modular: Changes to 'master'

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 27 October 2008, Corbin Simpson wrote:
>Miles Bader wrote:
>> Corbin Simpson <mostawesomedude at gmail.com> writes:
>>> radeon doesn't just have r5xx, r6xx, and r7xx support grafted on, as you
>>> imply. The support is provided through AtomBIOS, and the acceleration
>>> for the r5xx chipsets is nearly identical to the r4xx, with the sole
>>> exception of the programmable fragment shader unit. radeon's support of
>>> all Radeon chipsets is fairly unified and consolidated.
>>
>> Er, isn't that a bit of a weak statement given that it does _no_
>> acceleration for the more modern chipsets?  Which driver provides a
>> better path for future work in that sense?
>
>The lack of acceleration on HD chipsets, for both drivers, is due to
>waiting for AMD to release corresponding documentation, rather than
>anything else.

First time I've heard it stated that way, which does explain it rather well.

>I couldn't really say for sure how much code's been 
>written on the NDA side, but I hear that there's a working bit of r6xx
>DRI already.

fgrlx won't build on current kernels.  End of discussion.

Which doesn't seem to be available to us Joe Lunchbucket folks NOW.  And I'm 
tired of waiting while the AMD support goes bass ackwards.  I could run 
tvtime on an 9200SE just fine using the radeon driver, now a new pci-e card, 
an HD2400-pro, cannot with either radeon or radeonhd as driver, although the 
hd version seems stable enough at what it does do.

Since everyone recently is so busy with the intel stuff, is it possible to buy 
a pci-e card with intel chips on it, say for under a $150 bill now, or are 
they still motherboard only chipsets, which because of shared memory, are 
generally frowned on because they won't run an rtai kernel to drive 
machinery.  Those shared memory lags can make the machinery dangerous.

I would like this 4 core phenom on an ASUS mobo, to be able to do the things 
that an xp2800 and an AGP video card on my old Biostar board could do.  The 
only thing I've gained for a $550+ investment is that I can now run goggle 
sketchup which I couldn't before on the 9200SE.  But losing the ability to 
play anything that needs XVideo overlays sure includes most of the video 
players extant.

Bearing in mind that cards with a separate connection to Con Edison for power 
will probably not be considered here.  So, can I actually buy (newegg/where 
ever) a video card (pci-e) that IS fully supported by the available drivers?  
If so, what brand, model & where please?  My goggle foo seems inadequate for 
the task. (and if I knew who to write an email to at ATI/AMD, I sure would, 
they are letting the lawyers shoot ATI in the feet)

Thanks. 

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
During the voyage of life, remember to keep an eye out for a fair wind; batten
down during a storm; hail all passing ships; and fly your colors proudly.