Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: Graphics Chips
Message-ID: <21178@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Date: 2 May 91 22:41:11 GMT
References: <1991May2.030706.30302@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu> <91122.115817DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu>
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Lines: 33

In article <91122.115817DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu> DXB132@psuvm.psu.edu writes:
>In article <1991May2.030706.30302@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>,
>2fmlhiccup@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu says:

>>   Why is it so difficult to make display chips for the Amiga that will
>>allow it to do resolutions/colors that i see on VGA?  What are the hardware
>>and software limitations?

>The operating system doesn't have significant support for add-in display
>cards, and as a result there are only a few niche video boards. 

That's not an operating system limit when compared to MS-DOS machines, since
MS-DOS has no significant support for any add-on video board.  In the MS-DOS
world, every program comes with a pile of drivers if it needs to use alternate
video cards, otherwise it has support for CGA, EGA, and VGA usually, hard-wired
into it.

On other systems, such as the Macintosh or X based UNIX, graphics is really
retargetable at the OS/graphics subsystem level.  Only one device driver is
necessary for one video card.

While the ideal Amiga solution would be a graphics.library replacement that
works more like the Mac's QuickDraw or X, currently solutions must work more
like the PC, except for dealing with the built-in graphics chips, which
graphics.library knows about, of course.  And I imagine GfxBase's 
implementation of X would could be retargeted to just about any Amiga add-in
board relatively easy.  And of course, you get X under Amiga UNIX.


-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: hazy     BIX: hazy
      "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight" -R.E.M.