DOS Days
Old PC Computing Resource
Genoa Systems
Genoa Systems was founded in 1984, in San Jose, CA. Their graphics cards were popular up to the VESA Super VGA era, but lost traction as the market moved into 3D.
In anticipation of a fast-growing mass-market for Internet services, starting in 1998, the company sought to transform itself from a hardware manufacturer into a provider of consumer software services. However, the hoped-for success did not materialize and the company went bankrupt.
Their "Super EGA" cards were very popular due to the fact they could display higher resolutions that the 640 x 350 standard, and their cards had more than the requisite 64 KB of memory. A lot of OEMs adopted Genoa cards for their PC compatibles. Genoa was one of the eight founding members of the VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association), responsible for standardising the Super VGA resolution. It was also the first to introduce "Flicker Free" technology at 72 hz refresh rate.
They also made an audio card called "AudioBlitz", and a later one called "AudioBahn", in 1993.
Video Cards
Spectrum CGA (Model 3300)
As was typical on these early graphics adapters, this card also comes with a parallel (printer) port. |
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Super Spectrum CGA (Model 4640)
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Super Spectrum EGA (Model 4650)
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Spectra EGA (Model 4800 / 4850-5)
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SuperEGA HiRes+ (Model 4850A)
This card was the first ever "Super EGA" graphics chipset/card on the market. It could support resolutions up to 800 x 600. It has a 9-pin D-SUB and two phono (RCA) jacks. There are also a set of 6 DIP switches for configuration. This card was also sold by Prisma as the PEGA 724850. The core clock runs at 26.8 MHz. |
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SuperEGA HiRes+ (Model 4880-9)
This card has a 9-pin D-SUB for connection to a digital monitor, and composite video output via two phono (RCA) jacks for connection to a television. It can display up to 800 x 600 x 16 on a Multisync monitor, and in text mode up to 132 columns and 60 rows. The upper phono jack produces composite video output. J3 on the board is a light pen connector, and the large block on the top is an EGA feature connector. The jumpers can be configured as follows:
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Super VGA (Model 5100)
The highest resolution of the Super VGA card is 1056 x 480. Because this card fully supports not only VGA but also its predecessors, the card has both a 15-pin DSUB (for VGA and MCGA analogue output) as well as a 9-pin DSUB (for the digital signal output of MDA, Hercules, CGA and EGA).
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Super VGA HiRes (Model 5200-10)
This card supports resolutions of 1024 x 768 and 800 x 600 in 16 colours, or 640 x 480 and 512 x 512 in 256 colours. It supports both analog and TTL (digital) monitors. For text modes, it also supports 80 columns x 66 rows for word processing, or up to 132 columns x 66 rows for spreadsheets and databases. Image above credited to Daniel Owen - thanks Daniel!
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SuperVGA (Model 5300/5400 IN)
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SuperVGA (Model 6400)
"PROS: Flicker-free operation in all modes
CONS: No 1MB version, one-year warranty The Genoa SuperVGA 6400A goes for a moderate $248 on the street and offers flicker-free 70-Hz screen refresh all the way up to 1024 by 768. With a RAM limit of 512K, however, you can enjoy that resolution with only 16 colors. A growing number of Windows applications use 256 colors, allowing you to preview color slides and run monitor-based presentations. You can get 256 colors from this board - but only if you never go beyond 800 by 600. As for performance, the board fell well below the mean in both the AutoCAD and PowerPoint tests. At 70 Hz, the SuperVGA 6400A displays two screens fewer per second than 72-Hz boards. But unless you have oscilloscopes for eyes, you won't notice the difference. Genoa's warranty expires after one year, and the SuperVGA 6400A's speed won't thrill you. Flicker-free performance across all modes is this board's main selling point. If you want a flickerless 1024 by 768 image from a 16-inch monitor such as NEC's MultiSync 4D, this board and the ATI VGA Wonder XL are your only choices." PC World, August 1991
A Model 6600 was also released - this was the same as the 6400 but had a Micro-Channel Architecture (MCA) interface. A 6600A variant supported 70 Hz refresh rate.
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Multimedia VGA (Model 7900)
This card used the Tseng Labs ET4000AX chipset with 1 MB RAM. It supported a range of RAMDACs including normal (256 colours), HiColor (32,000 colours) and a Special (16.7 million colours). "Under Windows, at a resolution of 640 by 480 pixels by 24 bits, Image-In-Color displayed beautifully clean, clear, and crisp 24-bit images. Genoa trademarks its non-interlaced technology as FlickerFree, and, indeed, all resolutions (even 1280 by 1024 pixels by 4 bits at 87 Hz) are absolutely rock steady. The 7900 is a fine bargain, especially with its extensive driver bundle. Although it's not an accelerated board, it performed well. I liked the 7900 and would recommend it as today's most inexpensive 24-bit Windows solution." Byte's Essential Guide to Windows, 1992
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Windows VGA 24 (Model 8500)
This was the first graphics accelerator card designed specifically for Windows and AutoCAD. Thanks to Charles Hudson for the VLB card image below! Additional Images
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Windows VGA 24+
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Windows VGA 64
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TurboBahn
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Phantom 32
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Phantom 64 V2001 Model 8765
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Phantom 64 2M VLB Model 8864VL
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Phantom 64 Model 8864PCI
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Phantom 3D
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Stratos 3D
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V-Raptor 3D
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Video Blitz 9200VL
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Motherboards
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Sound Cards
AudioGraphix 8600 VLA
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Audio Blitz Classic (Model A3100)
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Audio Blitz 3D
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Audio Blitz Stereo 16+ (Model A3300)
DriversDOS / Windows 3.1 version 1.2
More Images
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Audio Blitz ? (Model A3320)
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Audio Blitz ? (Model A3400)
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