166 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
166 lines
5.7 KiB
Plaintext
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______ ____ ______ _____ ______
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| |__ _ __ ___ ___| |_) | |__ / / |_| | |__
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| __| '__/ _ \/ _ \ _ <| __| / /| _ | __|
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| | | | | __/ __/ |_) | |____ / / | | | | |
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|_| |_| \___|\___|____/|______/_/ |_| |_|_|
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Trident TGUI9440AGi driver implementation notes.
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Warning: My english is bad ;-)
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This is the FreeBE/AF implementation for the Trident 9440 chipset for
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PCI boards.
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The driver is quite complet but there are some limitations:
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1) The driver doesn't work under Windows.
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2) The driver doesn't work with SciTech tools like vbetest.exe.
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3) The hardware cursor isn't 100% compliant.
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Here are explanations about each topic:
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1) Trident drivers for Windows aren't good wenough to support a DOS
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application setting the mode at register level. The drivers can emulate
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VBE calls successfully but virtualize some critical registers avoiding
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changes to this registers.
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I think that isn't an important limitation because the main goal of
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this driver is enhance the performance of DOS Allegro programs and they
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works much better under pure DOS.
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2) I realised it too late, but this time SciTech taked the desition to
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close the Nucleus standard (the VBE/AF sucesor). So I'll address this
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topic only if somebody really needs support for it.
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3) In the future I'll add a way to disable the hardware cursor
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acceleration, but by now I think is better to let it on all the time.
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The implemented routines are the following:
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WaitTillIdle()
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SetMix()
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Set8x8MonoPattern()
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Set8x8ColorPattern()
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Use8x8ColorPattern()
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DrawScan()
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DrawScanList()
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DrawPattScan()
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DrawPattScanList()
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DrawColorPattScan()
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DrawColorPattScanList()
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DrawRect()
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DrawPattRect()
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DrawColorPattRect()
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DrawLine()
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DrawTrap() *4
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SetLineStipple() *1
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SetLineStippleCount() *1
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DrawStippleLine() *1
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PutMonoImage()
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BitBlt()
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BitBltSys()
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SrcTransBlt()
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SrcTransBltSys()
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GetVideoModeInfo()
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SetVideoMode() *3
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RestoreTextMode()
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SetDisplayStart()
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SetActiveBuffer()
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SetVisibleBuffer()
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GetDisplayStartStatus() *5
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SetBank()
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SetPaletteData()
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SetCursor()
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SetCursorPos()
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SetCursorColor() *2
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ShowCursor()
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GetClosestPixelClock()
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Notes:
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*1 I'm not sure about the implementation but the functions have
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equivalent registers in the chip.
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*2 9440 doesn't support it, that's a wrapper.
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*3 Supports the AF_CRTCInfo parameter!
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*4 Implemented using scans because isn't supported by the hard.
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*5 Dummy because looks like TGUI doesn't set the interrupt flag.
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Additionally I did some attempts to implement the following Inertia
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functions, but they are disabled because SciTech dropped it:
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GetConfigInfo
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GetCurrentMode
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SetVSyncWidth
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GetVSyncWidth
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GetBank
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GetVisibleBuffer
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GetDisplayStart
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SetDisplayStartAddr
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IsVSync
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WaitVSync
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GetActiveBuffer
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IsIdle
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The driver was implemented without using BIOS calls for this reason is
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much more complex than current FreeBE/AF drivers (october 1998).
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TGUI9440 doesn't support acelerations in 24 bpp, the modes are supported
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but without accelerations.
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Supported video modes:
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8 bpp 15 bpp 16 bpp 24 bpp
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320x200 * * * *
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320x240 * * * *
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400x300 * * * *
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512x384 * * * *
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576x432 * * * *
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640x400 * * * *
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640x480 * * * *
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720x540 * * * *
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800x600 * * * *
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900x675 * * * *
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1024x768 * * * (1)
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(1) Needs more than 2Mb so is impossible with 9440
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Other modes could be implemented using AF_CRTCInfo and
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GetClosestPixelClock, that's a good feature of VBE/AF.
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Technical notes:
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* I'm bliting to the 0xA0000 region instead of the LFB in BitBltSys
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because that's faster in the Ivan's motherboard, don't ask me why.
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* See the sources for more information.
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* Addtionally you can take a look to the vbeaf.htm included, it was
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generated by my editor with almost no extra efforts.
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Thanks to:
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* The rest of the FreeBE/AF team, specially Shawn, the stub helped a lot
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and I took ideas from various drivers.
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* The people at Trident, they sent me the printed manuals of the board
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without asking a cent (they invested money on it!)
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* Kendall Benett, even when SciTech taked the desition to close the
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Nucleus spec Kendall was very kind answering some questions about
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functions, specially about the AF_CRTCInfo structure.
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* Ivan Baldo, my beta tester.
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Legal notes:
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* All trademarks are property of their owners ;-))), I don't know why
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manuals point out it, sounds funny no?
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* The fonts included where dumped from the Trident's BIOS, I guess that's
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OK because the driver works only with Trident boards ;-).
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* Here goes another silly one: The information presented in this
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publication has been carefully tested for reliability; however, no
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responsability is assumed for inaccuracies. Specifications are subject
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to change without notice. =-))))))))))
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* Now seriously: this driver is under the FreeBE/AF license and no
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warranty is provided (after all: try to sue M$ for the time lost
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reinstalling Windows over and over each time it screws your HD ;-).
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By Salvador Eduardo Tropea (SET)
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set-soft@usa.net
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