ELSA Synergy 2000 User manual

ELSA SynergyTM 2000

© 2001 ELSA AG, Aachen (Germany)
While the information in this manual has been compiled with great care, it may not be deemed an assurance of product
characteristics. ELSA shall be liable only to the degree specified in the terms of sale and delivery.
The reproduction and distribution of the documentation and software supplied with this product andthe use of its contents
is subject to written authorization from ELSA. We reserve the right to make any alterations that arise as the result of
technical development.
ELSA is DIN EN ISO 9001 certified. The accredited TÜV CERT certification authority has confirmed ELSA conformity to the
worldwide ISO 9001 standard in certificate number 09 100 5069, issued on June 15, 1998.
You can find all declarations and approvals for the products, as long as they were available at the time of publication, in
the appendix of this documentation.
Trademarks
AutoCAD®and Autodesk®are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc.
Windows®, Windows NT®and Microsoft®are registered trademarks of Microsoft, Corp.
OpenGL® API is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc.
The ELSA logo is a registered trademark of ELSA AG. All other names mentioned may be trademarks or registered trade-
marks of their respective owners.
Subject to change without notice. No liability for technical errors or omissions.
Aachen, May 2001
ELSA, Inc.
1630 Zanker Road
San Jose, CA 95112
USA
www.elsa.com
ELSA AG
Sonnenweg 11
52070 Aachen
Germany
www.elsa.com
100946/0501

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Preface
Thank you for placing your trust in this ELSA product
With the ELSA Synergy 2000 you have selected a graphics board which was
designed as a product for professional CAD and visualization. The graphics
processor on the board ensures high-speed generation of on-screen graphics
making this board ideal for advanced CAD and visualization applications as
well as for fast animation. ELSA products are subject to the highest standards
in production and quality control, which are the foundations of consistantly
high product quality.
About this manual
This manual provides all the information you will need to get the best out of
your ELSA graphics board. For instance, which resolution is best for which
monitor? The accompanying ELSA utility programs are described.
Changes to this manual
ELSA products are subject to continual development. It is therefore possible
that the information printed in this manual is not current in all respects.
Curent information about updates can always be found in the README files
on the ELSA CD.
If you have further questions or need additional help, you can rely on our
online services which are available to ELSA customers.

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Before you read on...
The installation of the ELSA Synergy 2000 hardware and drivers is described
in full in the installation guide which accompanies this manual. You should
refer to that document before attempting to install your board.

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Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.1 Highlights of the ELSA Synergy 2000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2 What's in the box? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3 What hardware do I need?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 After installing the drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.1 Software installation from the CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 The right settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.1 What are your options?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.2 What is best for what situation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.3 Changing the resolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3.1 Windows 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3.2 Windows NT 4.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3 Useful stuff and more . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.1 OpenGL API application settings in Windows NT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2 OpenGL API application settings in Windows 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.3 Color Correction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.4 Tools for AutoCAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.4.1 ELSA POWERdraft for AutoCAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.4.2 QuadroView. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.5 Tools for 3D Studio MAX/VIZ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.5.1 ELSA MAXtreme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4 Graphics know-how. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.1 3D graphics representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.1.1 The 3D pipeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.2 3D interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.2.1 What APIs are available? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.2.2 Direct3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.2.3 The OpenGL API . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.2.4 Color palettes, TrueColor and gray scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2.5 VGA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.2.6 DirectColor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.2.7 VESA DDC (Display Data Channel) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.2.8 DDC2B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.2.9 DDC2AB. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

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5 Technical data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.1 Characteristics of the graphics board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.2 ELSA graphics board addresses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.3 Ports on the graphics board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
5.4 The VGA D-shell socket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.1 CE conformity and FCC radiation standard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.1.1 European Council (CE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
6.2 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
6.3 Warranty conditions for Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
6.4 Warranty conditions for North America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
7 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
8 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

|Introduction 7
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1 Introduction
1.1 Highlights of the ELSA Synergy 2000
쎲NVIDIA Quadro2 EX processor
쎲32 MB SDRAM (unified memory)
쎲Application drivers for AutoCAD and 3D Studio MAX
쎲Support via Internet and hotline
쎲Six-year warranty
1.2 What's in the box?
You will notice if your graphics board is missing. But you need to check that
the box contains all of the following:
쎲Graphics board
쎲Installation Guide
쎲Manual
쎲CD-ROM with installation and driver software and utilities
If any part is missing please contact your dealer. ELSA reserves the right to
vary the products supplied without prior notice. The current scope of delivery
is described on our web site.
1.3 What hardware do I need?
쎲Computer: A system with at least a Celeron, Pentium II or AMD Duron or
K6-2 processor (300 MHz or higher), preferably a Pentium III/IV or AMD
Athlon or Thunderbird and a minimum of 64 MB RAM is required. Approx.
20 MB free disk space and a CD-ROM drive are required for the installa-
tion.
쎲Monitor: The ELSA Synergy 2000 works with a standard IBM VGA com-
patible analog monitor with a horizontal scan frequency of at least 31.5
kHz.

Introduction |
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|After installing the drivers 9
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2 After installing the drivers
In this chapter you will find descriptions of:
쎲where you can find the software for operating the ELSA Synergy 2000
쎲the performance characteristics of your graphics board,
쎲the most effective tuning for the combination of monitor and ELSA graph-
ics board.
2.1 Software installation from the CD
The ELSA Synergy 2000 is normally supplied with software on a CD-ROM.
You will find all the utilities described in this manual on the ELSA Synergy
2000 CD—unless they are a component of the operating system.
Once you have successfully completed the steps described in the Installation
Guide, your ELSA driver is integrated into your computer system with
installed drivers. If the autostart function for your CD-ROM drive under Win-
dows has been switched off, the setup program on the ELSA Synergy 2000
CD will not start automatically. It can be found and started manually from the
root directory of the CD and is called Autorun.EXE.
The greater part of the installation is automated; ELSA setup detects the
installed operating system and ELSA graphics board(s).
2.2 The right settings
After installing the drivers the display is set to the lowest values, namely 640
x 480 resolution with 256 colors and 60 Hz refresh rate. Your first task is to
increase all these values to a more comfortable level, especially the refresh
rate, which is best set to at least 75 Hz to avoid flickering.
Our tip is: Invest a little time at this stage and you won’t regret it. Take the
time to optimally tune your combination of monitor and graphics board. Your
eyes will thank you for it, and you are guaranteed to have more fun in front
of your screen.
To set up your system properly, the following questions should be answered:
쎲What is the maximum resolution I can set on my system?
쎲Which color depth do I want to use?
쎲How high should the refresh rate be set?

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2.2.1 What are your options?
The tables below show the maximum possible resolutions for the ELSA
graphics board. Note that these resolutions cannot be achieved under all
operating conditions.
2.2.2 What is best for what situation?
There are some basic ground rules for you to follow when setting up your
graphics system. On the one hand, there are the ergonomic guidelines, al-
though nowadays these are met by most systems, and on the other hand
there are limitations inherent to your system, e.g. your monitor. The question
of whether your applications need to run using large color depths—perhaps
even TrueColor—is also important. This is an important condition for many
DTP or CAD workstations.
ELSA Synergy 2000 Output Resolutions with Z buffering/
double buffering
Pixel VGA (Hz) HighColor
(16 bit)
TrueC olor
(32bit)
2048 x 1536 85 쮿
1920 x 1200 113 쮿쮿
1920 x 1080 125 쮿쮿
1600 x 1200 135 쮿쮿
1600 x 1024 175 쮿쮿
1280 x 1024 198 쮿쮿
1280 x 960 200 쮿쮿
1152 x 864 200 쮿쮿
1024 x 768 200 쮿쮿
800 x 600 200 쮿쮿
640 x 480 200 쮿쮿
HighColor = 65,536 colors, TrueColor = 16.7 million colors