Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/8] Support PCI based option rom loading

[Blue Swirl <blauwirbel@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 6:24 PM, Andreas Färber <andreas.faerber@web.de> wrote:
>
> Am 20.12.2009 um 19:01 schrieb Alexander Graf:
>
>>
>> On 20.12.2009, at 18:55, Anthony Liguori wrote:
>>
>>> Alexander Graf wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Don't macs usually have a powerpc vgabios?
>>>>
>>> I'm not certain, but this is what x86emu is for in X11.
>>>
>>> VGA is a PC concept and just about nothing about it really make sense on
>>> a different architecture.  The interface is an extension of the PC BIOS
>>> (software interrupts) and the dictated memory layouts are specific to the
>>> x86.  I think most non-x86 systems have to use native drivers for whatever
>>> graphics cards they support from the start.
>>
>> Yes. The Alpha for example used stock VGABIOSes. IIRC Sparc has its own
>> graphics anyways and I don't know about the others, but I suspect they
>> either use x86 VGABIOSes or no VGABIOSes.
>>
>> Macs are different though. IIRC they have a normal VGA interface in ppc
>> logic, but I might be wrong. Maybe it's also some OpenFirmware stuff. They
>> definitely don't have an x86 VGABIOS in the graphics card's rom slot, but
>> something different.
>>
>> Since we're using the Cirrus on Macs, I guess we'd need a Cirrus PPC
>> VGABIOS - phew.
>
> ATI used to sell special "Mac Edition" graphics cards. That would seem to
> back up the possibility of a ppc VGABIOS on Mac.

Some Sun machines also had "ATY,Rage XL" cards but I don't know if
they had special roms.