*BSD News Article 5315


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386,comp.windows.x,comp.os.linux,comp.unix.bsd,comp.os.mach,comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!uunet!zeos!kgermann
From: kgermann@zeos.com (Ken Germann)
Subject: Re: Free software and the future of support for Diamond products
Organization: Zeos International, Ltd
Date: Sun, 20 Sep 1992 08:53:58 GMT
Message-ID: <1992Sep20.085358.25938@zeos.com>
Keywords: Diamond, free-software
References: <1992Sep11.124831.10108@crd.ge.com> <1992Sep12.035549.4743@zeos.com> <1992Sep20.000851.2641@cbnewsj.cb.att.com>
Lines: 83

In article <1992Sep20.000851.2641@cbnewsj.cb.att.com> dwex@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (david.e.wexelblat) writes:
>In article <1992Sep12.035549.4743@zeos.com> kgermann@zeos.com (Ken Germann) writes:
>> In article <1992Sep11.124831.10108@crd.ge.com> davidsen@crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) writes:
>> >In article <1992Sep10.130359.24767@cbnewsj.cb.att.com>, dwex@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (david.e.wexelblat) writes:
>> >
>> >| Well, one of the responses to our Diamond mail survey was from Rick Kemp
>> >| at SCO.  I quote:
>> >| 
>> >| 	We have no plans on supporting their cards at anything but
>> >| 	640x480 resolution.  They have refused to tell us how their
>> >| 	cards work, and we have told all of our distributors to
>> >| 	discontinue carrying them (Gateway 2000 and Zeos).

ZEOS isn't an SCO distributor.

>> >| 
>> >| So we'll see.  The fact that SCO is having trouble doesn't bode well
>> >| for our winning this battle.

I wanted to include the whole picture that has been painted. This is
an excerpt from a message from the manager of product development at 
Diamond :

First, SCO has _not_ contacted us about driver development for the
SpeedStar 24X.  Rick Camp spoke to me a number of months ago about
Stealth drivers and was sent a card, never to be heard from again.
 
>> >
>> >  Interesting, since SCO has a stealth X driver in their directory on
>> >uunet. I have very little information about it beyond that.
>> >-- 
>> The solution for the support of X/Windows in the Freeware arena or
>> any other arena would be to design a VESA based driver for these
>> software packages. It would greatly simplify the need to design
>> specific drivers for specific cards. Granted the VESA drivers may not
>> take advantage of the hardware specific to the card; but, there would
>> still be a driver available until someone changes their minds.
>> How difficult would it be to support a VESA based driver under Unix?
>> This would be a place to start.
>> 
>> 
>> The problems with the support arose with the Speedstar 24X and Diamonds
>> proprietary technology used on the card. The Speedstar and Stealth
>> are both supported by ODT 1.x and 2.x now.  The generic TSENG drivers
>> , I am told should work for the Speedstar (ET4000) based card. 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>[Sorry it took me so long to get back into the fray - I've been on vacation]
>
>Unless I've missed something, a VESA compliant board supports a BIOS standard,
>not a register-level standard.  Unix, like other protected-mode operating
>systems, does not use the BIOS at all, except during boot.  So there's
>no such thing as a VESA-compliant driver under Unix, unless someone hacks
>the kernel to allow this to work.
>

I would think that making a VESA compliant kernel/drivers for video would help
cut down on development time for video drivers and help end users determine
whether their newly purchased video card will work with X. I know as an
end user I am always concerned about compatiblity issues. VESA support
in Unix/X Windows would be a step in the right direction for graphics support
and it would definitely solve some of the problems that Unix developers have
with getting specs on the video cards from video card manufacturers. The only
question that would need to be asked is : Is your card VESA compliant? If the
answer to the questions is YES, XYZ's product will work with that video card.
If it isn't compliant with VESA, a special driver would need to be written.
The trend in the PC arena is most video cards are being designed to be VESA
compliant. Diamond supports VESA on the 24x card in the VIDEO BIOS on the card.
The biggest reason I am making this proposal is there is more of a trend in 
the industry to support MS Windows than there is with X and Unix. This 
trend will change over the coming years with the release of new processors
and operating systems that will take advantage of these new processors.
Where ever support for VESA Video Standards needs to start, now would be
a good time to start it. AT&T, SCO , etc. should do some research into
the feasibility of supporting the VESA Video standards. 
-- 
Ken Germann              ZZZZ EEEE  OO   SSS    ZEOS International, Ltd.  
support@zeos.com   INET     Z E    O  O S       Technical Support Dept.
uunet!zeos!support UUCP    Z  EE   O  O  SS     530 5th Ave N.W.
800-228-5390      VOICE   Z   E    O  O    S    St. Paul, MN 55112
612-633-7337             ZZZZ EEEE  OO  SSS     FAX         612-633-4607