Xorg snapshots, and i915 driver

[Jim Gettys]

On Fri, 2005-03-25 at 09:16 -0500, Alex Deucher wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 14:14:20 +0100, Olivier Galibert <galibert at pobox.com> wrote:
> > On Thu, Mar 24, 2005 at 04:31:51PM -0500, Alex Deucher wrote:
> > > for a variety of reasons the X server for intel chips is limited to
> > > using the bios for mode setting.
> > 
> > Are the reasons available somewhere? I.e. is it a documentation issue
> > or something else?
> > 
> 
> Intel hasn't released the programming specs and, I believe part of the
> problem is the i8/9xx chips use 3rd party DACs and LVDS/TMDS parts
> that may or may not have specs available, or may be under certain
> licensing agreements.  Supporting tons of DACs and digital
> transmitters would be a lot of work.  Plus it may be tough to identify
> which systems use which combinations of parts.  At least that's my
> understanding.
> 

Pretty close, though I believe most of the information for the Intel
parts are available.  As Alex says, this is only part of what is
required given how the Intel graphics is done.

Fundamentally, Intel just makes the graphics chip; the ramdac, video
output, flat panel control, etc. are left to third parties.  Those third
parties may or may not provide enough information for all these
additional parts to get initialized, and even Intel may not have access
to this information itself, and as Alex says, doing so would take more
resources than we currently have, even if the information suddenly
became available. So the only viable way we currently have to get the
logic outside of the Intel chip set up is to rely on the BIOS code to
"do the right thing.", and some BIOS's don't (relying on the Windows
driver provided to clean up after themselves).

I believe (hope) Intel is in a position to help with this in the long
term, though increasing our market share is the best way to help with
this.

Sigh...
				- Jim