Am 20.12.2009 um 19:01 schrieb Alexander Graf:
On 20.12.2009, at 18:55, Anthony Liguori wrote:
Alexander Graf wrote:
Don't macs usually have a powerpc vgabios?
I'm not certain, but this is what x86emu is for in X11.
VGA is a PC concept and just about nothing about it really make sense on a different architecture. The interface is an extension of the PC BIOS (software interrupts) and the dictated memory layouts are specific to the x86. I think most non-x86 systems have to use native drivers for whatever graphics cards they support from the start.
Yes. The Alpha for example used stock VGABIOSes. IIRC Sparc has its own graphics anyways and I don't know about the others, but I suspect they either use x86 VGABIOSes or no VGABIOSes.
Macs are different though. IIRC they have a normal VGA interface in ppc logic, but I might be wrong. Maybe it's also some OpenFirmware stuff. They definitely don't have an x86 VGABIOS in the graphics card's rom slot, but something different.
Since we're using the Cirrus on Macs, I guess we'd need a Cirrus PPC VGABIOS - phew.
ATI used to sell special "Mac Edition" graphics cards. That would seem to back up the possibility of a ppc VGABIOS on Mac.
Never tried putting such a card into a PC though or vice versa. Maybe we'd get the same sick-coloured penguins then...? ;)
Andreas
Other PPCs on the other hand, such as the Powerstation, use x86 roms.
Oh well, let's just export the x86 one for now but use video.x for video output. Looks like there'd be quite a lot of work involved in getting it aligned to real world mac hw :-(.
Alex
PS: Ben, please correct me if I'm wrong.