Re: [9fans] Are nvidia-cards working with plan9?

[Lucio De Re <lucio@proxima.alt.za>]

On Thu, Oct 05, 2000 at 08:22:44AM +0000, jiho@smtp.popsite.net wrote:
>
> But there really is a serious problem with chip companies
> claiming their register sets are somehow proprietary.
>
It still baffles me why nobody has produced a graphic card that
speaks a sensible protocol instead of being variously I/O and memory
mapped in the most unorthodox manners.

For that matter, why on earth did the mouse controller migrate to
the keyboard handler, when I have yet to see a single PC clone with
a video card that did not need a mouse?

The Ontel Amigo (1979 vintage?) had dual ported memory (all of
32KB) into which the 8085 (or Z80?) would deposit a 6502 program
to drive the graphics output.  The default program was provided as
source, so you could do whatever you liked with it.

Am I being naive, or is it too late for that type of sensible
engineering to happen again?  Have Intel really disbanded the i860
team?

The other question, unfortunately, is whether there is any room
for the double Steves of the world, I mean, garage engineering
making it big?

> If the Wall Street crowd had their way, Microsoft would
> declare their drop-down menus proprietary, so you'd have
> to hire someone to operate your PCs for you.
>
Don't blame Wall Street, blame the buying public, and their inability
to resist the media.

++L