From: Jon M. Taylor <taylorj@ecs.csus.edu>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 13:44:53 -0800 (PST)

Re: STB and S3 tech specs

On Thu, 11 Feb 1999, Mike McQuade wrote:

> Warning: the following is a rant.

	Your rant contains many misconceptions, many of which I also
belived before I started working "on the inside" at Creative Labs.  Let me
try to correct some of those misconceptions. 
 
> You have to wonder about these hardware manufacturers,
> they make their money off of hardware don't they ? 

	They try to, sure.

> Why do some of them shoot themselves in the foot
> by withholding technical information from the fastest
> growing market in technology.

	Because releasing their specs would allow their competitors to
reverse-engineer their hardware.  If you know the register layout, you can
hook up a logic analyzer to the chip(s) and discover exactly what the
internals of the chip are.  EXACTLY, down to the individual logic gates! 
And since that layout is a trade secret and not patented, if your
competitors figure it out they can clone it 100%, not pay you anything,
and get rich.  This _has_ happened, exactly as I described above, many 
times in the past.
 
> I suspect the lawyers are telling them "protect
> your IP", what a crock, wake up people, your product
> has such a short life span, it doesn't matter.

	Oh yes it does.  That "short lifespan" is an eternity in a market 
that is as fast-paced and hypercompetitive as this one is.
 
> Like any one video chip company has market share,
> or a serious lead in technology ?

	Sure they do.  And they want to protect it, because if they slip 
behind they may never be able to catch up!
 
> Maybe they have yet to realize the 20+ million PC
> market (expected to be 50+ Million by Jan 2000) that
> they are missing ?

	Creative, for one, has realized this.  That's why they hired me.
 
> "IDC estimates there are up to 20 million Linux users. 
> It expects the number to grow to 50 million by next January"
> 
> http://technology.news.com.au/techno/4224606.htm

	We know.
 
> Im not too happy about this disturbing S3 information,
> right now I am designing a new system (OEM application)
> that will need PanelLink and a TFT display. One
> of the few cards Ive found that offer a solution has
> an S3 ViRGE/MX LCD chip on it.

	The older ViRGE chipsets are all publically documented.
 
> Sorry for the rant, does anyone know if this S3 Virge/MX
> funcitons at all with GGI, or with the Vesa Frame Buffer ?

	There is a virge driver, but I don't know if it supports 
Virge/MX.  As for vesafb support, it might.  If not, you can do this 
trick: boot to DOS, run the free S3 VESA 2.0 TSR, and use LOADLIN.EXE to 
boot Linux.  You'll be able to use vesafb then, regardless of whether the 
chipset supports it in hardware or not.
 
> Or do I need to try and find another solution ?

	Try my suggestions first, and let's see what happens.

Jon

---
'Cloning and the reprogramming of DNA is the first serious step in 
becoming one with God.'
	- Scientist G. Richard Seed