1SIS(4)                     Kernel Interfaces Manual                     SIS(4)
2
3
4

NAME

6       sis - SiS and XGI video driver
7

SYNOPSIS

9       Section "Device"
10         Identifier "devname"
11         Driver "sis"
12         ...
13       EndSection
14

DESCRIPTION

16       sis  is  an  Xorg  driver  for SiS (Silicon Integrated Systems) and XGI
17       video chips. The driver is accelerated and provides  support  for  col‐
18       ordepths  of  8, 16 and 24 bpp. XVideo, Render and other extensions are
19       supported as well.
20

SUPPORTED HARDWARE

22       The sis driver supports PCI, AGP and PCIe video cards based on the fol‐
23       lowing chipsets:
24
25       SiS5597/5598  SiS530/620  SiS6326/AGP/DVD  SiS300/305 SiS540 SiS630/730
26       SiS315/E/H/PRO   SiS550/551/552   SiS650/651/661/741   SiS330   (Xabre)
27       SiS760/761 XGI Volari V3/V5/V8 XGI Volari Z7
28
29       In the following text, the following terms are used:
30
31       old series for SiS5597/5598, 530/620 and 6326/AGP/DVD
32
33       300 series for SiS300/305, 540 and 630/730
34
35       315/330/340  series  for SiS315, 55x, 330, 661/741/76x (plus M, FX, MX,
36       GX variants thereof), 340 and all XGI chips.
37

CONFIGURATION DETAILS

39       Please refer to xorg.conf(5) for general configuration  details.   This
40       section only covers configuration details specific to this driver.
41
42       Detailed  information  on  all  supported  options  can  be obtained at
43       http://www.winischhofer.at/linuxsisvga.shtml
44
45       This manpage only covers a subset of the supported options.
46
47       1. For all supported chipsets
48
49       The following driver options are supported on all chipsets:
50
51       Option "NoAccel" "boolean"
52              Disable or enable  2D  acceleration.  Default:  acceleration  is
53              enabled.
54
55       Option "HWCursor" "boolean"
56              Enable or disable the HW cursor. Default: HWCursor is on.
57
58       Option "SWCursor" "boolean"
59              The opposite of HWCursor. Default: SWCursor is off.
60
61       Option "Rotate" "string"
62              Rotate   the   display  clockwise  ("CW")  or  counter-clockwise
63              ("CCW"). This mode is unaccelerated. Using this option  disables
64              XVideo and the Resize and Rotate extension (RandR). Rotation and
65              reflection (see below)  are  mutually  exclusive.   Default:  no
66              rotation.
67
68       Option "Reflect" "string"
69              Reflect  (mirror)  the  display  horizontally  ("X"), vertically
70              ("Y") or both ("XY"). This mode  is  unaccelerated.  Using  this
71              option  disables  XVideo  and  the  Resize  and Rotate extension
72              (RandR). Rotation (see above) and reflection are mutually exclu‐
73              sive.  Default: no reflection.
74
75       Option "CRT1Gamma" "boolean"
76              Enable  or disable gamma correction. (On the 300 and 315/330/340
77              series, this option only affects CRT1 output).   Default:  Gamma
78              correction is enabled.
79
80       2. Old series specific information
81
82       The  driver will auto-detect the amount of video memory present for all
83       these chips, but in the case of the 6326, it will limit the memory size
84       to  4MB. This is because the 6326's 2D engine can only address 4MB. The
85       remaining memory seems to be intended for 3D texture data,  since  only
86       the 3D engine can address RAM above 4MB. However, you can override this
87       limitation using the "VideoRAM" option in the Device  section  if  your
88       board  has  more than 4MB and you need to use it. However, 2D accelera‐
89       tion, XVideo and the HWCursor will be disabled in this case.
90
91       For the 6326, the driver has two built-in modes  for  high  resolutions
92       which  you  should  use  instead  of  the default ones. These are named
93       "SIS1280x1024-75" and "SIS1600x1200-60" and they will be added  to  the
94       list  of  default  modes.  To  use these modes, just place them in your
95       Screen section. Example:
96
97       Modes "SIS1600x1200-60" "SIS1280x1024x75" "1024x768" ...
98
99       Of these modes, 1280x1024  is  only  available  at  8,  15  and  16bpp.
100       1600x1200 is available at 8bpp only.
101
102       TV support for the 6326
103
104       TV output is supported for the 6326. The driver will auto detect a con‐
105       nected TV and in this case add the following display modes to the  list
106       of  available display modes: "PAL800x600", "PAL800x600U", "PAL720x540",
107       "PAL640x480", "NTSC640x480",  "NTSC640x480U"  and  "NTSC640x400".   Use
108       these modes like the hi-res modes described above.
109
110       The following driver Options are supported on the old series:
111
112       Option "TurboQueue" "boolean"
113              Enable or disable TurboQueue mode.  Default: off for SIS530/620,
114              on for the others
115
116       Option "FastVram" "boolean"
117              Enable or disable FastVram mode.  Enabling this sets  the  video
118              RAM  timing  to  one  cycle  per  read  operation instead of two
119              cycles. Disabling this will set two cycles for  read  and  write
120              operations.  Leaving  this  option  out  uses the default, which
121              varies depending on the chipset.
122
123       Option "NoHostBus" "boolean"
124              (SiS5597/5598 only). Disable CPU-to-VGA host bus  support.  This
125              speeds  up  CPU  to  video  RAM  transfers. Default: Host bus is
126              enabled.
127
128       Option "NoXVideo" "boolean"
129              Disable XV (XVideo) extension support. Default: XVideo is on.
130
131       Option "NoYV12" "boolean"
132              Disable YV12 Xv support. This might me required due to  hardware
133              bugs  in  some  chipsets. Disabling YV12 support forces Xv-aware
134              applications to use YUV2 or XShm  for  video  output.   Default:
135              YV12 support is on.
136
137       Option "TVStandard" "string"
138              (6326  only)  Valid  parameters are PAL or NTSC.  The default is
139              set by a jumper on the card.
140
141       Option "TVXPosOffset" "integer"
142              (6326 only) This option allows tuning the horizontal position of
143              the image for TV output. The range is from -16 to 16. Default: 0
144
145       Option "TVYPosOffset" "integer"
146              (6326  only)  This option allows tuning the vertical position of
147              the image for TV output. The range is from -16 to 16. Default: 0
148
149       Option "SIS6326TVEnableYFilter" "boolean"
150              (6326 only) This option allows enabling/disabling the Y (chroma)
151              filter for TV output.
152
153       Option "SIS6326TVAntiFlicker" "string"
154              (6326  only)  This  option  allow  enabling/disabling  the  anti
155              flicker facility for TV output.  Possible  parameters  are  OFF,
156              LOW,  MED, HIGH or ADAPTIVE.  By experience, ADAPTIVE yields the
157              best results, hence it is the default.
158
159       2. 300 and 315/330/340 series specific information
160
161       The 300 and 315/330/340 series, except the XGI Z7, feature two CRT con‐
162       trollers  and  very  often come with a video bridge for controlling LCD
163       and TV output. Hereinafter, the term CRT1 refers to the VGA  output  of
164       the  chip,  and  CRT2 refers to either LCD, TV or secondary VGA. Due to
165       timing reasons, only one CRT2 output can be active at  the  same  time.
166       But  this  limitation does not apply to using CRT1 and CRT2 at the same
167       time which makes it possible to run the driver in dual head mode.
168
169       The driver supports the following video bridges:
170
171       SiS301 SiS301B(-DH) SiS301C SiS301LV SiS302(E)LV
172
173       Instead of a video bridge, some machines have a third party LVDS trans‐
174       mitter  to  control  LCD  panels, and/or a Chrontel 7005 or 7019 for TV
175       output. All these are supported as well.
176
177       About TV output
178
179       The driver fully supports standard (PAL, NTSC, PAL-N, PAL-M) S-video or
180       composite  output as well as high definition TV (HDTV) output via YPbPr
181       plugs.  For more information on HDTV, please consult the author's  web‐
182       site.
183
184       As  regards  S-video  and CVBS output, the SiS301 and the Chrontel 7005
185       only support resolutions up to 800x600. All others support  resolutions
186       up  to  1024x768.  However, due to a hardware bug, Xvideo might be dis‐
187       torted on SiS video bridges if running NTSC or PAL-M at 1024x768.
188
189       About XVideo support
190
191       XVideo is supported on all chipsets of both families  (except  the  XGI
192       Volari  Z7  which  lacks hardware support for video overlays). However,
193       there are some differences in hardware  features  which  cause  limita‐
194       tions.  The 300 series as well as the SiS55x, M650, 651, 661FX, M661FX,
195       M661MX, 741, 741GX, M741, 76x, M76x support  two  video  overlays.  The
196       SiS315/H/PRO,  650/740, 330, 340 and the XGI Volari V3, V5 and V8 chips
197       support only one such overlay. On chips with two overlays, one  overlay
198       is used for CRT1, the other for CRT2. On the other chipsets, the option
199       "XvOnCRT2" can be used to select the desired  output  device  (CRT1  or
200       CRT2).
201
202       About Merged Framebuffer support
203
204       Merged  framebuffer  mode  is  similar  to dual head/Xinerama mode (for
205       using two output devices of one card at the same time), but has  a  few
206       advantages  which  make  me recommend it strongly over Xinerama. Please
207       see http://www.winischhofer.at/linuxsisvga.shtml for detailed  informa‐
208       tion.
209
210       About dual-head support
211
212       Dual  head mode with or without Xinerama is fully supported, be it with
213       one card driving two outputs, be it two cards. Note that  colordepth  8
214       is not supported in dual head mode if run on one card with two outputs.
215
216       The  following  driver Options are supported on the 300 and 315/330/340
217       series:
218
219       Option "NoXVideo" "boolean"
220              Disable XV (XVideo) extension support.  Default: XVideo is on.
221
222       Option "XvOnCRT2" "boolean"
223              On chipsets with only one video overlay, this option can used to
224              bind  the overlay to CRT1 ( if a monitor is detected and if this
225              option is either unset or set to false ) or CRT2  (  if  a  CRT2
226              device  is detected or forced, and if this option is set to true
227              ). If either only CRT1 or CRT2 is detected, the  driver  decides
228              automatically.  In  Merged  Framebuffer  mode,  this  option  is
229              ignored.  Default: overlay is used on CRT1
230
231       Option "ForceCRT1" "boolean"
232              Force CRT1 to be on of off. If a monitor is connected,  it  will
233              be  detected during server start. However, some old monitors are
234              not detected correctly. In such cases, you may set  this  option
235              to  on  in  order to make the driver initialize CRT1 anyway.  If
236              this option is set to off , the driver  will  switch  off  CRT1.
237              Default: auto-detect
238
239       Option "ForceCRT2Type" "string"
240              Force  display  type to one of: NONE , TV , SVIDEO , COMPOSITE ,
241              SVIDEO+COMPOSITE , SCART , LCD , VGA ; NONE will  disable  CRT2.
242              The SVIDEO, COMPOSITE, SVIDEO+COMPOSITE and SCART parameters are
243              for SiS video bridges only and can be used to force  the  driver
244              to  use a specific TV output connector (if present). For further
245              parameters, see the author's website.  Default: auto detect.
246
247       Option "CRT2Gamma" "boolean"
248              Enable or disable gamma correction for CRT2. Only supported  for
249              SiS video bridges. Default: Gamma correction for CRT2 is on.
250
251       Option "TVStandard" "string"
252              Force  the  TV standard to either PAL or NTSC.  On some machines
253              with 630, 730 and the 315/330/340 series, PALM , PALN and  NTSCJ
254              are supported as well. Default: BIOS setting.
255
256       Option "TVXPosOffset" "integer"
257              This  option  allows tuning the horizontal position of the image
258              for TV output. The range is from -32 to 32. Not supported on the
259              Chrontel 7019. Default: 0
260
261       Option "TVYPosOffset" "integer"
262              This option allows tuning the vertical position of the image for
263              TV output. The range is from -32 to 32.  Not  supported  on  the
264              Chrontel 7019. Default: 0
265
266       Option "SISTVXScale" "integer"
267              This  option selects the horizontal zooming level for TV output.
268              The range is from  -16  to  16.  Only  supported  on  SiS  video
269              bridges. Default: 0
270
271       Option "SISTVYScale" "integer"
272              This  option selects the vertical zooming level for TV output in
273              the  following  modes:  640x480,  800x600.  On  the  315/330/340
274              series,  also 720x480, 720x576 and 768x576. The range is from -4
275              to 3. Only supported on SiS video bridges. Default: 0
276
277       Option "CHTVOverscan" "boolean"
278              On machines with a Chrontel TV encoder,  this  can  be  used  to
279              force  the TV mode to overscan or underscan.  on means overscan,
280              off means underscan.  Default: BIOS setting.
281
282       Option "CHTVSuperOverscan" "boolean"
283              On machines with a Chrontel 7005 TV encoder, this option enables
284              a super-overscan mode. This is only supported if the TV standard
285              is PAL. Super overscan will produce an image on the TV which  is
286              larger than the viewable area.
287
288       The  driver  supports  many  more options. Please see http://www.winis
289       chhofer.at/linuxsisvga.shtml for more information.
290
291       3. 300 series specific information
292
293       DRI is supported on the 300 series only.  On  Linux,  prior  to  kernel
294       2.6.3,  DRI requires the kernel's SiS framebuffer driver ( sisfb ). The
295       SiS DRM kernel driver as well as the SiS DRI client driver are required
296       in any case.
297
298       Sisfb,  if  installed  and running, takes care of memory management for
299       texture data. In order to prevent the X Server and sisfb from overwrit‐
300       ing each other's data, sisfb reserves an amount of video memory for the
301       X driver.  This amount can either be selected using sisfb's mem parame‐
302       ter, or auto-selected depending on the amount of total video RAM avail‐
303       able.
304
305       Sisfb can be used for memory management only, or as a  complete  frame‐
306       buffer  driver.  If  you  start  sisfb with a valid mode (ie you gain a
307       graphical console), the X driver can communicate with sisfb and doesn't
308       require any manual configuration for finding out about the video memory
309       it is allowed to use.
310
311       However, if you are running a 2.4 series Linux kernel and use sisfb for
312       video  memory  management only, ie you started sisfb with mode=none and
313       still have a text mode console, there is no communication between sisfb
314       and the X driver. For this purpose, the
315
316       Option "MaxXFBMem" "integer"
317
318       exists.  This  option  must  be set to the same value as given to sisfb
319       through its "mem" parameter, ie the amount of memory to use  for  X  in
320       kilobytes.
321
322       If you started sisfb without the mem argument, sisfb will reserve
323
324       12288KB if more than 16MB of total video RAM is available,
325
326       8192KB if between 12 and 16MB of video RAM is available,
327
328       4096KB in all other cases.
329
330       If  you  intend  to use DRI on an integrated chipset (540, 630, 730), I
331       recommend setting the total video memory in the BIOS setup  utility  to
332       64MB.
333
334       PLEASE  NOTE:  As  of Linux 2.6.3 and under *BSD, sisfb is not required
335       for memory management. Hence, this option is mandatory on such  systems
336       not  running  sisfb to decide how much memory X should reserve for DRI.
337       If the option is omitted, DRI will have no memory assigned, and all DRI
338       applications  will  quit with errors like "failed to allocate Z-buffer"
339       or the like.
340
341       Option "DRI" "boolean"
342              This option allows enabling or disabling DRI. By default, DRI is
343              on.
344
345       Option "AGPSize" "integer"
346              This option allows selecting the amount of AGP memory to be used
347              for DRI.  The amount is to be specified in megabyte, the default
348              is 8.
349

KNOWN BUGS

351       none.
352

SEE ALSO

354       Xorg(1), xorg.conf(5), xorgconfig(1), Xserver(1), X(7)
355
356
357
358
359       http://www.winischhofer.at/linuxsisvga.shtml  for  more information and
360       updates
361

AUTHORS

363       Author: Thomas Winischhofer. Formerly based on code by Alan  Hourihane,
364       Mike  Chapman,  Juanjo  Santamarta, Mitani Hiroshi, David Thomas, Sung-
365       Ching Lin, Ademar Reis.
366
367
368
369X Version 11                 xf86-video-sis 0.9.3                       SIS(4)
Impressum