RE: WD90C24 Anyone?

2006-11-08 Thread Marc Aurele La France

On Tue, 7 Nov 2006, Chris Schumann wrote:

[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tim Roberts
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

I have an old ThinkPad 750P. It uses the WD90C24 chip, which was in
the old svga driver.



What would it take to port that to the new XFree86 code?

I'm not above

writing assembly code or digging in here, I just don't know

where to

start or how much effort it might take... swatting a fly or

eating an

elephant?



Holy moly!  You have a whopping 1 megabyte of video RAM there.



Will it work with the VESA fb driver?  If not, then you might
as well give up.  I have the source code for their old
Windows 3.1 driver, and it is more than 76,000 lines of
16-bit x86 assembler.  The blitter provided virtually no
acceleration, so you won't really be giving anything up to
use the fb driver.



This machine didn't quite get the VESA in firmware. It was
provided by a DOS TSR, which was required for the Win3.1 and
Win95 drivers. I thought it was for use with VESA, but now I'm
not sure.



Anyway, I don't think it's a good idea to require a DOS TSR
for video in Linux.



There is source for this chip somewhere in the annals of X
code. I think XFree86 supported it as late as 3.1.


3.3.6, actually.


The only mode I've seen with modern distributions is 320x200x1.
It's not pleasant.



I'd also like to get the pen interface to work on it, but one
step at a time! :)



So what's that next step?


You can start with reading the DESIGN document included in the distribution, 
using the 3.3.6 pvga1 driver as a guide in filling in the blanks.


Marc.

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RE: WD90C24 Anyone?

2006-11-07 Thread Chris Schumann
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tim Roberts
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > I have an old ThinkPad 750P. It uses the WD90C24 chip, which was in 
> > the old svga driver.
> >
> > What would it take to port that to the new XFree86 code? 
> I'm not above 
> > writing assembly code or digging in here, I just don't know 
> where to 
> > start or how much effort it might take... swatting a fly or 
> eating an 
> > elephant?
> 
> Holy moly!  You have a whopping 1 megabyte of video RAM there.
> 
> Will it work with the VESA fb driver?  If not, then you might 
> as well give up.  I have the source code for their old 
> Windows 3.1 driver, and it is more than 76,000 lines of 
> 16-bit x86 assembler.  The blitter provided virtually no 
> acceleration, so you won't really be giving anything up to 
> use the fb driver.

This machine didn't quite get the VESA in firmware. It was
provided by a DOS TSR, which was required for the Win3.1 and
Win95 drivers. I thought it was for use with VESA, but now I'm
not sure.

Anyway, I don't think it's a good idea to require a DOS TSR
for video in Linux.

There is source for this chip somewhere in the annals of X
code. I think XFree86 supported it as late as 3.1.

The only mode I've seen with modern distributions is 320x200x1.
It's not pleasant.

I'd also like to get the pen interface to work on it, but one
step at a time! :)

So what's that next step?

Chris

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Re: WD90C24 Anyone?

2006-11-07 Thread Lee Olsen
On Tue, 2006-11-07 at 16:26 -0800, Tim Roberts wrote:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> > I have an old ThinkPad 750P. It uses the WD90C24 chip, which was in
> > the old svga driver.
> >
> > What would it take to port that to the new XFree86 code? I'm not above
> > writing assembly code or digging in here, I just don't know where to
> > start or how much effort it might take... swatting a fly or eating an
> > elephant?
> 
> Holy moly!  You have a whopping 1 megabyte of video RAM there.
> 
> Will it work with the VESA fb driver?  If not, then you might as well
> give up.  I have the source code for their old Windows 3.1 driver, and
> it is more than 76,000 lines of 16-bit x86 assembler.  The blitter
> provided virtually no acceleration, so you won't really be giving
> anything up to use the fb driver.
> 
I thought I was the last cave man. I used a WD90C30 with the svga driver
in 4.4 when I ported the HGA driver. You're either looking at flies or
my binoculars flipped over in the last 12 months.
Enjoy
Lee Olsen
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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Re: WD90C24 Anyone?

2006-11-07 Thread Tim Roberts
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I have an old ThinkPad 750P. It uses the WD90C24 chip, which was in
> the old svga driver.
>
> What would it take to port that to the new XFree86 code? I'm not above
> writing assembly code or digging in here, I just don't know where to
> start or how much effort it might take... swatting a fly or eating an
> elephant?

Holy moly!  You have a whopping 1 megabyte of video RAM there.

Will it work with the VESA fb driver?  If not, then you might as well
give up.  I have the source code for their old Windows 3.1 driver, and
it is more than 76,000 lines of 16-bit x86 assembler.  The blitter
provided virtually no acceleration, so you won't really be giving
anything up to use the fb driver.

-- 
Tim Roberts, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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WD90C24 Anyone?

2006-11-07 Thread chris
I have an old ThinkPad 750P. It uses the WD90C24 chip, which was in the 
old svga driver.


What would it take to port that to the new XFree86 code? I'm not above 
writing assembly code or digging in here, I just don't know where to start 
or how much effort it might take... swatting a fly or eating an elephant?


Opinions welcome.

Thanks,
Chris

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