From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Zachary Smith Subject: Re: Generic VESA framebuffer driver and Video card BOOT? Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 11:55:24 -0700 Sender: linux-fbdev-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net Message-ID: <41701D1C.70705@comcast.net> References: <416E6ADC.3007.294DF20D@localhost> <416FAF05.30267.1B66C92@localhost> Reply-To: linux-fbdev-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from sc8-sf-mx2-b.sourceforge.net ([10.3.1.12] helo=sc8-sf-mx2.sourceforge.net) by sc8-sf-list1.sourceforge.net with esmtp (Exim 4.30) id 1CIXAq-0006rN-2E for linux-fbdev-devel@lists.sourceforge.net; Fri, 15 Oct 2004 11:51:32 -0700 Received: from sccrmhc11.comcast.net ([204.127.202.55]) by sc8-sf-mx2.sourceforge.net with esmtp (Exim 4.41) id 1CIXAo-0000oK-VV for linux-fbdev-devel@lists.sourceforge.net; Fri, 15 Oct 2004 11:51:31 -0700 In-Reply-To: <416FAF05.30267.1B66C92@localhost> Errors-To: linux-fbdev-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net List-Unsubscribe: , List-Id: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , List-Archive: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format="flowed" To: linux-fbdev-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Kendall Bennett wrote: > Zachary Smith 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 ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: IT Product Guide on ITManagersJournal Use IT products in your business? Tell us what you think of them. Give us Your Opinions, Get Free ThinkGeek Gift Certificates! Click to find out more http://productguide.itmanagersjournal.com/guidepromo.tmpl