Subject: Re: Starting of CV64/3D driver
To: None <stager@dedal.man.szczecin.pl>
From: Ignatios Souvatzis <is@beverly.rhein.de>
List: port-amiga
Date: 05/09/1997 00:09:50
Hi Sebastian,

> >  Everybody needs a start. Writing a device driver is not any harder
> > than a decent numeric or stochastic method. It doesnt require
> > lot of brain - just some "read the source, Luke" (other device
> > drivers) and infos about the chip set of the graphic board (which are,
> > in the case of Phase5, not really been made available...)
> 
> What should I do? Recource/reassemble CVision3D monitor? Ummm...

Oh... no.

First of all, read source code of other drivers. Read "The design and
implementation of the 4.4BSD OS" book for background, although in NetBSD
there are some changes. Read the section 9 manpages (and yes, if you are
prepared to rebuild your system sometimes, upgrading to some current
version might be a good think, if you are going to write drivers).

In case youre unsure about this: you can use NetBSD on your ECS/AGA even
if your CV3D isn't supported, for the driver development.

Before you actually start, ask Phase5 about board specifications: which
chip is at what address offset relative to the board base; where the
framebuffer memory is, which documents to read about the chips.

Normally there shouldnt be the need to reverse engineer stuff.

Regards,
	Ignatios Souvatzis
	Ignatios Souvatzis