From: Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@pobox.com>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Thu, 12 Aug 1999 17:13:42 -0400

Re: GGI and XFree86 and stuff

(copied to linux-s3 list)

"Jon M. Taylor" wrote:
>         Once you get Trio, ViRGE and Savage will be easy.  I wish I could
> help with Savage - I have a 2D/3D accelerated Savage4 KGI driver with
> STREAMS up and running - but I am still under NDA.

Can you describe (avoiding NDA-specific details) the advantages and best
uses of STREAMS?  I see them mentioned in my databooks but have not yet
looked closely at the potential applications.  I will be very interested
in seeing your 3D work when it is available.


>         Hm.  Well, an SUIDKGI-XFree86 4.0 wrapper layer will instantly
> give XFree86 4.0 full accelerated support for pretty much all S3 chipsets
> ever made, including Savage4 (my driver), so I basically consider this a
> nonproblem.  You would be much better served by writing that wrapper layer
> instead of S3lib, IMHO.  Much less work for much more gain.

I think the Trio driver may need work too, I haven't tested it.  But I
don't think the GGI drivers support all the chipsets that the XFree
driver does.

In any case, I see S3lib as being useful for applications such as
interfacing with video support, so its usefulness should extend beyond
the realm of CRT drivers.

On a related note -- is there any way to get monitor specs out of S3
cards without using BIOS calls?  Do all those extended BIOS flag
registers hold interesting but undocumented information?  I am dying to
know a nice way to get monitor info, without resorting to an external
database.

Thanks,

	Jeff





-- 
Entropy requires no maintenance.
                -- Markoff Chaney