*BSD News Article 13190


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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!uunet!mcsun!sun4nl!tuegate.tue.nl!rw9.urc.tue.nl!rcpt
From: rcpt@rw9.urc.tue.nl (Piet Tutelaers)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development
Subject: Re: Cirrus chipset drivers for XFree86?
Message-ID: <rcpt.732719521@rw9.urc.tue.nl>
Date: 21 Mar 93 13:12:01 GMT
References: <FRASER_H.101.0@eismv3.dofasco.ca> <1993Mar18.143032.20122@cs.few.eur.nl>
Sender: root@tuegate.tue.nl
Reply-To: rcpt@urc.tue.nl
Lines: 33

pk@cs.few.eur.nl (Paul Kranenburg) writes:

>In <FRASER_H.101.0@eismv3.dofasco.ca> FRASER_H@eismv3.dofasco.ca (Hugh Fraser) writes:

>>I've got a 486/33 with 8meg memory running 386BSD and XFree86. However, I've 
>>got  the Cirrus chipset vidoe card, which doesn't seem to be supported by 
>>XFree86 except as a generic monochrome 640x480 card. Question is, is there a 
>>source for additional video drivers (hopefully the Cirrus chipset)?

>I am waiting for Cirrus to reply to my request for a Technical Reference for
>their chips.

>Meanwhile, from various scraps of documentation found on the net, I've managed
>to get it going in color mode (1024x768). There are still problems with some
>bitblt operations: things mess up when moving windows around on the screen
>and while scrolling in an xterm.

>I will not pursue this matter until I can get my hands on a proper description
>of the Cirrus register set.

>-pk

According to PC Professionell 3/93 there are two Cirrus chipsets:
 - GD5422 (for example used in the card K&P AVGA3 Color Plus)
 - GD5426 (a new announced chipset)

Both chipsets have a maximum pixel dot clock of 80MHz and use DRAM video
memory. GD5422 supports the ISA and MCA bus, while the new GD5426 also can
support VESA LB. The AVGA3 card in the Windows3.1 benchmark showed a
performance of 4.2 10^6 Winmarks (1024x768 256 colors). Which is about two
times that of an ET4000.

--Piet