Subject: Re: ZLXp-E2
To: Matthias Drochner <drochner@zelux6.zel.kfa-juelich.de>
From: Ted Spradley <tsprad@spradley.tmi.net>
List: port-alpha
Date: 10/18/1998 20:25:37
> Excerpts from netbsd: 18-Oct-98 Re: ZLXp-E2 Jason Thorpe@nas.nasa.go (619)
> 
> > The code to talk to the RAMDAC is more-or-less there, but someone needs
> > to teach the wscons raster code about 24-bit framebuffers.
> 
> I'm not too glad with the raster code. It's slow -- ok, this
> could be improved with some acceleration hooks or perhaps
> a smaller font. The color support is worse - it has no notion
> about a background color (there is a "0" hardwired) and it
> is impossible to draw text with foreground color "0", so
> more advanced terminal emulations will not work.
> For virtual screen support, it is better to save the character
> codes displayed on a screen instead of the whole image,
> but this doesn't fit into the code's layering.
> 
> I'd prefer a complete replacement.

Great!  How soon can you have it ready?

You see, I have a ZLXp-E2 languishing in a cardboard box in a closet 
because my AlphaStation panics on boot if I install it.  I don't much 
care about how well it works in character mode, I want to use it for an 
Xserver.  I have a patch from the Linux camp that purports to do that, 
but I can't try it if NetBSD won't run with the board installed.

> 
> best regards
> Matthias
>