On Feb 7,  2:24pm, Neil A. Carson wrote:
> Subject: Re: Generic console device ?
> Robert Black wrote:
> >
> > On Feb 3,  9:28pm, Peter Berg wrote:
> > > Subject: Generic console device ?
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > will the new console code allow to run console gfx based applications on
all
> > > supported platforms ? This would mean, the kernel has to provide drivers
for
> > > all possible gfx systems like VIDC, PCI cards etc. Perhaps by a hardware
> > > independent kernel driver with loadable hardware driver backends as LKMs
?
> >
> > This is the general idea. It should be possible to provide at least
> > non-accelerated support for all graphics cards without special knowledge by
the
> > application. In addition I want to support multiple PCI graphics cards at
the
> > same time. The whole design of the new console is based around these
> > considerations.
>
> Just to follow up on Rob's perfectly correct comment, with the statement
> (quoted in CGD style) "just because it can be done doesn't mean it
> *will* be done"

It *will* be done because I want a double-headed machine :-)

What hardware it will be running on is another issue entirely...

> If and when we support RiscPC II (which is I guess where a lot of people
> are coming from) the chances are it'll just be VIDC. On our own PCI
> hardware, we may support one or two different kinds of card (most likely
> Matrox Millenium II, as that's what I have in my PC, together with some
> sort of S3) probably just running in full screen VGA 80x25 text mode (or
> whatever it is) with pcvt, pccons or something like that. We've had Mark
> meddling with a PC VGA BIOS emulator which, if it works, could make some
> of these things easier, but it's all quite problematic.

Neil: presumably by 'we' you meant Causality Limited. This is one area where
Causality Limited and RiscBSD are likely to go in different directions because
of different design criteria. Which console you get will depend on what you ask
for in your kernel configuration file.

> I guess someone could move over the drivers from one of these cards to
> the RiscPC II if they want to put the effort in, but we're unlikely to
> spend much time with the machine---chances are Acorn will loan us one to
> get a port going but we won't be buying one (well the company, myself
> and Mark won't anyway :) ).

If I get the chance/time I will be doing this myself. Whether I buy a RiscPC II
depends on its final spec. I am keeping an open mind for now.

Cheers

Rob