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From: daveh@canopus.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc,comp.windows.x.i386unix,comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.sys.next.software,comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: PCI bus cards (graphics and SCSI) which work?
Message-ID: <DAVEH.94Mar28165649@canopus.commodore.com>
Date: 28 Mar 94 21:56:49 GMT
References: <2mslqq$1vl8@rs560.cl.msu.edu> <michaelv.764537928@ponderous.cc.iastate.edu>
<1994Mar25.175046.28527@ccc.amdahl.com>
Sender: news@cbmnews.commodore.com
Organization: Commodore Business Machines, West Chester, PA
Lines: 41
In-Reply-To: haw30@eng.amdahl.com's message of Fri, 25 Mar 1994 17: 50:46 GMT
Nntp-Posting-Host: canopus.cad.commodore.com
In article <1994Mar25.175046.28527@ccc.amdahl.com> haw30@eng.amdahl.com (Henry A Worth) writes:
In article <michaelv.764537928@ponderous.cc.iastate.edu>, michaelv@iastate.edu (Michael L. VanLoon) writes:
|> Do NOT buy ANY Diamond products! They are not and will never be
|> supported by XFree86 (although a few adventerous souls have gotten
|> them to limp along at times). Diamond will not allow their drivers to
|> be public and doesn't care at all that this may cost them a sale
|> because you run a free "unix". They are quite indifferent to the
|> pleas of free "unix" users.
A small point, none of the chip/board vendors provide driver code,
the issue is whether they will provide hardware documentation, without
non-disclosure agreements, that will allow a 3rd party, like the
XFree86[TM] project, write X drivers that can be released to the
public in source form. A few vendors go the extra mile and provide
some tech support, loaner boards, or bits of example code, but such
cooperation is not a pre-req to XFree86 support.
Some companies will provide register-level information on their chips
without extra cost or NDAs. If you can get this, it matters very
little what the card's manufacturer will or won't supply. We're not
talking about a custom design here -- all of the graphic cards based
on a handful of controller chips. At most, the card vendor gets to
pick a LUT/DAC, clock synthesizer, and DRAM configuration.
We've dealt with some of the vendors, and they vary considerably in
how forthcoming they are with information. Tseng Labs gave us
whatever we wanted for the asking. S3, on the other hand, wants a
full non-disclosure agreement. Presumably, anyone using a chip under
such an agreement would be bound by it. So don't necessarily blame
the board vendor, it may not be their choice what they do and don't
provide to end users or OS vendors.
--
Dave Haynie | C= Amiga, High-End Systems | Ki No Kawa Ryu Aikido
daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com | Engineering = Art + Science | "Life was never meant
{BIX,Portal}: hazy | "The Crew That Never Rests" | to be painless"
"Rumors follow everywhere you go" -Gin Blossoms