Introduction

AVEC Series
   Display Adapter II
   Display Adapter IV
   Display Adapter V
BVEC Series
   Display Adapter B-II (old)
   Display Adapter B-II (new)
DBCS Series
   DBCS Display Adapter /J
   DBCS Display Adapter /NI-J

Introduction

High quality Japanese Fonts on a screen. That's what IBM Japan pursued for from beginning.
IBM PC started with MDA, Monochrome Display Adapter (720x350 text only) and CGA, Color Graphics Array (640 x 200 2 colors) in 1981.
In order to handle Japanese Kanji characters, Japanese PC manufacturers developed their own video systems.
Most of the manufacturers used 640 x400 dots resolution using 16 x 16-dots Kanji fonts and those video systems were "company specific" and were not compatible with each other. "Incompatibility among each hardwares" required company specific MS-DOS too. There were various versions of Japanese MS-DOS which could be used solely for specific PC.
IBM Japan decided to use high quality fonts in 24 x24 dots for their PC, IBM Multi-Station series, and it required 1024 x 768 high resolution. (IBM Japan also used 16 x 16 dots fonts for entry class models and these were designed for 720 x 512 dots resolution.)
Non-abliviated Kanji fonts in 24 x 24 dots were really beautiful and basic concept about treatment of Japanese characters and video system of Multi-Station series had been carried over to PS/55 Display Adapter II and the video mode was called as PS/55 High Resolution mode. IBM DOS J4.0 ( usually refereed as JDOS ) was one of above mentioned company specific MS-DOS which was modified by IBM Japan to be used solely for PS/55s with PS/55 Display Adapters.

AVEC Series

PS/55 Japanese Display Adapters in AVEC series were developed for 1st generation of PS/55s such as 5570 and 5550 386ers which had VGA chip on their planar.

Display Adapter (codename LEO?, P/N?)

Double Decked Card prepared for 5570-S. Don't have enough information about this adapter.

Display Adapter II (P/N 38F4650, my notes say P/N 94X1649)

This adapter came with 5550-S/T. 512KB VIDEO RAM on the PCB . additional 512KB VIDRAM can be added through connector J1.

Display Adapter III (P/N 64F8907)

Don't have enough information about this adapter.

Display Adapter IV P/N 38F7016 (P/N 38F7016, my log says P/N 79F5417)

Stock Video Adapter for 5530-Z (and probably for 5530-T )
Seems there are two types of IV adapter. Optional 512KB VRAM can be added through connector J2.
Different P/N for optional VRAM are available. One is 38F7075 and the other is 64F9668.

This adapter has VGA chip (90X8941) but the connector is AVE.
When I noticed VGA chip on the card I thought this one was BVE card because 5530-T/S didn't have VGA chip on the planar. Strange card this one is.

Display Adapter V (P/N 56F7520)

Stock Display adapter for 5551-S1/T1/V1 and 5571-V1

U1 FONT 94X1320 U2 38F4782 PG /TC110G38AF U3 56F7478 PV /TC110G38CG U4 38F4782 PG /TC110G38AF U5 56F7478 PV /TC110G38CG U7-13, 17-48 65X2554 (41465 ZIP)

U14 56F7477 PD /TC110G38AF U15 54F7479 PC /TC110G17AF U16 DAC 83X3208 J1 60-pin Connector for additional VRAM J2 40-pin Connector ZIP RAM below J21 65X2554

BVEC Series

Display Adapter B

I have not seen this card.

Display Adapter B-II (Older Version, ZIP RAM, P/N 79F2159)

Stock video adapter for 5541-T (386-20), 5561-W (486-33), 5580-Y, (and probably for 5551-Vxx)

U1 VGA-FP 90X8941 U2 - U25 41465 ZIP U27- U34 41465 ZIP VRAM (VGA) M5M4464AL U48 DAC 83X3028 U51 PG144-FP 38F4782PG U52 PV144-FP 56F7478PV U53 PG144-FP 38F4782PG U54 PV144-FP 56F7478PV U55 PD144-FP 56F7477PD

U56 PC144-FP 56F7479PC U57 FONT 94X1320 Y1 25.175MHz Y2 28.322MHz Y3 45.570MHz Y4 45.570MHz Y5 47.424MHz ZIP RAM beside Y3 65X2554 x8 J1 Solder pads (Poss for VRAM EXPANSION) J2 Video Output

Display Adapter B-II (Newer Version, P/N 79F5413)

U1-U7 MHS511665JP8 U8-U9 TC511664J-10 U10 VGA 90X8941 U12 ROS 79F5421 U14 HM511664JP8 U15 HM511664JP8 U18 HM511665JP8 U19 39F4782PG/TC110G38FG U20 56F7478PV/TC110G38CG U21 38F4782/TC110G38AF U22 56F7478/ TC110G38CG

U23 79F5427 PD7/TC140G37AF U24 54F7479 PC/TC110G17AF U25 DAC INMOS IMSG176-J66 Y5 47.424 J2 Video Output Y1 25.175 Y2 28.322 Y3 58.000 Y4 45.570 Y5 47.424

DBCS Series

DBCS series were sold with newer desktop 486ers such as 5551-N/Y/R/L, 5530-L, 5521-Y.
It is told that DBCS adapter family (this one and Adapter/NI-J listed below) were designed to keep compatibility with PS/2 systems. I'm not sure if these adapter don't need MONCHK.EXE when these are installed on PS/2s.
At least AVEC family (Adapter-II/III/V) should be used with MONCHK.EXE in autoexec.bat when these are used with PS/2 systems.

DBCS Display Adapter/J (P/N 49G2000, FRU 07G0446)

Stock video card for 5551-N/Y.

U1-7 1M W/B HM511665JP8 U8-9 1M B/W HM511664JP8 U10 Video 34G3196 U11 79F5427 PD7 /TC140G37AF U12/15 1M B/W HM511664JP8 U13 1M ROS 79F5424 U16 DAC (?) (glued heatsink) U17 1M W/B HM511665JP8 U18 38F4782 PG/TC110G38AF U19 56F7478 PV/TC110G38CG

U20 38F7482 PG/TC110G38AF U21 (?) (glued heatsink) U22 06G6722/BUSCON Y1 45.570 Y2 58.000 Y3 47.424 Y4 25.175 Y5 28.322 Y6 41.5390 J1 Video Output

DBCS Display Adapter/NI-J (P/N 54G1464, FRU 54G1463)

The last Japanese Display Adapter equipped in 5551-R/L and 5521-Y1B.
"NI" stands for "Non-Interlaced".

U1-2 HM511664JP8 U3 662G8275/HN62418FZ10 U4-5 TC51664BJ-80 U6-7 76G9119 U8 66G9060PGV2/TC6217TF U9-10 76G9119 U11 ICS 9412 9128-42CW16

U12 34G3155 U13 54G1466 U14 79F5427/TC140G37AF U15 06G6722 U16 INMOS IMSG176J-80 U18 Adapter ROM 85G7137 J1 Video Output

Win95 and Japanese Display Adapter

Win 3.1J driver for PS/55 display adapter family could be used on Win95 in 1024x768 16 color resolution but it's SLOW. Basically these adapters are for DOS (and Win 3.1) operation.
Japanese Readers, please see How to use PS/55 Display adapter family under Win95.

Installing PS/55 Display Adapter DA-J on PS/2

Basically Japanese Display Adapters were designed to be used with IBM Japan's specialized JDOS. It was said that PS/55 DA with AVEC connector can't be used with the PS/2 line. BVEC family and DA-J family could be used in PS/2. I'm not sure about this issue but I once used *some* card with 8570 25MHz planar. I don't remember exactly which card I used. Anyway in order to use Japanese D/A *compatible* with PS/2, you have to use the following trick to get color signal.

You'll get only monochromatic picture when you install Japanese D/A in your pure PS/2. To get color image you have to add "CHKMON.EXE" to your autoexec.bat. The "CHKMON.EXE" utility can be found on the Reference Diskette. This symptom may only occur with D/A predating the DA-BII card. Later DBCS (2 versions) may not have this problem, but I'm not sure. I've confirmed this using PS/2 8570 with the 25MHz planar and D/A-III.