Subject: Re: radeon driver design (was Re: generic virtual consoles)
To: der Mouse <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>
From: Bill Studenmund <wrstuden@netbsd.org>
List: tech-kern
Date: 12/28/2005 15:23:16
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On Wed, Dec 28, 2005 at 05:56:43PM -0500, der Mouse wrote:
>=20
> Perhaps we need to invent some alternative form of syscall trap?  Maybe
> a magic address that's never mapped, with the kernel foo done inside
> the page fault handler?  Page faults are usually relatively cheap as
> far as the hardware is concerned....
>=20
> > As I said, this is future work.  Right now I just want to get the
> > linear framebuffer working, which won't have these problems.
>=20
> Right.  I've been considering doing something vaguely similar myself,
> but so far it hasn't got past the "pipe dream" stage; I'm definitely
> going to be watching your progress, since you will almost certainly get
> something working sooner than I will.

I think it'd be simpler to copy existing art. We aren't the only OS which=
=20
has to worry about graphics performance. Windows and MacOS X have to have=
=20
addressed this problem already, and from looking at the performance of=20
games on either platform, they have done it well.

Take care,

Bill

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