-------------- Original message ---------------------- From: James Richard Tyrer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >>>> No memory or video controllers are going to be running right on > >>>> reset.
On some embedded systems, that might be a requirement. > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Be careful about painting yourself into a corner. OGD1 logic testing > > can begin with a limited set of VGA modes, but the final OGA1 design > > in TRV10/OGC1 will need to come to grips with providing a capability > > to power-up running any arbitrary video mode -- because some > > monitors won't work any other way. And remember, part of the TRV10 > > application space is embedded systems. Cthulhu only knows what > > display systems it might have to drive. Don't assume VESA mode > > compatibility. > > > > I think that it is the other way around. PC MotherBoards are going to > request a VGA mode that needs to be supported. This VGA mode is only > used until the OS loads a graphics driver. Linux uses VGA/VESA for text > mode console so that is going to be needed unless we have a Kernel > driver for console mode. > > OTOH, an embedded system that didn't boot with a VGA mode is going to > need to contain the code needed to load the driver to start up the > graphics card. Such systems probably wouldn't even have a VGA/VESA > Video BIOS. > > -- > JRT That's kind of what I was getting at. Not all systems using OGA ASICS will necessarily have PC motherboards, LinuxBIOS or any other kind of BIOS, or Linux kernels. Embedded machines sometimes are really stripped. Getting the first prototype working can be Really Hard if you don't see an 80x25 text display before the first instruction executes. If the hardware can't display a console all on its own, it can be next to impossible to debug any initialization code at all. All this necessarily requires a way to set the video mode with zero help from the host computer. _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
