[Info-vax] PowerStorm 350 vs Radeon 7500

[John H. Reinhardt]

On 2014-09-05 01:10:09 -0400, Alan Frisbie said:

> On 09/04/2014 09:22 PM, John H. Reinhardt wrote:
> 
>> Same here.  I had been using a Raritan MX4 and setting everything to
>  > 1600x1200 but I recently upgraded the KVM to a Paragon II and now can
>  > do 1920x1600 although things are just a bit fuzzy as that's
>> pushing the Raritan's resolution max.
> 
> I am also using a Raritan MX4 (-16), but would like to upgrade to
> one that supports bi-directional monitor detection and USB keyboard/mouse.
> Needless to say it also needs mode 3 keyboard support (VMS style).
> Does the Paragon II do all that?
> 
> Alan

The Paragon II UST (User station) has both USB and PS2 inputs for 
keyboard and mouse.  I have a LK463 hooked to the PS2 inputs through 
the USB/PS2 converters that came with the keyboard.  I forget if I 
tried them In the USB port, but I think I did and found they didn't 
work right.  But I'm also using a Kennsington Expert Mouse trackball as 
a mouse device so that may be part of it.  In the current setup the 
keyboard and mouse work as expected with all the keys doing what they 
should for OpenVMS systems.

When using the MX4 I found I needed the APKME module at each Alpha 
system in order to get the keyboard to work correctly.  With the 
Paragon II they are no longer needed.  Apparently the code in them was 
folded into the P2-CIM device code.

I am not using the P2-EUST (Enhanced user stations) and P2-CIM-AUSB or 
P2-CIM-APS2 which have the abilitiy to customise the RGB delays and fix 
any ghosting which may occur.  Mostly because of price.  The cheapest 
EUST was around $200 on Ebay and the P2-CIMz were around $100 last I 
looked.  The "normal" UST i got was $45 and I got the CIMs in bulk for 
about $8 each (12 of them).  Plus the Paragon II base usnit is in a 
rack with most of the systems and the longest run from system to P2 is 
10 feet.  I hope not too much distortion can occur in that distance.

-- 

John H. Reinhardt