in BVHSVGA.DLL in OS/2
fullscreen sessions. Bug fix for BVHSVGA.DLL is in the works. 

. Removed support for GRADD based refresh control, which has been
causing problems in prior beta releases. All refresh control is done
via our GACtrl fullscreen utility program. DDC Plug and Play will now
automatically choose a good refresh rate if you have a Plug and Play
monitor. 

. Temporarily removed line drawing acceleration which is broken.
Proper fix will be forthcoming in the next beta release to reenable
acceleration of lines. Line drawing appears to be the cause of a lot
of crashes in beta 7. 

. Fixed (hopefully) the last bug related to too many open file
handles to our device driver. This bug affects fullscreen OS/2 and
windowed command line programs. 

. Added support for TVOut on all ATI chipsets (RageII, RagePro and
Rage128). Our drivers will function correctly if you have a TV
attached when your system boots, and will also allow you to switch
between TV and CRT only mode using the GACtrl program. 

. Added support for LCD flat panels on ATI chipsets, including the
Rage LT Pro and Rage Mobility series. Our drivers will function
correctly if you boot up on an LCD laptop, or if you have an LCD flat
panel monitor attached. You can also switch between LCD and CRT modes
using the GACtrl program.

. Added support for S3 Savage3D and Savage4 acceleration. Full
acceleration is supported in all display modes. 

. Fixed bugs in the early S3 Virge (DX etc) chipsets, causing them to
crash when the system booted. 

. Fixed bugs and added support for the early S3 Vision series of
chipsets, with full acceleration. RAMDAC's currently supported are
IBM RGB5xx, TVP3026 and BrookTree Bt485. 

. Revamped the 3dlabs Permedia drivers, and fixed a number of bugs.
The drivers are still unaccelerated however, and acceleration is
coming soon. 

. Added 3dfx Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo3 drivers. The driver currently
supports all display modes, but is unaccelerated. Acceleration
support is coming soon. 

. Added NVidia RIVA-128, RIVA-128ZX, RIVA-TNT, and RIVA-TNT2 drivers.
The driver currently supports all display modes, but is
unaccelerated. Acceleration support is coming soon. 

. Added NeoMagic chipset support, with full acceleration. However the
driver will currently only function on an external CRT monitor, and
will cause strange results when running on an LCD panel. We are
working to get full LCD panel support working in the next beta. 

. Added as many IBM monitors into our monitor database as possible,
based on INF files downloaded from IBM's web site.
 
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