OSDev.org

Well I've finally gotten my device management subsystem up and running, and am working on drivers now. I'm not using BIOS fallbacks for drivers (thus no VESA) so I am currently writing video drivers for the 4 test computers I have over here.

I was just wondering what video cards (exact models please) are in your machines. I want to make sure I at least support some of the more popular ones.

The video cards I have to test with (and am writing drivers for already):
- VMWare SVGA II
- Radeon XPRESS 200M
- Radeon 9100 IGP
- nVidia GeForce 9800

Also, I'd like to know what chipsets you have so I can get some of those common devices as well.

Thanks!

nVidia 9400 GS
nVidia 8800 GTS
ATI Radeon HD 4890

I'm very interested on your driver development because thre is no (praticaly) public document on ATI/nVidia chipsets.

Thanks gedd. ATI won't be that bad (thanks to AMD), it's nVidia that will be the hardest from the information I've collected so far. Too bad since I prefer nVidia cards over ATI ones.

NVidia 9600GT
NVidia 7950GT
NVidia 5200
NVidia 8400GS (PCI)
ATI Radeon 9800

I have more, I just can't think of them off the top of my head, I'll edit my post once I find out what I have.

Ati/AMD docs: http://www.x.org/docs/AMD/

As for my stockpile of graphics (seriously, you should not have asked):
Ati:
- Ati 264VT (Mach64)
- 3D Rage Pro Turbo (Mach64)
- 3D Rage XL (Mach64)
- 3D Rage II (Mach64)
- X330
- HD2400
- HD3200

NVidia:
- GeForce 440 MX (spare part)
- GeForce 6 6200
- GeForce 6 6150

Other:
- Intel 82945
- Rendition V2100
- S3 Trio64V
- S3 Trio64V2/GXDX
- Matrox something
- Cirrus Logic something
- Trident something
- There's probably some more in that box of spare parts

Combuster: So do you mind being one of my mean video driver testers?

Intel GMA945 somethingorother
Docs (I hear) are relatively easy to find, and IIRC the OS X driver's source was recently released (actually GMA950, but it works on my card so close enough).

AMD780G Chipset/ATI HD3200 integrated
S3 ViRGE DX/GX (45MHz; 4MB VideoMemory)

Hi,

A modern video driver is the most complex device driver you'll ever write; and you'll probably need to test your progress every half an hour or so just to make sure the hardware is behaving the way the documentation says it should. To make it worse, you can't display any debug information or test results when the video isn't working.

For these reasons I'd recommend starting with an older/easier video card; and I'd also use either 2 computers (e.g. connected via. serial cable with a terminal emulator running on the second computer) or one computer with 2 video cards, so that you've got a way to debug the thing when the video is messed up.

If you include the problem of getting documentation for some cards, this means you've only got (at most) 2 realistic options at the moment (your Radeon XPRESS 200M and your Radeon 9100 IGP), and both these options aren't what I'd consider older/easier.

I'd go on eBay and try to get hold of an old "plain PCI" Cirrus Logic or S3 video card - you can probably get five for $5...


Cheers,

Brendan

- VIPER V550 ATX TNTA x2
- Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 (rev 0c)
and that is what I know by heart, Im not opening up 19 computers

Ok guys, I've got enough devices in my list now, so no more for a few months

Brendan:
This I know. I'm starting out with the VMWare driver (easy docs, easy testing), and the ATI XPress 200M (docs available, easy to test), and so far, both are changing resolutions just fine, I'm just working on the video subsystem this very second before I go any further. As far as debugging goes, I do have plenty of debugging capabilities. I write debug info to the serial port. I get the data both from vmware, and from an actual serial port from my laptop to my dev machine

Plus I also output an address map so any time I get a processor exception, I've been able to trace at least to the function where it breaks.

Well, the VMWare driver appears to be working

essial wrote:Well, the VMWare driver appears to be working

I concur that it's pretty hot