[SunRescue] For trade/sale: sbus svga card

[Ken Hansen]

There *may* be something you can do... A few questions:

    What are you using built-in CG6 (assumed)? A TurboGX+
    would be a faster add-in card, as it allows "double buffering"
    (I assume this means it shows one screen while drawing next).

    What OS are you using? Solaris can take advantage of built-in
    hardware acceleration, Linux can not - the same may be true
    for other *free* OSs.

    What hardware do you have - is RAM maxed out (64 Meg
    I think, without add-in RAM card)? Stock CPU? Old HD?
    Faster components areound the CPU will free the CPU to
    perform better, hopefully speeding up graphics.

    What other processes are running on this box - do they have
    to be runnig on this box? An IPX is much slower than a SCSI-
    based P75 PC running Linux or other Free *OS*, you should
    only run what is needed.

A Weitek processor is nice, but it still performs I/O with the system
at 40 Mhz, not 80 Mhz. CPU-bound code will be improved, but
I/O-bound code will see minimal/no improvement in my opinion.
And for most folks, the cost of a Weitek CPU is too high when
compared with other SPARC systems. An upgrade to a Sun4M
machine would probably be more beneficial (i.e. Axil 220, low-end
SS/5, etc.).

The Weitek processor you have is responsible for *everything* on
the screen, while the WinNT box has an advanced set of drivers
allowing it to off-load many graphic requests to the video card.

<side issue>
What would it take to have SPARC Linux use hardware acceleration,
like a TurboGX+ card? I would love to see that happen - is it just
impossible (i.e. Sun won't release needed info), or not worth it (as in
it would be a great effort to code for such a "classic" framebuffer)?
</side issue>

HTH,

Ken
n2vip at bellatlantic.net

scohen - Stephen Cohen wrote:

> Can anything be done to/for an IPX to enhance its graphics processing?  It
> has an on-board CG6, I believe.
>
> I've run a very simple, seat-of-the-pants test on my IPX.  For example,
> Netscape, when run with the display redirected over to my NT workstation
> (running exceed), is much faster.  I understand that the CPU cycles to work
> the screens are the responsibility of the NT and that the NT, at 300Mhz, is
> far more powerful than my Weitek PowerUp 80Mhz IPX.  But how much work is
> needed simply to manage a GUI?
>
> Regards,
> Steve
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