Here's my canned info package. 2-1-94 "Viper X Server Develpoment Team" There is currently no free color X-server for the Viper, only a hacked up VGA 800x600 mono server. I have a report of a bsd/386 with X386 running a viper at 800x600x16-color, but no details. SCO can sell you X/viper support (165K xstones?!). You can get unixware Viper drivers (still beta as of 1-24-93) for $199 from "Metrolink Metro-X". Our VGA mono driver will probably have problems with a Viper containing an OAK VGA chip (bios version 3.xx) - no problems with W5186 VGA chips (bios 1.xx or 2.xx). I'd appreciate reports from anyone with the OAK chip. It has been used with a Sixgraph P9000/W5186 card. It is our _goal_ to produce an XFree86-2.x Diamond Viper X Server that is freely re-distributable, including source code. We are working in the Linux environment. We are not associated with Diamond. We welcome any programmers to join us, and solicit volunteers for a beta testing list. Our anonymous ftp distribution site is sunsite.unc.edu /pub/Linux/X11/viper check it for our status , our temporary mono driver, and future releases. The mono server includes binaries which work under Xfree 1.3 or 2.0, and source code (source requires link kit) based on XFree 1.3. There is also a list of available documentation. This directory is mirrored on ftp.informatik.tu-muenchen.de in /pub/comp/os/linux/sunsite/X11/viper If the driver works for you - could you please tell me a little about you configuration. What's the version of the rom bios, or what VGA chip does it have : weitek 5186, weitek 5286, or oak??) what version of X, what version of Unix? What monitor? ... or whatever. -------------------------------------------------------------------- STATUS Feb. 1 1994 We are in the beginning phases of this project. I don't expect we'll have any useable P9000 X-Server for months to come, but we can share what we've learned so far, and provide some pointers to documentation on Viper programming. We may have a color 800x600x4 and or 1024x768x1 W5186 VGA-chip driver in a month??? and we may not. We have tested a simple 800x600 mono Xserver for the W5186 (on the viper) on 24 machines, including one running NetBSD-0.9 . Additional accomplishments: gathered available data sheets on viper-board chips. obtained "Diamond viper programmers kits" agreed on a "charter" Obtained ftp sites for our use. established contact with Xfree86 Development Team. distributed 5186 mono driver code accumulated list of over 55 possible beta testers wrote a DOS based VGA register probing program. Our current activities: Gathering and reading documentation and sample code. Reading up on XFree86-2.0 and X-servers. Experimenting with P9000 programming. Figuring out how to get some _CoLoR_ in our windows , with W5186 VGA, or P9000 framebuffer drivers! ---------------------------------------------------------- 11-5-93 document_list - excerpt This lists chip documents we think will help us program the Viper. Hopefully this will apply to other P-9000 boards too. See document_list for a few more details. Weitek: 800-468-3167 408-522-7568 1. Power 9000 User Interface Controller Data Book (Oct 1992) 162 pgs. 2. W5186 User Interface Controller Data Book (Preliminary March 1992) 130 pg. 3. Power 9000 EISA App. Note (September 1992) ~40 pgs?? Brooktree: 619-452-7580 800-VIDEOIC Bt485 data booklet 41 pages - the Bt485 is the RAMDAC IC Designs: 206-821-9202 "serdata" or "bitcalc" programs for the ICD2061 ??? ICD2061 Data Sheet ??? ~28 pages? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Reccommended reading for VGA programming and X-Server design. "Programmers Guide to the EGA and VGA Cards" by Richard Ferraro, Addison-Wesley "The X Window System Server" by Israel and Fortune , Digital Press or Prentice Hall "VGADriverDoc/VGADriver.Doc" by David E. Wexelblat, a file in the link kit, on sunsite.unc.edu pub/Linux/X11/XFree86-2.0/xf86-kit-2.0.tar.gz ------------------------------------------------------------------------ stuff at sunsite.unc.edu The source for 'freq' is in pub/Linux/X11/X-servers: 2918 Feb 12 diamond.doc 18833 Feb 12 diamond.taz the diamond faq is /pub/Linux/X11 21798 Oct 12 15:38 Diamond.FAQ information on dotclocks, monitors, etc., is in /pub/Linux/X11/XFree86-2.0 : 135027 Nov 1 02:30 xf86-doc-2.0.tar.gz --------------------------------------------------------------------- I have been using our mono viper driver binaries under Xfree86 2.0 without any problem. I'm using slackware 1.10 from ftp.cdrom.com ----------------------------------------------------------- If you would like to volunteer to do some coding for the driver, or to be a beta tester when we have something to release, please send me a Brief message telling me what you would like to do. Thanks, Harry H Langenbacher harry@brain.jpl.nasa.gov (818)354-9513 Concurrent Processing Devices Group, Jet Propulsion Lab 4800 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena California 91109 USA