Subject: Re: Questions about features of NetBSD
To: Charles M. Hannum <mycroft@ai.mit.edu>
From: Ignatios Souvatzis <is@beverly.rhein.de>
List: current-users
Date: 04/11/1995 21:59:33
Hi Charles,

> 
>    How can such a thing exist?  Graphics hardware is _always_ machine
>    dependent.
> 
> Ignoring for a moment the fact that he wrote `isa', a large portion of
> the general terminal emulation and graphics interfaces can be made
> machine-independent.  This is a good thing to do, and I'd certainly
> like to see it done, but I haven't had the time.

Hm...

the grf.c and ite.c on the AMiga port are using this method (there are
grf_xx.c and ite_xx.c modules for the specific graphics cards, which
provide basic functions for grf.c (the graphics interface) and ite.c
(the vtxxx console)). 

This design seems to be borrowed from hp300, and is also used by the new 
Atari port and the mac68k. Maybe this would be a good point to start...

BTW, you still don't have full functionality (i.e., full blitter
support interface) in the grf interface, but at least on Amiga the
interface is outlined, and as soon as I see the first text output with
the ite_ul.c I'm writing, I'll also tell it to support that. 

(Unfortunately, my gfx board (TMS34010 based A2410) would be the only one 
 NOT to run with a generic Xnetbsd, because it doesn't map its video ram
 into the host address space. I'll have to borrow most of Paul Mackerrass' 
 Xgsp instead.)

Regards,
	Ignatios Souvatzis
	Ignatios Souvatzis