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Marcel Moreaux wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 12, 2005 at 09:18:54PM +0200, Rene Herman wrote:
>
>> XGI(TM) Releases Source Code for Linux 2005/04/11
>>
>> "XGI Technology, Inc. today releases its source code for Linux.
>> To support the large and growing Linux community, XGI Technology
>> released the source code to X.Org, XFree86.Org, and Kernel.Org
>> for its desktop, notebook, and server products.
>>
>> XGI supports X.Org 6.8.2 and XFree86 4.4.0. The open source
>> supports package installation for IA32, AMD64 and EM64T, and
>> Frame buffer device (FBDev) support for kernel version 2.4.X."
>>
>>
>>
http://www.xgitech.com/about/about_press1.asp?CTID={C3FD7D03-6BE1-4BB9-9F34-1221E723B87F}
>>
>
>
> This seems to be a 2D-only driver, only for their Z7 chip. Look
> closely at the table at the quoted URL, it has support for the Z7
> everywhere, but only very selectively for other chips.
>
> The same picture arises when studying
> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2761 and
> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1905
>
> The source code attached to the first bug report seems to have 2D
> stuff only, although it reportedly also works with other chips than
> just the Z7.
>
> The Z7, by the way, appears to be a cheap, limited chip, for
> servers and the like (like the currently much-used ATI rage 128).
> Go to the XGI site, download section, select 'server', and the Z7
> chip appears. The other chips appear under desktop.
>
> So, Free 2D drivers for their low-end chip and possibly other
> chips. The funny thing is, their driver downloads already used to
> contain source for the FB driver. Sure, the XFree86 ddx driver
> source is more than that, and that's always good, but it's only a
> pretty small step.
>
>
>

That's not what the press says... From linuxdevices.com I got

Via has released source code to Linux 2.6 and Xorg/XFree86 drivers for
the Unichrome graphics capabilities on northbridge chips in its
popular mini-ITX boards. The drivers offer 2D, 3D, and hardware
MPEG2/4 acceleration, as well as video overlay, and support both the
CLE266 and CN400 northbridges.

Via's CLE266 and CN400 northbridges are used in its _Epia M_
<http://linuxdevices.com/products/PD9266751279.html> series and _Epia
SP_ <http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS4887107636.html> series,
respectively.

In the past, Via offered binary-only releases of its Linux 2.6
Unichrome drivers, _saying_
<http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS7685502818.html> the source would do
open source developers little good, given the complexity of the
decoding engines integrated in its C-series northbridge chips. To
appease Linux users wanting accelerated full-screen video, Via offered
the _VeXP_ <http://linuxdevices.com/news/NS7685502818.html> (Via
enhanced Xine Player).

Via's driver source distribution includes instructions for building on
Xorg-based distributions, such as Fedora Core 2, and on XFree8-based
distributions, such as Mandriva 10 (_formerly_
<http://desktoplinux.com/news/NS3254578534.html> Mandrake). The
process requires a properly configured kernel and kernel headers. It
also requires building the XFree86 or Xorg system from source, a
lengthy but usually easy process.

Via's driver build process creates a "via_drv.o" X driver and a
"libddmpeg.so" X library. It also creates three kernel drivers, including:

    * via.ko
    * via_v4l_drv.ko
    * videodev.ko

Steve Charng, head of software development at Via, said, "By making
these source codes freely available, VIA is enabling tailor-made
solutions for the latest Linux distributions."

The driver source download is available at _ViaArena_
<http://www.viaarena.com/>, where a wealth of information about Via's
mini-ITX boards and other products can be found.
****************************************


And from the readme (After downloading from viaarena and glancing
quickly through it)

****************************************
                VIA S3 UniChrome Linux Display Driver
                 Source Code Compiling Instructions
                         February 3, 2005
           Copyright (C) 2002-2005 VIA Technologies, INC.

1. Summary
   This document describes how to compile the VIA UniChrome Linux display
   driver source code on Fedora Core Linux 2 and Mandrake 10. This
software
   package supports 2D, 3D, hardware video mpeg2/4 and hardware video
overlay.
   The information and the source code files are provided "AS IS"
   without guarantee of any kind.
****************************************




Note 2D, 3D and MPEG2/4 acceleration. Seems pretty clear to me that it
does more than just 2D (Without going through the code line by line &
checking that it actually contains any 3D code that is :)

The main target however is the VIA Mini-ITX boards. Which embed a via
(x86 compat) processor and their chipsets in a nice small package...



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