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Re: PCI graphics cards on Sun hardware
Sun Microsystems originated OpenBoot firmware (IEEE 1275), and all add-
in cards (Sbus, PCI, whatever) that need boot time intialization are
expected to have FCode onboard that the system will run at POST/
initialization time.
Apple Computer adopted OpenBoot firmware for its PCI-based PowerMac
(PowerPC CPUs) computers, and I believe they used it until switching
to Intel x86 based machines, ergo, all PCI (and AGP) video cards made
for PowerMac computers will have FCode on them to do the
initialization of the GPU.
Alas, there are, shall we say, "implementation differences" (Apple
didn't do as complete a job of implementing IEEE 1275 as they should
have, particularly in the early machines - see the archives of port-macppc%netbsd.org@localhost
for that tale of woe), but it should, in principle, be possible to
use a PCI graphics card intended for a PowerMacintosh in a Sun
UltraSPARC with PCI and have "the right thing happen" at POST/
initialization time in the Sun.
Can anyone here speak from operational experience?
Erik <fair%netbsd.org@localhost>
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