Re: Video option for a big endian machine?

[One Thousand Gnomes <gnomes@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>]

On Thu, 12 Feb 2015 07:08:10 +1000
Dave Airlie <airlied@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 12 February 2015 at 00:44, Alex Deucher <alexdeucher@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 11, 2015 at 3:53 AM,  <lausgans@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Hello.
> >>
> >> I'm looking for a PCI or AGP video card that would work on a Linux port for a big endian architecture (HP PA-RISC). Unfortunately the stock video options (ATI FireGL X1 and X3) give an incredibly slow unaccelerated 2D due to failure to kickstart the command processor (radeon open source driver). Neither folks from linux-parisc@ nor from dri-devel@ camps know how to fix this.
> >>
> >
> > The X1 and X3 are really old asics and the risc specific versions
> > tended to have special firmware for that platform that the open driver
> > does not handle properly.  You might have better luck using a more
> > modern GPU (e.g., an R5xx or newer based asic) with an x86 vbios.
> 
> If memory serves PA-RISC had some restrictions on PCI BAR windows, it
> wasn't just endianness problems.

PCI isn't really the root bus so it's a bit odd.

If you can live with 1024x768 then the ancient PCI Voodoo2 graphics cards
in 2D mode don't even report as video cards, have minimal setup
requirements and work on just about anything with a PCI bus. They are
also usually available in the "junk box under the table" at computer
shows.

3D is a bit trickier but the 2D acceleration is quite nice and can even
do alpha blending (as it was in part designed to work with the 3D).
Actually doing 3D is a different kettle of fish.

Alan