A gas-discharge lamp controller utilizing a novel preheating frequency generation mechanism, including: a resistance sensing means, used to generate a sensed voltage when coupled to an external series resistor-capacitor network, the external series resistor-capacitor network being biased between a first supply voltage and a reference ground; a sample and hold circuit, used to generate a sampled voltage of the sensed voltage under the control of a latch signal; and a mapping circuit, used to generate a control voltage according to a function of the sampled voltage.