Re: replacing X Window System !

[Peter Gordon]

On 5/19/06, linux cbon <linuxcbon@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Are "DRIs" the best available open-source drivers for
> old ATI cards ?
Yes.

> Done by reverse engineering ?
Nope. As I understand it, the R200 drivers and earlier are written
from actual specs submitted to the X.org/Mesa/DRI hackers by ATi
(under some NDAs).
The R300/R400 stuff is being reverse-engineered.

> And not all functions are usable :-(.
Most of it is there: hardware video scaling (XVideo), OpenGL hardware
acceleration where available, DDC/I2C support, MergedFB/Xinerama
(multi-head setups), Render acceleration (yay for EXA!) etc. The only
major thing that isn't to my knowledge is the S3TC texture compression
(due to patents?).

> What about newer ATI or Nvidia cards ? A hope for
> something better ?
Intel's published specs and open source drivers for their integrated
video chips (which can do cool things like XvMC, etc.). From speaking
with a couple of X.org hackers, the GMA 900/950 stuff is supposed to
have nearly equivalent performance to a Radeon 9500 or so. (Thanks,
Intel!)

> By the way : did you know of this project about an
> "open source graphic card" ?
> Hardware specs are open, so no need of [NDA] and
> open-source drivers coding easier :
> http://opengraphics.gitk.com/open_graphics_spec.pdf
> http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics
> (still a project).
I'm hoping to be able to buy one Real Soon Now(TM). :)

--Peter
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