Thunder/24 for Windows ISA driver notes

Driver software for the Thunder/24 ISA card for Windows 3.1.

All files located in this directory are compressed into a self extracting
archive using the PKZIP file compression software.  No software is required
to de-compress these files.

After your files have been downloaded, simply use the following command to
extract the files:

                THEISANT -D <destination>

                Example:    THUNISA -D A:

The example above will place the unziped files on to your A: drive.
The "-d" option will extract the original directory hierarchy on to the
designated drive.  Failure to use the -d option will prevent the software
from working.


Filename       Size      Date    Description of File Contents
============ ========  ========  ============================================

THUNISA.EXE 307569    07-01-94 | Thunder/24 ISA Disk Version 7/1/94
                               | This is the entire Thunder/24 ISA Windows 
                               | installation disk.

==============================================================================
Windows 95 Note

The Thunder/24 ISA board will not be updated beyond this driver version, 
nor will it be supported under Windows 95.  Windows 95 expects a
user-accessible base MMIO address, and since the Thunder/24 ISA board 
pre-dates these requirements by several years and offers no MMIO interface, 
it will not be possible to retrofit or upgrade it to run under Windows 95.
==============================================================================
There is no Thunder/24 ISA driver available for any version of Windows NT.
==============================================================================

			  SuperMATCH Thunder/24 ISA

				 Release Notes

			         29 March 1994

These release notes contain the latest information about operating your 
new Thunder/24 for Microsoft Windows graphics display card and software.


-------- Release Notes ---------


1.  Requirements

    The Thunder/24 drivers require a 80386 based CPU or better, and are
    fully supported only in Windows 386 Enhanced mode.


2.  Unnamed floppy prompt

    If you attempt to install the Thunder/24 software from your B: floppy,
    you will see the prompt "Please insert the .", due to a bug in the
    Windows SETUP program.  Type "B:\" (or the name of the disk drive 
    holding the Thunder/24 install disk), then click OK.


3.  Third-party "shell" programs

    If you are using a third-party shell program, such as the Norton Desktop
    for Windows, and you experience problems while installing Thunder/24
    software, refer to the detailed section later in this file.


4.  Applications with difficulties at 24 bits

    - The Windows Program Manager will cause errors if you attempt to add 
      applications to a large group.  See the detailed section later in 
      this file.

    - The Microsoft Visual C++ setup program attempts to create a large group
      and will issue two errors.  See the detailed section later in this file.

    - The "Aquatic Realm" and "Swan Lake" screen saver modules in After Dark
      2.0 display strange bitmaps on devices with 24 bits of color depth.
      Release 2.0a of After Dark solves this problem.  Contact Berkeley
      Systems Technical Support at 1-800-877-5535 for this upgrade.


5.  Compaq Prosignia with motherboard SCSI

    If you intend to install your Thunder/24 in a Compaq Prosignia system
    using a SCSI disk and the on-board SCSI controller, you need to take
    an additional step after installing your Thunder/24 but before actually
    using the board.  Refer to the detailed section later in this file.


==========================
-------- Details ---------
==========================

This file contains notes and information relating to the Windows driver
installation and usage which might not have made it into the release
documentation.


1. Restrictions
---------------
The Thunder/24 drivers require an 80386 CPU or better, and are fully
supported only in Windows 3.1 386 Enhanced mode.  Our experience has shown
that the driver operates correctly in Windows Standard mode only if an 
extended memory manager (such as EMM386 or QEMM) is NOT used. Thunder/24 
will not operate at all in Windows 3.0 Real mode, and neither should you.

Ordinarily, this does not present a problem.  Most 386 users use Enhanced 
mode.  However, when you perform an initial Windows installation, you must
select a VGA device as your initial graphics adapter when performing an 
initial Windows installation.  Then, once Windows has been installed, you 
may use the Thunder/24 Setup utility to change to the Thunder/24 adapter.


2. Windows 3.0
--------------
SuperMac does not support operation of the Thunder/24 ISA card and driver 
under Windows 3.0.


3. Installation Notes
---------------------

. Locating the frame buffer window

    Thunder/24 ISA needs a 64k window in your memory space to access its 
    frame buffer.  The frame buffer can be located at any 64k boundary in
    the lowest megabyte (000000 to 0FFFFF), or in the 16th megabyte 
    (F00000 to FFFFFF) of the address space.  The installation program 
    will scan your address space in an attempt to locate available 
    locations, but because of the nature of the ISA bus, the installation 
    program is not always able to locate a free spot, and will 
    occasionally diagnose as "free" a location which has some other
    device.  The following suggestions will assist you in installing the 
    driver.

    If your system has less than 16 megabytes of RAM memory, you should 
    always place Thunder/24 in the 16th megabyte.  This entirely avoids 
    any conflicts with other I/O devices.  If you have 16 megabytes or 
    more, you will need to choose a slot in the lower megabyte.  There 
    are five such slots available:  A0000, B0000, C0000, D0000 and E0000.
    E0000 would be a good first choice, because there are rarely devices 
    located there.  If E0000 is not available, try D0000 next; D0000 will
    often be a problem if you have an 8-bit VGA card, because the 8-bit 
    VGA ROM BIOS at C0000 will mess up any 16-bit devices at D0000.

    If E0000 and D0000 are unavailable, you should try A0000.  At this 
    address, Thunder/24 shares the address space with your VGA card.  
    Thunder/24 stays dormant until Windows starts up; the Windows driver 
    will correctly arbitrate the address space between the two devices.  
    HOWEVER, if your Thunder/24 is located at A0000, DOS applications 
    which use VGA graphics will not run in a DOS window.  They will be 
    suspended until you switch them to full screen using Alt-Enter.

    NOTE!  If you place Thunder/24 ISA at C0000, D0000 or E0000, you do 
    NOT have to exclude the region from your EMM386 or QEMM upper memory 
    buffers.  The Thunder/24 Windows driver will operate correctly even 
    if you have a UMB overlaying its address space.

    To summarize all of this, our recommendations, in order, are:

    	1. Fx0000 (anywhere in the 16th megabyte)
	2. 0E0000
	3. 0D0000
	4. 0A0000

. Unnamed floppy prompt

    Because of a bug in the Windows SETUP utility, if you are installing 
    Thunder/24 from your B: floppy, you might be prompted with the 
    particularly unfriendly message "Please insert the ." If you receive 
    this prompt, type in "B:\", or the path to the floppy disk drive 
    holding the Thunder/24 install disk if you are using a different 
    drive.

. Third-party "Shell" Programs

    The Thunder/24 installation and setup program communicates with the 
    Windows Program Manager to install the Thunder/24 group and program 
    icons.  Some third-party shells, such as Norton's Desktop for Windows,
    do not fully comply with the Program Manager DDE interface, and will
    produce a system error during the Thunder/24 installation.

    To work around this problem, either change the SHELL line in your
    SYSTEM.INI file to read "SHELL=PROGMAN.EXE" and restart Windows, or
    launch PROGMAN.EXE from your preferred shell.  Then, restart the 
    Thunder/24 installation.


4. Applications with difficulty at 24 bits per pixel
----------------------------------------------------

Some applications have difficulty operating on a true-color device with 24
bits per pixel.  Here are some of the applications which are known to have
difficulty.

. Program Manager

    All of the bitmaps for all of the icons within a Program Manager group
    must fit within a single 64K segment.  Because of this, at 24 bits per
    pixel a single group can hold at most 19 icons.  Attempting to add the
    20th icon to a group results in a message box indicating "Insufficient
    Memory to complete the operation."  The only solution to this is to 
    split the group into two smaller groups.

. Microsoft Visual C++

    As one of the last steps in its setup process, Microsoft Visual C++
    creates a program group with 22 icons.  Because of the Program Manager 
    limitation described above, the addition of last two icons will generate 
    errors.  Microsoft is aware of this problem and will be issuing a 
    corrective update.

    In the interim, one solution is to create another group by hand
    called "Visual C++ Doc", then move (using drag-and-drop) all the 
    documentation related icons to this new group.  Then you may add the two 
    icons which fail: MFCNOTES.HLP and MFCSAMP.HLP, both in the MSVC\HELP 

. Berkeley Systems After Dark 2.0

    The "Aquatic Realm" and "Swan Lake" screen saver modules in After Dark 
    2.0 display very strange bitmaps on devices with 24 bits of color 
    depth.  Release 2.0a of After Dark solves this problem.  Contact 
    Berkeley Systems Technical Support at 1-800-877-5535 for this upgrade.


5.  Usage of I/O Ports
----------------------

In some cases, in can be useful to know exactly which I/O ports are required
by your peripheral devices.  This can be especially useful for isolating
unusual conflicts.

The Thunder/24 ISA card uses 22 I/O ports.  These ports are not remappable.  
The ports are:

	01D0 01D1
	05D0 05D1
	09D0 09D1
	0DD0 0DD1
	11D0 11D1
	41D0 41D1
	51D0 51D1
	81D0 81D1
	91D0 91D1
	C1D0 C1D1
	D1D0 D1D1

Thunder/24 ISA requires no IRQs nor DMA lines.


Technical Support

For technical support for this product, you may call Radius Technical Support 
at: 1-408-541-5700.

For priority access to technical support for assistance with this product, 
please call Radius Technical Support at: 1-900-555-6275, or 1-800-573-6275.

Also virtually all of the information about this product, including
compatibility and common questions and answers can be found, free of charge,
on our technical faxback system at (800) 332-9225.
