aruigrok@bnr.ca (Adrian C Ruigrok) (05/22/91)
Hi all, Does anybody know what the latest word is on the 8-24GC card. It does not seem to work at all with 7.0 (sorry, it works but very very badly). Is there a way to get it to work under the new system, or are we waiting for Apple to get their act in gear and release new software? Adrian
danno@css.itd.umich.edu (Daniel T. Pritts) (05/23/91)
In article <1991May22.153034.1227@bwdls61.bnr.ca> aruigrok@bnr.ca (Adrian C Ruigrok) writes: >Does anybody know what the latest word is on the 8-24GC card. It does not seem >to work at all with 7.0 (sorry, it works but very very badly). Is there a way >to get it to work under the new system, or are we waiting for Apple to get >their act in gear and release new software? According to MacLeak, it doesn't work under 7.0 if you enable the acceleration. Apple promises compatible software RSN. dan pritts danno@um.cc.umich.edu userdano@umichum
mel@fleet.UUCP (mel) (05/30/91)
In article <1991May22.153034.1227@bwdls61.bnr.ca> aruigrok@bnr.ca (Adrian C Ruig rok) writes: >Does anybody know what the latest word is on the 8-24GC card. It does not seem >to work at all with 7.0 (sorry, it works but very very badly). Is there a way >to get it to work under the new system, or are we waiting for Apple to get >their act in gear and release new software? According to a message I read on Applelink the 8-24GC Software drivers won't be available to work under 7.0 in accelerated mode until the FALL quarter. I can't believe they're going to need 4-5 months to write a 7.0 compatable driver for their premier video card. How can Apple expect people to buy their high end products if they are going to treat this class of users as "step-children"? Haven't they had betas of 7.0 in-house for about 6 months prior to shipping 7.0 release? Couldn't they have at least to begun the writting of this driver using these betas just like they expected developers to do when 7.0b4 was sent out on CD ROM several months ago? On top of this the current driver has several bugs that they have yet to correct under System 6.0. Can Apple really be considered serious about this product?? Mel Shear !rex!fleet!mel
dmt@palace.uucp (Darryl Trujillo) (06/06/91)
mel@fleet.UUCP (mel) writes: >According to a message I read on Applelink the 8-24GC Software drivers >won't be available to work under 7.0 in accelerated mode until the >FALL quarter. >I can't believe they're going to need 4-5 months to write a 7.0 compatable >driver for their premier video card. How can Apple expect people to buy >their high end products if they are going to treat this class of users >as "step-children"? Haven't they had betas of 7.0 in-house for about 6 months >prior to shipping 7.0 release? Couldn't they have at least to begun the >writting of this driver using these betas just like they expected developers >to do when 7.0b4 was sent out on CD ROM several months ago? On top of this >the current driver has several bugs that they have yet to correct under >System 6.0. Can Apple really be considered serious about this product?? I think the main problem here is that the INIT is not really a driver but a rewrite of quickdraw. From how I understood it, aside from caching GWorlds and other information, the processor on the GC executes Quickdraw primitives in parallel witht he CPU. Do make this work they basically re-wrote quickdraw in C, then compiled it for the on-board processor. The INIT downloads this code onto the board. This is a non-trivial task; much more difficult then messing with driver code. -- palace!dmt@everexn.com "Don't lend your hand to raise no Piner Palace flag atop no ship of fools." Sonoma County, Ca.
torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie) (06/07/91)
dmt@palace.uucp (Darryl Trujillo) writes: >mel@fleet.UUCP (mel) writes: >>According to a message I read on Applelink the 8-24GC Software drivers >>won't be available to work under 7.0 in accelerated mode until the >>FALL quarter. >I think the main problem here is that the INIT is not really a driver >but a rewrite of quickdraw. From how I understood it, aside from caching >GWorlds and other information, the processor on the GC executes Quickdraw >primitives in parallel witht he CPU. Do make this work they basically >re-wrote quickdraw in C, then compiled it for the on-board processor. >The INIT downloads this code onto the board. This is a non-trivial >task; much more difficult then messing with driver code. Actually, a big problem is the use of virtual memory in System 7. Often, you'll have pixmaps and things stored in main memory, which you want to draw into with QuickDraw. Now, it's quite likely that these pixmaps will actually be paged out to disk as part of the normal virtual memory mechanism. However, the 29K CPU on the GC card has no way of knowing whether this is the case or not. It, somehow, has to interrogate the 68030 to find out whether the pages are actually in memory or not. If not, they have to be brought in, and guaranteed not to move, before the 29K can start executing those QuickDraw commands. I think it's possible to do this (just by a quick glance at the Memory Manager chapter of IM VI), but I'm not surprised it's taking a while.. (I think Paul Campbell from Taniwha could give a better explanation of this, since he's well-versed in designing graphics cards). -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Evan Torrie. Stanford University, Class of 199? torrie@cs.stanford.edu Fame, fame, fame... What's it good for? Ab-so-lute-ly nothing