Questions:
1) What hardware platforms shipped with these options? Add-in or
on-board? (If these drivers don't support any built-in motherboard
framebuffer devices, then most of the rest of the questions are of far
less concern.)
2) Do those platforms have alternative graphics options available for
them that are supported in Solaris Nevada? What about options that
include 3D acceleration? (Not relevant for PGX32, I realize.)
3) If the answer to question #2 above is "no", and the device is a
motherboard device, is the intent to *also* EOL the platform from
Solaris Nevada?
4) For some of these drivers (I know this is true for PGX32, but
probably also others), is it possible that the OpenSolaris community
could contribute support? (In particular, for PGX32 I can imagine that
an Xorg based solution might work with very little extra effort. But
I'm concerned that gfb and zulu might require access to Sun NDA
information that might not be available to open source developers. Can
we make such information available, or even better, make source code
available, so that 3rd parties can pick up and continue supporting these
if they should want to?)
Thanks. (And yes, I realize that the above questions may straddle the
boundary of "architecture", but I think the answers are still useful and
important. I especially want to ensure that there are no "surprise"
platform EOLs as a result of this case -- which isn't to say we can't
EOL older platforms, just that if we do so, then IMO we need to be
explicit about it.)
-- Garrett
Eric Sultan wrote:
> I'm sponsoring this case for Ron Bielaski, with a timeout set for next
> Friday, November 11, 2008. This proposal is to EOF three SPARC graphics
> devices: XVR-1000, XVR-4000, and PGX32.
>
> -- Eric
>
>
>
> Template Version: @(#)sac_nextcase 1.64 07/13/07 SMI
> This information is Copyright 2008 Sun Microsystems
> 1. Introduction
> 1.1. Project/Component Working Name:
> EOF of zulu, gfb and gfxp graphics support
> 1.2. Name of Document Author/Supplier:
> Author: Ron Bielaski
> 1.3 Date of This Document:
> 30 October, 2008
> 4. Technical Description
>
> This case announces the EOF and removes SPARC graphics drivers support
> for:
>
> zulu (XVR-4000)
> gfb (XVR-1000)
> gfxp (PGX32)
>
> The last ship dates for these SPARC graphics products were:
>
> XVR-4000 6/10/2005, Intro# Q2FY2005-73I
> XVR-1000 10/08/2004, Intro# Q3FY2004-120I
> PGX32 09/30/2003, Intro# Q2FY2003-86I
>
> According to Sun's announcement database, the last of these cards sold had
> its last ship date in 2005. Since this case only removes support from an
> upcoming minor or greater release of Solaris, and Solaris 10 end of support
> is not likely to happen until 2014 or later, this will give purchasers of
> these cards at least 9 years of software support.
>
> This case delivers in two phases:
>
> 1) In a patch release, announces the obsolesence of and future removal plans
> for zulu, gfb and gfxp support.
>
> 2) In a minor release, removes the following:
>
> From the ON Consolidation:
> SUNWcakr /platform/sun4u/kernel/misc/sparcv9/zuluvm
>
> From the Graphics Consolidation:
>
> The entire SUNWzulu.u, SUNWzuluc, SUNWzulur and
> SUNWzuluw packages containing files:
>
> SUNWzulu.u /platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/sparcv9/zulu
> SUNWzuluc /usr/lib/fbconfig/SUNWzulu_config
> SUNWzuluc /usr/lib/fbconfig/sparc/libSUNWzulu_dvr.so.1
> SUNWzuluc /usr/lib/fbconfig/sparcv9/libSUNWzulu_dvr.so.1
> SUNWzuluc /usr/lib/zulu.ucode
> SUNWzuluc /usr/sbin/zuludaemon
> SUNWzulur /etc/init.d/zuluinit
> SUNWzuluw /usr/openwin/server/etc/filters/catmull.filter
> SUNWzuluw /usr/openwin/server/modules/ddxSUNWzulu.so.1
>
> The entire SUNWgfb.u, SUNWgfbcf, SUNWgfbr and
> SUNWgfbw packages containing files:
>
> SUNWgfb.u /platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/sparcv9/gfb
> SUNWgfbcf /usr/lib/fbconfig/SUNWgfb_config
> SUNWgfbcf /usr/lib/gfb.ucode
> SUNWgfbcf /usr/sbin/gfbdaemon
> SUNWgfbr /etc/init.d/gfbinit
> SUNWgfbw /usr/openwin/server/modules/ddxSUNWgfb.so.1
>
> The entire TSIpgx.u and TSIpgxw packages containing files:
> TSIpgx.u /platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/sparcv9/gfxp
> TSIpgxw /usr/openwin/server/etc/pgxresinfo
> TSIpgxw /usr/openwin/server/modules/ddxTSIgfx.so.1
> TSIpgxw /usr/sbin/pgxconfig
>
> From the man page consolidation:
>
> From the SUNWman package:
>
> /usr/share/man/man1m/SUNWzulu_config.1m
> /usr/share/man/man1m/zuludaemon.1m
> /usr/share/man/man7d/zulu.7d
>
> /usr/share/man/man1m/SUNWgfb_config.1m
>
> /usr/share/man/man1m/GFXconfig.1m
> /usr/share/man/man1m/TSIgfxp_config.1m
>
> (Given the cross-consolidation nature of this removal, these may be
> removed in separate builds of each consolidation.)
>
>
> 6. Resources and Schedule
> 6.4. Steering Committee requested information
> 6.4.1. Consolidation C-team Name:
> Graphics, ON
> 6.5. ARC review type: FastTrack
> 6.6. ARC Exposure: open
>
>
