Introduction
Xi Graphics now supports the ATI RADEON 9250 PCI graphics card with Intel bios on Sun Microsystems SPARC platforms. This card utilizes the R200 series of graphics chips and is quite fast, both in 2D and OpenGL 3D operation (with Accelerated-X graphics software). The "standard" ATI 9250 PCI card (with Intel bios) can be used in a SPARC system with or without a Sun-supplied incumbent graphics chip/card. Support is available in Summit DX Series for this card on SPARC platforms.
No OpenBoot Bios Required
The Solaris OS generally requires a graphics device that employs the OpenBoot Bios (OBB). Many (most?) SPARC machines have a Sun-supplied graphics card that has an associated OBB. This allows the OS to boot the system with the incumbent graphics driving the boot console. After the system is booted, Xi Graphics' xsvc Solaris kernel driver, X server, and specific graphics driver for the new ATI card is installed. After installation, the X server is started, which then proceeds to initialize the new ATI card using its Intel bios, and the system is off and running. The incumbent graphics chip/card is not used in the subsequent configuration, although is some cases it might be possible, such as in the case of an incumbent Matrox G550 card. With the ATI Radeon 9250, however, it is not necessary to have a Sun-supplied card with OBB after the initial installation of the OS and the Summit Series package for the 9250.
Summit Series RADEON 9250 Support on SPARC
The Summit Series provides hardware-accelerated 2D & OpenGL v1.5 support for this card. The card can drive two monitors, which can be configured in various ways with one or two xscreens. See the description of DualView for more info on monitor configurations. Accelerated-X OpenGL utilizes Xi Graphics' hardware-accelerated rendering pipeline that we developed "from scratch." It is SGI OpenGL compliant to v1.5, and has available additional v2.0 ARB extensions. OpenGL applications that have been compiled against Sun's libGL with their "enhancements" option will need to be recompiled without this option on (it is on by default); otherwise the precompiled applications will not work with Xi Graphics libGL (which is OpenGL compliant).
Solaris v8 & v10 Demos Available
The SPARC OpenGL Platinum demo for the ATI 9250 card is available for download and testing. Demos can be reached by following the links from the Demo INDEX page.
Xsun Server is Replaced
Note that Xi Graphics' Accelerated-X server in installed in place of Sun's X server. Accelerated-X is X Window Systems compliant through X11R6.4 and also has some additional extensions and additions available. The Xi Graphics X servers are generally somewhat faster and more up to date than the Sun X servers, so unless special features available only from Sun - such as some of those in "Trusted Solaris" or other non-X specified features are used - the X server swap should be transparent. It is important that the demo be tested on the target machine and with target applications to insure the operation is satisfactory before licensing.
Accelerated-X and Solaris History
Xi Graphics has supported SPARC and Solaris since about Solaris v2.6 or earlier. Solaris support on Intel also extends to v10.
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