Hello.

I have two questions regarding the tr2:

1. Is there a *bios* option to stretch any video/text mode (ie. 640x480, 80x25, 80x50 etc.) to fill the entire screen? This is usually called “zoom”. I am aware of the individual zoom button but this is not what I’m looking for (the effect is achieved by changing the resolution). The text modes are important because under linux the 80x25 mode is too small in its native (unstretched) state and the framebuffer console is slower.

2. What is the wireless chipset used in the tr2ap3? This has been asked before, the answer is still unknown and google did not help either. If you own an ap3 but cannot directly identify the chipset, please post the first 6 digits (xx-xx-xx) from the MAC address of the wireless interface. To find this, run “ipconfig /all” and look for “Physical Address” under the wireless adapter. With this information I may be able to lookup the chipset manufacturer.

Thanks in advance.

[quote author=“Razvan”]Hello.

I have two questions regarding the tr2:

1. Is there a *bios* option to stretch any video/text mode (ie. 640x480, 80x25, 80x50 etc.) to fill the entire screen? This is usually called “zoom”. I am aware of the individual zoom button but this is not what I’m looking for (the effect is achieved by changing the resolution). The text modes are important because under linux the 80x25 mode is too small in its native (unstretched) state and the framebuffer console is slower.

2. What is the wireless chipset used in the tr2ap3? This has been asked before, the answer is still unknown and google did not help either. If you own an ap3 but cannot directly identify the chipset, please post the first 6 digits (xx-xx-xx) from the MAC address of the wireless interface. To find this, run “ipconfig /all” and look for “Physical Address” under the wireless adapter. With this information I may be able to lookup the chipset manufacturer.

Thanks in advance.

here are the first 6 number/letters:

00-02-8A

wabbitt

Concerning your first question, yes there is an option in the BIOS for LCD expansion.  The Intel Extreme graphics control utility also has a Panel Fit option and both work quite well - I prefer the latter since I can control it without rebooting (and it prevents the Windows XP boot logo being stretched).

Thanks again.

The MAC identifies the card manufacturer as Ambit. Unfortunately, their site doesn’t advertise any minipci card with 802.11b/g capabilities. The only ambit product I could find with wireless b/g is their wireless cable modem. Maybe they didn’t update their website yet, this being a relatively new product. There is nothing on the Wi-Fi Alliance certified products page either.

Anyway, I wasn’t able to find anything specific so I went to the sony support site and downloaded the driver for “Lan-Express AS IEEE 802.11g miniPCI”. This comes as a 2Mb+ executable that wouldn’t unpack since I had neither a tr2/grt/v505 nor an 802.11g card Using a standalone WISE unpacker I extracted the .sys file that drives the card and inside it found the string “ar5211”. This means the integrated wireless inside the tr2ap3 is made around Atheros AR5001X+ (AR2111 and AR5212).

Actually Ambit’s home site (http://www.ambitmicro.com) does list an 802.11b adapter in MiniPCI Type III form - the key is that you have to go to the home site, not the other sub-sites - see here:

http://www.ambitmicro.com/micro/MiniPCI Wireless LAN Card.htm

So they probably engineered a custom G version of it - but if so, why is it not mentioned anywhere besides Sony (in the TR2AP3)?  Hmm…

I think that is the “old” one, using the prism chipset. Sony used that too, at least in r505’s.