Non-x86 Video

[Stefan Reinauer]

* Bari Ari <bari at onelabs.com> [040503 20:44]:
> What will be needed to run video on non-x86? The oem videoBIOS plus an 
> 8086 emulator for when videoBIOS calls are made?
 
Once the operating system is running no video bios calls are needed.
It's all only about initializing the graphics hardware in first place.
Today's graphics cards need complex ram setup, mode initialization, etc.

> Is this how the layers end up for video?
> 
> video application
> -----------------
>   GUI/OS Linux
> -----------------
>   8086 emulator
> -----------------
>    videoBIOS
> -----------------
> graphics hardware

The x86 emulation would be running as part of LinuxBIOS, or as a user
space program. Once video is initialized, Linux can take over the
hardware and use it's own drivers (which are not capable to initialize
the hardware from power on)

    Stefan