On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 6:24 PM, Andreas Färber <andreas.faer...@web.de> wrote: > > Am 20.12.2009 um 19:01 schrieb Alexander Graf: > >> >> On 20.12.2009, at 18:55, Anthony Liguori wrote: >> >>> Alexander Graf wrote: >>>> >>>> Don't macs usually have a powerpc vgabios? >>>> >>> I'm not certain, but this is what x86emu is for in X11. >>> >>> VGA is a PC concept and just about nothing about it really make sense on >>> a different architecture. The interface is an extension of the PC BIOS >>> (software interrupts) and the dictated memory layouts are specific to the >>> x86. I think most non-x86 systems have to use native drivers for whatever >>> graphics cards they support from the start. >> >> Yes. The Alpha for example used stock VGABIOSes. IIRC Sparc has its own >> graphics anyways and I don't know about the others, but I suspect they >> either use x86 VGABIOSes or no VGABIOSes. >> >> Macs are different though. IIRC they have a normal VGA interface in ppc >> logic, but I might be wrong. Maybe it's also some OpenFirmware stuff. They >> definitely don't have an x86 VGABIOS in the graphics card's rom slot, but >> something different. >> >> Since we're using the Cirrus on Macs, I guess we'd need a Cirrus PPC >> VGABIOS - phew. > > ATI used to sell special "Mac Edition" graphics cards. That would seem to > back up the possibility of a ppc VGABIOS on Mac.
Some Sun machines also had "ATY,Rage XL" cards but I don't know if they had special roms.
