>>> That's kind of what I was getting at. Not all systems using OGA ASICS >>> will necessarily have PC motherboards, Linux >BIOS >>> or any other kind of BIOS, or Linux kernels. Embedded machines sometimes >>> are really stripped. Getting the first prot >otyp >>>e working can be Really Hard if you don't see an 80x25 text display before >>>the first instruction executes. If the hard >ware >>> can't display a console all on its own, it can be next to impossible to >>> debug any initialization code at all. All th >is n >>>ecessarily requires a way to set the video mode with zero help from the host >>>computer. >> >> Include a 16850 UART clone in the ASIC, plus MAX232, plus 8 header pins? > > It's even simpler than that. Provide a full custom ROM, let the > OGA leave reset state a few us earlier than the uP and you can > can see everything you want right away.
For debugging, it is extremely valuable to be able to capture the output. Then you can email the interesting parts to someone and say "Look! Your framdazzler isn't working!" This is real easy to do with rs-232 and a real pain with video. Also makes it much easier to give someone remote access to the hardware. > we should > rather concentrate on the main issues than all these little details. A little detail that is wrong can make a product useless. _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
