Re: Graphic options for DS10L

FredK wrote:
"JF Mezei" <jfmezei.spamnot@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4518B90D.B0CBAF26@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
FredK wrote:
....[missing attributions?]...
Linux and UNIX in recent years incorporated a BIOS emulator done for the
xFree86 project. That is what we are working on.
I take it the BIOS is made up of binary 8086 architecture code ? Are the
cards assuming any specific implementation of that architecture ? I
assume they wat at least 32 bit support (that is 80386, right ?) ?

Grampa, what's an 80386? :-) But seriously, the system BIOS is system-specific, and contains whatever code is necessary for the particular platform, and whatever code the BIOS vendor and/or OEM loads into it. That could be IA-32e instructions, or it could be the decades-old 8086 instructions. Since the BIOS is built into the box, it can safely use IA-32e instructions, for instance -- I'd expect most vendors will use older instructions, but there's no requirement for that as -- for instance -- that Intel 8086 won't work in socket 775.

Remember that the BIOS itself is a (primitive) hardware abstraction layer, akin to the HAL in the ARC/AlphaBIOS used for Microsoft Windows on Alpha, or the SRM and PALcode used by OpenVMS Alpha.

As Fred indicates in the following, the controller itself will very likely have the minimal instruction set in the firmware (being the vendors are in business to sell to the broadest market), and just needed to get the controller active in VGA mode. Most every operating system I've seen around then connects a driver. Once the driver is connected, the controller firmware isn't needed, and isn't used.

I am not that level of an expert on the code itself. But I suspect it is
most-common-denominator.

Or does it use really simple instructions without relying on any fancy
instructions introduced over the years to handle video stuff ?

That depends on the vendor, but again the BIOS powers VGA and most every card I've ever seen switches to a run-time driver.

The EFI byte code and the byte code engine is intended to avoid having x86 instructions in the card, to allow the firmware to be more portable across platforms -- space in the controller firmware storage area is obviously limited, which is why systems not based on x86 presently have a way to process the x86 instructions out on the controller storage. EFI can use the byte code engine to avoid having knowledge of a particular device built into EFI itself, at least as far as getting the box bootstrapped -- in this approach, bootstrap drivers and console support for various devices isn't specifically needed.

standard layering is what was missing. Motif gave it a user interface
abstraction. But at the drawing level - there is nothing.
Interesting description. Were there aver some efforts to develop the
graphic equivalent of Motif ?

PHIGS, GKS, OpenGL, etc, etc.

One of the more common graphics libraries in the open-source area is GTK+. SDL (not the data definition language) is another. Also see the Qt stuff. All three of these have been ported to OpenVMS.

There are some rather extensive BIOS documents and Microsoft platform requirement documents around, if you want to learn about how Windows platforms are constructed in the decades since 8086. :-) There are even detailed documents on EFI (UEFI) and on IA-32e around.

.

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