From: Jon M. Taylor <taylorj@ecs.csus.edu>
  To  : ggi-develop@eskimo.com
  Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1998 17:03:42 -0700 (PDT)

Re: kgi vs. fbcon

On Fri, 11 Sep 1998, Marcus Sundberg wrote:

> Jon M. Taylor wrote:
> > 
> > On Wed, 9 Sep 1998, Dan Hollis wrote:
> > > The biggest reasons will be :
> > >   o More stable X without needing suid root.
> > >   o One X server for all platforms. Not the current XF86 mess.
> > >   o Better acceleration than current XF86 (possible?)
> > 
> >         Doubtful, if "better" means "faster".  XFree86 sits directly on
> > top of the hardware.
> 
> Can XFree86 do DMA? 

	No.

> It certainly can't do IRQs (not that I think
> the latter would do much for the speed, 

	I could very well do quite a bit for the speed.  Interrupts are 
how you implement A) good, fast locking and B) vblank IRQ callbacks for 
synchronized display flushes and command FIFO empties.  Good cards can 
interrupt on vblank, FIFO empty/full, accel done, clip violation, etc - 
but only if you do a proper kernel driver.  Glide cannot do anything with 
interrupts or DMA because it is in userspace.  It would be nice to be 
able to put that stuff in /dev/3dfx, but that would probably be giving 
away too much information <snarl>.

Jon

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