On Thu, 4 Oct 2001 19:32:14 +0100
Russell King - ARM Linux <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 04, 2001 at 11:09:09PM +0800, Lau Tung-Leng wrote:
> > We're thinking of getting Intel's IQ80310 reference board, but we're
> > kind of clueless what we're going to do for a display. PCI VGA cards?
> > If so, what are the cards with drivers already ported and ready to run;
> > so that we could access the frame-buffer under Linux?
>
> Most PCI VGA cards require BIOS emulation to initialise them - the
> documentation for initialising them is usually a trade secret, and the
> VGA BIOS is written in x86 code, not forth code as permitted by the
> PCI standard.
>
> The only loaders that I know who have x86 BIOS emulation in them for ARM
> are:
>
> 1. My EBSA285BIOS. This is only for the EBSA285 however.
> 2. ARM Milo for Integrator systems.
>
> x86 BIOS emulation is the only reasonable way to go if you want to use VGA
> cards on any non-x86 system.
FWIW, Matrox Millennium 1, 2, and G200 PCI Cards have been known to work with
their fbcon driver on Mips and PPC, without any sort of x86 bios emulation. I've
personally used an old 2 meg MGA1 card with an IBM 405gp Walnut board, and with a MIPS
Malta board. I think the only ARM system i have any access to with a PCI bus is an
Integrator board, which sort of invalidates the experiment.
They may work with the IQ80310 as well. It's worth digging one up and trying,
at least.
Some S3 and Permedia cards have been known to work in some AXP systems, but
those AXP systems have x86 bios emulation. Some ATi cards have been known to work in
pci Sparc systems, which I don't believe have x86 bios emulation.
- Eric
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