botton@laidbak.i88.isc.com (Brian D. Botton) (09/17/89)
Hi fellow UnixPC'ers:
It's hard to believe that a month has passed since my last posting. This is
a status posting so everyone will know what the status of the video ram access
kit is.
The PC board provider is having a little trouble getting boards made. The
problem is his laser printer does not print exactly 1-1, more like .995-1.
Most of the time this isn't a problem, but with a 64 pin dip like the 68010, the
accumulative error means that the last pin on the row won't fit into the hole.
He assures me that he can fix the problem and will have a new test board
available early/middle next week. If that works out then I will be able to
start shipping when he gets me the production run, which should take 1-2 weeks
at most.
So far I have received checks for 21 kits, and e-mail reservations for a few
more. As you may recall, I offered to provide complete kits for the first 15
orders, and only the PC board and pal after that. Because the response has
been so much better than I expected, I am going to up that number to 35. The
following is a list of the people who's check I have received. The list is in
order of arrival and is current as of Saturday, September 16.
Name Kits
Bill Carpenter 1
Steve Shepherd 1
Thomas Uhrig 1
Edgar Leon 4 Edgar, what are you doing with these?
Charles Sefranek 1
Floyd Davidson 1
Bradley Smith 1
Albert Hybl 1
John Cumming 1
Neville Chandler 1
John Dixon 1
David Thomas 2
Makr Noyes 1
David Glowacki 1
Vernon Hoxie 1
Mark Dapoz 2
My apologies if I have misspelled anyones name. Also, I'm sorry it has
taken so long to get these kits together. I guess I was a little optimistic
about how long it took to get things done. Anyway, when the boards get here
I'll hold a mass mailing.
Now, for something completely different. Mgr is doing very well. Brad has
fixed a whole slew of bugs/problems, heck, I even fixed one ;-). The big
holdup now is the select system call that has everyone at odds. Brad has
taken a good hard look at how the posted select works, sorry, I forget who
posted it, and the Berkeley select and is working on a more general solution.
The two of us work together and we are going through a period at work that is
going to take a lot of overtime. So I can't even hazard to make a guess as to
when we will get the select done. Also, we're not sure how we are going to
distribute the changes, but we'll deal with that later.
If there are any questions, send me mail and I will try to be a little
more responsive than in the recent past. As before, I am taking checks for
those people who want to reserve a kit. Send your check and a mailing label
to the address below. The kits cost $25 each and will include all the parts
you need and instructions. All you have to do is solder it together and install
it.
Brian Botton
4715 Old Oaks Dr. #3B
Lisle, Il. 60532
--
... ___
_][_n_n___i_i ________ Brian D. Botton
(____________I I______I laidbak!botton or
/ooOOOO OOOOoo oo oooo botton@i88.isc.comerict@flatline.UUCP (J. Eric Townsend) (09/18/89)
In article <1989Sep17.054555.14668@i88.isc.com> botton@i88.isc.com (Brian D. Botton) writes: > Now, for something completely different. Mgr is doing very well. Brad has Hey... How will your video doohickey help out a possible X? Anybody know how this would help X-windows (server XOR client is fine for me... :-)? -- "[On mars] there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe." -- VP Dan Quayle J. Eric Townsend unet!sugar!flatline!erict com6@uhnix1.uh.edu EastEnders Mailing list: eastender@flatline.UUCP
botton@laidbak.i88.isc.com (Brian D. Botton) (09/19/89)
In article <2398@flatline.UUCP> erict@flatline.UUCP (J. Eric Townsend) writes: >In article <1989Sep17.054555.14668@i88.isc.com> botton@i88.isc.com (Brian D. Botton) writes: >> Now, for something completely different. Mgr is doing very well. Brad has > > >Hey... How will your video doohickey help out a possible X? Anybody know >how this would help X-windows (server XOR client is fine for me... :-)? There are several ways that X would be helped out with my "doohickey." For those who saw my posting of a few months ago, please bear with me. 1. From what I understand, the planned ports of X will include a device driver that will handle the video access. This means that every time you want to read or write even a single pixel you MUST do a system call. What my little circuit does is let you set a pointer equal to an address and then you reference the screen as if it is an array. The system call method takes about 20 times as long to execute as the array lookup. Personally, I don't like the idea of an approach that is guaranteed to be slower than another. 2. There isn't a whole lot of space available for device drivers. Getting rid of wind.o will free up ~48k of valuable space. For many people this isn't important, but if you have an expansion box and a few cards, along with a few device drivers off the net, you might get into trouble. 3. Debugging a device driver is infinitely more difficult then user level code. There are other reasons that I listed in the earlier posting, if anyone would like to see it please let me know and I'll e-mail. To be honest, I'de love to see my little board adopted by the X community. I think it is the best solution that I've seen so far, and I'm willing to provide support for the board for the long term. Meaning as long as the unix-pc group remains active. Hope this answers some questions. -- ... ___ _________ _][_n_n___i_i ________ I I Brian D. Botton (____________I_I______I_I_______I laidbak!botton or /ooOOOO OOOOoo oo oooo oo oo laidbak!bilbo!brian
erict@flatline.UUCP (J. Eric Townsend) (09/19/89)
In article <1989Sep19.043419.7518@i88.isc.com> botton@i88.isc.com (Brian D. Botton) writes: > . What my little circuit does is let you set a pointer equal to > an address and then you reference the screen as if it is an array. Now why didn't I understand that the *first* time I read a message about this doohickey? :-) -- Fusion-Chem-Info-Med-Data-Bio-Net-Tech-Quik, Inc. -- Makers of: Write-Only Memory, the Maybe Gate, 6502-based AI systems and puce things. J. Eric Townsend unet!sugar!flatline!erict com6@uhnix1.uh.edu EastEnders Mailing list: eastender@flatline.UUCP
bes@holin.ATT.COM (Bradley Smith) (09/20/89)
Well just a note, to let all who read this, that I have loaded the X11R3 source on to my machine at home and am in the starting stages of porting it. Right now I am reading docs on what to do. I plan to write the server 2 ways. First using the either Brian's mod or to use the /dev/vidram driver, and hopefully add the other. So those who don't have one will be able to use it. If anyone has something to add to me help me, by all means let me know. I will be using the UNIX domain sockets for the IPC, although I may look at other SVS5 IPC's. I think that is about it. If anyone is farther than myself, let me know. I really don't want to re-invent the graphical wheel. -- Bradley Smith Computer Systems Offer Integration Laboratory AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel, NJ 201-949-0090 att!holin!bes or bes@holin.ATT.COM