Re: Generic VESA framebuffer driver and Video card BOOT?

[Zachary Smith <plinius@comcast.net>]

Kendall Bennett wrote:
> Zachary Smith <plinius@comcast.net> wrote:
> 
>>The problem of x86-only BIOSes is one of the videocard
>>manufacturers' own making which, in the spirit of good engineering,
>>they should fix before requiring a downstream kludge. 

 > Forgetting the fact that the BIOS image is x86, why
 > not think about the x86 BIOS image as being a set of 'generic'
 > instructions or p-code

Yes, this idea occurred to me after I posted my response.

But if you're going to add x86 emulation to the non-x86 kernels
perhaps it would be nice if you could find a way to permit
users to run x86 applications as well seamlessly.

Although that would introduce a tradeoff: kernel code should be
small which is bound to be slow in the case of an emulator,
which is OK for running BIOS code, but a user running apps
probably prefer optimized code which may be bigger.

On the other hand, a person running a free emulator doesn't
really have the option of great speed :)

Cheers,
Zack


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