I still want the relative speed.  Just because a PMAGD-BA doesn't boot
under NetBSD doesn't mean it isn't fast.  Just because a PMAGB-BA doesn't
accelerate under NetBSD, it doesn't mean that it can't accelerate at all.  
I need useful information regarding the hardware's capabilities.  Come on.

The 5800 is XMI/VAXBI with MIPS CPUsets.

Peace...  Sridhar

On Fri, 11 May 2001, Chris Tribo wrote:

> On Fri, 11 May 2001, Vance Dereksen wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 11 May 2001, Chris Tribo wrote:
> > 
> > > On Thu, 10 May 2001, Vance Dereksen wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Which is the fastest?  The PMAGB-BA, the PMAG-F, or the PMAGD-BA?  Also,
> > > 
> > > 	PMAGB-BA Would be the fastest 2D card if we had accelerated
> > > console drivers or an accelerated Xserver for pmax, but alas we do
> > > not. PMAGB-BA is very slow on the console, and in X. I prefer to use a
> > > serial console over using a PMAGB-BA. PMAG-F blows a PMAGB-BA out of the
> > > water, but there is no Xserver available for it, and it takes up three TC
> > > slots. PMAGD-BA is the best of 2D and 3D acceleration on one card, but
> > > it's not supported at all yet on NetBSD/pmax AFAIK, should work fine if
> > > you have an Alpha 3000 series to plug it into though.
> > 
> > Well, I am trying to build an array of 5900s, so the PMAG-F's slot
> > requirement is not a big deal for me.  However, you're saying if I want
> > any 3D acceleration, I have to go with the PMAGD-BA?  How does the 2D
> 
> 	There is no acceleration period on NetBSD/pmax, not 2D or 3D. The
> PMAGB-BA is a 2D only card with "Smart frame buffer" technology. However,
> NetBSD/pmax treats the PMAGB-BA as if it were a PMAG-B (dumb color frame
> buffer). No acceleration features have been implemented unless you're
> using -current with wscons enabled. Search for the thread on "wscons
> kernel" for more info.
> 
> > speed of the PMAGD-BA compare with the 2D speed of the PMAG-F?  If I use
> 
> 	On Netbsd/pmax the PMAG-F will beat a PMAGD-BA at anything because
> if you try and boot a kernel with a PMAGD you won't see anything because
> it isn't supported. At least the PMAG-F has console support, though it
> won't run X. But, If you were running Digital Unix or OSF/1 on an Alpha,
> the PMAGD-BA would be faster.
> 
> > > > what are the chances of the KZTSA FWD-SCSI card being supported, if I were
> > > > to lend one to someone (with a FWD drive, probably) to write support
> > > 
> > > 	Pretty reasonable, if the Alpha port already has a driver for
> > > it. If not, depends on free time.
> > 
> > Who would I contact about lending a card to someone to port the alpha
> > driver to pmax?  I don't have the time to write the driver myself, as I
> > will be doing a lot of stuff for NetBSD/s390.
> 
> 	The only name that comes to mind is Jason Thorpe, but without
> knowing, I'd guess that he's got his hands full debugging all the recent
> changes from merging Thorpej_SCSI into the source tree. You could post it
> on the NetBSD web page as being available for development.
>  
> > Well, the 58x0 means that x is the number of CPU's in the machine.  
> > Anybody have technical info on the ISIS machines?
> 
> 	I've not seen anything posted to the list or any pictures of an
> ISIS machine on E-Bay. I can only guess that it's some manner of Qbus /
> XMI VAX relative with MIPS CPUs instead of VAX. Anything you can dig up or
> Pictures would be sweet.
> 
> 	Chris
>