[C] Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 14:41:48 +0100
From: Markus Gebhard 

I have looked for something in the FAQ and happened to find the chapter:

   Video Controller

It is from Christian Rausch and I do not know when this informations
have been written down. But this informations are all pretty much out of
date, for we know much more about the Aero's graphics. It is all written
down at http://kakadu.rz.uni-passau.de/~gebhar03/aero/video.htm

Here is the peace of information most related to 1.3.11:

The 4/33c ueses a SPC8106F0b, not a SPC8108. It has 512k of RAM but the
model F0b of this chip is not able to access the upper 256k. The F0c
revision is able to do this but there is no Aero in the world with this
chip revision.

I think it would be a good idea to add a link to the video part from my
page at this place and to delete the last part of the text in 1.3.11,
for it only will cause confusion.


[C] From: Christian.Rausch
Date: 1996?

according to compaq:
http://www.compaq.com/productinfo/notebooks/video_specs/videospecs.htm
the Aero uses a SMOS 8108 LCD controller from SMOS/Epson.

Description

The SPC8108FOC is a versatile VGA graphics controller capable of
driving liquid crystal displays and analog CRT monitors. The
controller integrates all LCD interface, sequencing and gray shading
logic into one small form factor 144 pin package. With the addition of
an industry standard '477 type RAMDAC, the SPC8108FOC will also drive
a VGA fixed frequency or multifrequency monitor.

The target products for this device are price and power sensitive 80 x
86 microprocessor based subnotebooks or other specialized LCD systems
where a high quality 16 or 64 gray shade VGA image on a 320 x 200 to
640 x 480 LCD panel display are the major design criteria. 

I do not know if this really is the controller inside the Aero, since 
I haven't opened my Aero 4/25 yet (has anybody else looked at the LCD 
controller's label ? Please, tell us what's written on it! Has 
anybody seen the above mentioned '477 RAMDAC?).

The product brief above tells that the SPC8108 is a MONOCHROME LCD 
controller, but according to Compaq it's also used on color Aeros! So, 
maybe SMOS built a special version for Compaq, or Compaq uses some 
tricks to use the SPC8108 for the color LCD screen.

If the Aero's controller is the SPC8108 above, or at least similar to 
the SPC8108, then we're not lucky, because it seems to be restricted 
to 256k video RAM, which is not enough for 640x480x256(colors).
The other 256k are used, according to Compaq, for the 'pop-up feature when
coming out of stand-by' and seem to be inaccessible by the LCD 
controller.