xref: /xsrc/external/mit/xf86-video-newport/dist

  Information for newport Users
  Guido Guenther
  24 February 2003
  ____________________________________________________________

  Table of Contents


  1. Supported Hardware
  2. Features
  3. Notes
  4. Configuration
  5. Authors
  6. Acknowledgements


  ______________________________________________________________________

  1.  Supported Hardware

  This is an XAA accelerated driver for the SGI newport cards (a.k.a. XL)
  as found in the SGI Indy and Indigo2. Both the 8bit and 24bit versions
  are tested and working.


  2.  Features


  o  Support for 8 and 24 bit pixel depths

  o  Hardware cursor support to reduce flicker

  o  Acceleration of XAA operations for both XL8 and XL24 cards


  3.  Notes


  o  X -configure does not generate a xorg.conf file.

  o  There's support for both 1024x768 and 1280x1024 modes, but with
     some caveats/bugs around timing.

  o  Operating in 8 bit mode will use an 8 bit PseudoColor configuration
     with private colour maps, rather than the hardware 24 -> 8 bit colour
     dithering support.

  o  The XAA Acceleration support is slightly different for XL8 versus XL24.

  4.  Configuration

  The driver auto-detects all device information necessary to initialize
  the card on the Indy. The only lines you need in the "Device" section
  of your xorg.conf file are:

         Section "Device"
             Identifier "SGI newport"
             Driver     "newport"
         EndSection


  Indigo2 users have to use the BusID option as documented below.

  However, if you have problems with auto-detection, you can specify:

  o  bitplanes - number of physical bitplanes (8 or 24)

  o  HWCursor - enable or disable hardware cursor

  o  BusID - set this to "1" on the Indigo2 XL

  o  NoAccel - disable Acceleration Options

  o  XmapTiming - Set the XMAP9 Mode Timing - 1 for Fast, 2 for Slow,
     3 for Very Slow.  Since the driver currently doesn't parse all of
     the monitor information, you may need to set the Timing to 2
     (ie Slow) for 1024x760 60Hz operation.  Very Slow is likely for
     NTSC/PAL timings which we currently don't have a way to configure.

  5.  Authors


  o  Guido Guenther  <mailto:agx (a] sigxcpu.org>



  6.  Acknowledgements


  o  Gleb O. Raiko  <mailto:raiko (a] niisi.msk.ru> for getting the beast to
     build

  o  Ralf Baechle  <mailto:ralf (a] oss.sgi.com> for his patience...

  o  Ulf Carlsson  <mailto:ulfc (a] calypso.engr.sgi.com> for comments and
     elf loader code

  o  Nina A. Podolskaya  <mailto:nap (a] niisi.msk.ru> for elf loader code

  o  all the guys who wrote the newport_con linux kernel code