On 4 Feb 2004, John Dennis wrote: > On Tue, 2004-02-03 at 17:37, Marc Aurele La France wrote: > > PCI-Xpress is programmatically identical to PCI, so I don't forsee any > > problems in that regard.
> Yes, its identical to PCI in terms of the interface presented to the OS > so configuration probably won't be an issue, but there is code in > hw/xfree86/os-support/bus that attempts to walk the bus topology with > explicit knowledge of current PCI bridges. I don't believe this code > will execute correctly, but I assume it can be easily defeated, yes? > But thats probably less of an issue than the fact PCIE systems demand > new PCIE cards and that means driver support. If we are fortunate the > new PCIE cards might be pragmatically compatible with with current cards > and XFree86 will only need to recognize the new cards, but I really > doubt that will be the case. ATI, nvidia, 3DLabs have all announced > support for PCIE and pledged it will bring dramatic performance > increases. Some of that will be due to the faster bus, but I've got to > believe these new cards will feature architectural changes as well > demanding new driver support. > Bottom line, I've been asked if XFree86 will be able to support PCIE > systems due to arrive in a few months or if these systems are going to > be dead in the water for open source for anything other than a server. > So I'm digging for what people know or believe the issues are. At the risk of being flippant: Try it. Actual problems are always easier to debug than theoritical ones. Marc. +----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | Marc Aurele La France | work: 1-780-492-9310 | | Computing and Network Services | fax: 1-780-492-1729 | | 352 General Services Building | email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | University of Alberta +-----------------------------------+ | Edmonton, Alberta | | | T6G 2H1 | Standard disclaimers apply | | CANADA | | +----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ XFree86 developer and VP. ATI driver and X server internals. _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/devel
