On Aug 17, 2012, at 12:38 PM, Alan Coopersmith <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 08/17/12 11:21 AM, Garrett D'Amore wrote: >> Sadly, I think very few -- if any at all -- frame buffer drivers were ever >> open sourced. > > cg6 was the only sun4u-capable frame buffer for which I know of sources being > released, but the kernel driver sources for that were removed prior to the > opensolaris gates closing: > > https://github.com/illumos/illumos-gate/commit/b51e13bf985efd1ff98249cad2824f2952f13ecb > > The sources for the Xsun module for cg6 were released years ago as the > reference > driver in the DDK, and if I remember correctly, were also included in the open > source Xsun code drop I did. This matches my recollection as well. Furthermore, I think there were other interfaces which the older cg6 frame buffer depended upon, which were also removed. So reviving support for it would probably require some actual work. (Of course, why anyone would want to revive support for something as ancient as cg6 is beyond me… :-) The other thing to remember is that afaik *no* version of the OpenGL libraries used on Solaris were ever open sourced. There's a problem there, because the *ABI* that 3rd party programs rely upon is *not* the documented *API* -- the headers resulted in transforms that have never been documented anywhere. Of course, most people with SPARC these days don't care to use them for their amazing graphics capabilities. (In spite of the promises made by the Zulu team…. :-) SPARC on the desktop is a dead-end game, IMO. Whether SPARC will remain useful in the server room remains to be seen, but personally I'm a little skeptical (admittedly I'm also saddened by this -- I have fond memories of working on SPARC systems and I think I've held out hope for them longer than most.) None of this is meant to offend the folks who have been working on trying to revive the SPARC desktop stuff (Martin mostly) -- it's good work, and I'm sure very technically interesting. I just don't see there being much use to it outside of hobbyist/enthusiast use (much like *most* of the ports of NetBSD, btw.) SPARC desktops from a decade or so ago simply have no chance to compete with cheap systems available today. (I think we're at the point where some of the mobile devices have graphics capabilities commensurate with those old SPARC desktops.) - Garrett ------------------------------------------- illumos-discuss Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/182180/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/182180/21175430-2e6923be Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21175430&id_secret=21175430-6a77cda4 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
