From owner-freebsd-hackers Sun Jan 31 21:06:23 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id VAA20155 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Sun, 31 Jan 1999 21:06:23 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from alcanet.com.au (border.alcanet.com.au [203.62.196.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id VAA20149 for ; Sun, 31 Jan 1999 21:06:21 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from peter.jeremy@auss2.alcatel.com.au) Received: by border.alcanet.com.au id <40330>; Mon, 1 Feb 1999 15:56:28 +1100 Date: Mon, 1 Feb 1999 16:06:09 +1100 From: Peter Jeremy Subject: Re: USB drivers To: doconnor@gsoft.com.au Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Message-Id: <99Feb1.155628est.40330@border.alcanet.com.au> Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG "Daniel O'Connor" wrote: >On 01-Feb-99 Peter Jeremy wrote: >> >I'm not convinced that this is feasible nowadays. >> >> It had problems even in the Amiga - the `hi-res' modes [like >> 640x480x16 colour] used _all_ of the chip RAM bandwidth >Yes, but lets face it the Amiga's bus isn't exactly fast by todays standards :) OK then, I'll use more current figures: the system I am typing this on runs at somewhat over 5Gbps to the display - or just under 4Gbps if you don't count retrace time. That's about 2 PCI busses just for the display. It's not practical today to build a decent display subsystem using standard DRAM, let alone using the system's main memory, accessed via a standard bus. To try and head back to where this started: Running a display over USB is only practical if the graphics card is in the monitor and the USB is just carrying the display updates. [And when you follow this through logically, you wind up with an X-server in your monitor, so you might as well put the rest of the computer in there as well]. Peter To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message