[comp.sys.sun] CG3 + gp1, how to configure for best X11R4 performance?

bmh@tigger.cs.unc.edu (Brad Hemminger) (12/18/90)

We have been given a Sun 4/370 workstation, configured with a Sun cg9 card
and a graphics processor gp1 (?).  We are attempting to run some of our
X11R4 applications on it.  After some initial testing we decided that the
x11 under the cg9 would not fit our applications (24 bits as too slow),
and we have managed to obtain the loan of a cg3 (to the best of my
knowledge :-) framebuffer card.  We have installed the cg3 and it works,
however, I'm not sure that we're getting the best performance possible
with this combination.  Unluckily we have no documentation for the cg
cards or the gp cards.  If anyone could help us out with in regards to how
best to configure these cards (i.e. should we even have the gp in, why
does the cg3 show up as a cg2 at boot time, are there switches we can set
on the cg3 to tell it what/how to emulate, etc).  Our main speed concern
is updating large images (ZPixmaps) in X11R4.

From boot log..... 
Dec 11 mica vmunix: gpone0 at vme24d32 0x240000 
Dec 11 mica vmunix: gpone0: GP2 
Dec 11 mica vmunix: cgtwo0 at vme24d16 0x400000 vec 0xa8 
Dec 11 mica vmunix: cgtwo0: Sun-3 color board, double buffered, fast read

From /dev ...
# ls -lt /dev/*cg* /dev/*fb* /dev/*gp*
crw-rw-rw-  1 root     staff     55,   0 Nov 14 15:52 /dev/cgthree0
crw-rw-rw-  1 root     staff     67,   0 Nov  5 15:22 /dev/cgsix0
crw-rw-rw-  1 root     staff     31,   0 Nov  5 15:22 /dev/cgtwo0
crw-rw-rw-  1 root     staff     68,   0 Nov  1 17:48 /dev/cgnine0
crw-rw-rw-  1 root     staff     32,   3 Nov  1 17:48 /dev/gpone0d
crw-rw-rw-  1 root     staff     32,   0 Nov  1 17:48 /dev/gpone0a
crw-rw-rw-  1 root     staff     32,   1 Nov  1 17:48 /dev/gpone0b
crw-rw-rw-  1 root     staff     32,   2 Nov  1 17:48 /dev/gpone0c
crw-rw-rw-  1 root     staff     22,   0 Nov  1 14:54 /dev/fb

Thanks, 
  Brad Hemminger
  bmh@rad.unc.edu

dd@mips.com (12/20/90)

In article <873@brchh104.bnr.ca> bmh@tigger.cs.unc.edu (Brad Hemminger) writes:
>We have been given a Sun 4/370 workstation, configured with a Sun cg9 card
>and a graphics processor gp1 (?).  We are attempting to run some of our
>X11R4 applications on it.  After some initial testing we decided that the
>x11 under the cg9 would not fit our applications (24 bits as too slow),
>and we have managed to obtain the loan of a cg3 (to the best of my
>knowledge :-) framebuffer card.  We have installed the cg3 and it works,
>however, I'm not sure that we're getting the best performance possible
>with this combination.

X11R4 does not have any special support for the GP2 or CG2/CG3/CG5.  It
completely ignores the GP, and treats the color board as a dumb frame
buffer.

Sun OWV2 does not use the GP, but can coexist with it.  It takes some
advantage of the color board hardware.

>If anyone could help us out with in regards to how
>best to configure these cards (i.e. should we even have the gp in, why
>does the cg3 show up as a cg2 at boot time, are there switches we can set
>on the cg3 to tell it what/how to emulate, etc).

There's no advantage to having the GP in unless you are going to run GPCI
applications.

The CG3 shows up as a "cgtwo" because the cgtwo driver supports the CG2,
CG3, and CG5 color boards.  The driver properly identifies the board as a
"Sun-3 Color Board".

There are no switches you need to set on the CG3.

>Our main speed concern
>is updating large images (ZPixmaps) in X11R4.

Updating large images is transport bound.  You should use MIT-SHM of
course, then it will probably be VME bus bound.

David DiGiacomo, MIPS Computer Systems, Sunnyvale, CA  dd@mips.com