Re: correct video driver for Ultra1
On Wed, Mar 13, 2002 at 08:36:32AM +0100, Thomas J. Zeeman wrote:
> On Wed, 13 Mar 2002, Faheem Mitha wrote:
> > sure about the video driver. I am using the suncg6 driver, which however
> > appears to have only 8 bit colour. This looks terrible with graphical
> > stuff like web browsers. It is also very slow.
>
> The stock U1's have but 8-bit colour and the suncg6 driver is the right
> one.
That's all it'll do. It was fast in 1990, but it has aged.
> > completely sure what the machine is. I was told this was an Ultra1, but I
> > have heard there is also such a thing as an Ultra1 Creator, and am not
> > clear how I would find out which was which.
>
> Yup. The Creator series has a slightly different architecture; i.e.
> they've got a UPA-bus for graphics instead of a regular SBus. This allows
It strikes me as very different; UPA vs. SBus, 8/24-bit (etc.) vs. 8-bit,
fixedpoint internals vs. floating point, triangles vs. quads, etc. Both
will accelerate 3D, though only the Creator3D variant has a Z buffer.
Then there's the detail that I worked on the FFB and not the GX. :-)
> for better video (read: 24-bit, 3d-acelleration, etc.).
> I've heard you can recognize the type by the colour of the dot on the
> front of the case; green is a stock U1, red a Creator flavour.
> Rumour[0] has it there's a special card that allows 24-bit colour on a
> SBus-machine; given it has two free SBus-slots.
The ZX (leo) is/was the only supported 24 bit color setup for Ultrasparcs
without a UPA port. The SX board would probably work, but it would be even
slower, and neither is as fast as a Creator card.
The significant differences between the E and non-E variants are the UPA slot
for graphics & the fast ethernet (etc.) chip.
[snip]
Jon Leonard
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