Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!ogicse!cvedc!gssc!geoffs
From: geoffs@gssc.UUCP (Geoff Shapiro)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Can a 34010 emulate a 8514/A?
Message-ID: <6471@gssc.UUCP>
Date: 1 Dec 90 02:10:35 GMT
References: <1990Nov26.203552.18302@santra.uucp> <6468@gssc.UUCP> <1990Nov29.132641.11209@santra.uucp>
Organization: Graphic Software Systems, Inc. Beaverton, Or.
Lines: 20

In article <1990Nov29.132641.11209@santra.uucp> c37189h@saha.hut.fi (Harri "Haba" Suomalainen) writes:
|As IBM did not release documentation to the hardware at the start, most 
|programs (all i've run in to) do not use 8514 on the hardware level.
|Even the original 8514 was used as the beginning (as fortunately still is)
|used via the device driver software. As there are many software compatible
|cards available by now, i think it would be extremely stupid to write a 
|program using 8514 only on hw level.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you view it), the two most
important sw programs on the market DO talk to the 8514/A interface directly.
Namely, the Windows and Presentation Mgr. display drivers! Also, any 3rd
party sw which needs to milk the adapter for all the speed it can deliver
also talks directly to the hardware (for example, the 8514/A Autocad display
drivers available from Panacea, Inc.).

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