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authorSøren Sandmann Pedersen <sandmann@daimi.au.dk>2005-10-04 20:01:03 +0000
committerSøren Sandmann Pedersen <sandmann@daimi.au.dk>2005-10-04 20:01:03 +0000
commite28b8c643be711cef82b319027e20636e82d9320 (patch)
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parent44f7093372bcba8ff747962f0c7a210cfc871168 (diff)
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+
+MediaGX Fun
+-----------
+
+This tries to document the "gotcha's" associated with the Cyrix
+hardware and also the SoftVGA (SMM BIOS emulation of video) implementation.
+
+o Palette Handling
+
+ In theory 8bit modes can use the VGA colour control. In practice
+ this doesn't work at least on some 5530 based systems with LCD
+ displays.
+
+ Some 5510 based systems need special handling for external LCD
+ RAMDAC. We don't currently do this.
+
+o Mode Switches
+
+ If you load unsuitable data into the Soft VGA mode switching
+ registers or forgot to set the ModeSwitch disable before you
+ load the registers up mode switches may fail. In a few cases
+ you get bogus illegal instructions reported
+
+o BIOS Versions
+
+ The VSA1/VSA2 firmware that does all the magic on the Cyrix
+ processors is an SMM mode software block in the BIOS. This means
+ the Cyrix is one system where different BIOSes have different bugs
+ instead of just having to fight the hardware
+
+ The BIOS is just plain unusable in a few systems. Code exists to
+ do some mode switches the hard way without VSA getting involved.
+
+o Compression Buffer
+
+ To cut down on the memory usage the display scan checks dirty
+ bits on each scan line (per frame in some situations) and if the
+ line is dirty it scans it from the original buffer and writes back
+ a compressed line if it can do so. If it does this it clears the
+ dirty bit. We have to handle dirty bits ourselves and getting it
+ wrong produces interesting visuals.
+
+o Memory Layout
+
+ When you use VSA to do mode set up it makes certain assumptions
+ about memory layout. Typically it lays out the frame buffer
+ with the compression buffer at the end. When there is enough
+ space between the lines (the chip only handles 1024/2048 bytes
+ stride) it will hide them in the gaps
+
+
+
+To Do
+-----
+- Add bare-metal setup option for the BIOS afflicted
+- Add 5510 external ics5432 RAMDAC support
+- Restore hardware cursor support
+- DDC/EDID and friends
+- RandR would be nice for the tablet pc systems