Tiled and VA... FW: [mesa] 3DLabs Video Cards

[Richard Coffey]

----------
From: Frank LaMonica <frankl at precisioninsight.com>
Reply-To: mesa at iqm.unicamp.br
Date: Tue, 07 Dec 1999 13:31:54 -0600
To: mesa at iqm.unicamp.br
Subject: Re: [mesa] 3DLabs Video Cards

Richard,
We're working with development versions of XFree86 4.0, and it will
fully support multi-head in 2D when it is released around mid Feb. 2000
(according to the XFree86.org website.)  I've seen an alpha level demo
of something VA Linux showed at Comdex using 3 Matrox G400 boards in
both single screen and separate display modes.  The single screen mode
allowed windows to straddle a physical display, the other mode
restricted windows to only one display.  You might want to contact them
directly to find out more about that product.  It will take some work to
get different types of multi-head properly supported with 3D under the
DRI.  I'm not sure about any of the details (release dates or technical
specs) but I know it is something that our engineers are looking at.
Maybe Brian Paul can provide some more details.

Incidentally, I just want to make sure you know that all of our work
will be freely distributed under an XFree86 style license with full
source code available.

Regards,
Frank

Richard Coffey wrote:
> 
> You rock, Frank. ;-)  Can the DRI support multiple video cards? We're tiling
> displays and would love to leave the realm of NT so we can have one
> continuously tiled, OpenGL accelerated display.  (Just so you've heard from
> another potential market. ;-)
> 
> Thanks,
> Richard ;-)
> Center for Scientific Computing and Imaging
> University of Utah
> http://www.sci.utah.edu/
> 
> on 12/7/99 11:29 AM, Frank LaMonica at frankl at precisioninsight.com wrote:
> 
> > Richard,
> > Our first DRI sample implementation using Mesa was based on a GMX2000.
> > The driver was not at all ready for any task other than just
> > demonstrating a single accelerated path using DRI, but it could be used
> > by someone with the expertise and time :) as the basis for a complete
> > open source Mesa implementation.  I don't believe the GMX2000 was
> > designed to accelerate 2D, you might want to look at other hardware if
> > you need 2D and 3D acceleration.  PI is working on DRI versions of
> > Voodoo 3, Rage 128, Intel 810, and Matrox G400.  I expect there should
> > be working implementations for all 4 by March of next year.  The Voodoo
> > 3 driver is available now, but 3dfx funded us to focus our work on paths
> > to accelerate games, not professional 3D applications.  That driver,
> > with full source code, is available at 3dfxgamers.com.
> > Regards,
> > Frank
> >

--

 Frank LaMonica          /\    frankl at precisioninsight.com
 President/CEO         <    >  Precision Insight Inc.
(512) 378-3003           \/    (512) 378-3004 fax