From owner-freebsd-hardware Wed Feb 26 10:20:38 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3FB5337B401 for ; Wed, 26 Feb 2003 10:20:36 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail.cruzio.com (mail.cruzio.com [63.249.95.37]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 202FA43FB1 for ; Wed, 26 Feb 2003 10:20:34 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from brucem@cruzio.com) Received: from cruzio.com (dsl3-63-249-85-132.cruzio.com [63.249.85.132]) by mail.cruzio.com with ESMTP id KAA20192; Wed, 26 Feb 2003 10:20:28 -0800 (PST) Received: (from brucem@localhost) by cruzio.com (8.12.6/8.12.6/Submit) id h1QAHrNg000186; Wed, 26 Feb 2003 10:17:53 GMT Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2003 10:17:53 GMT From: "Bruce R. Montague" Message-Id: <200302261017.h1QAHrNg000186@cruzio.com> To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: NS Geode GX1- 300MHz compatible? Cc: sten.daniel.sorsdal@wan.no Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Hi, re: > Anyone know if this cpu is supported by FreeBSD? > > NS Geode GX1- 300MHz CPU. Yes, but some additional information may be useful. This CPU is basically a descendent of low-end Cyrix CPUs. It uses an "invisible" software layer (VSA hypervisor) that can trap, using an extended SMI, things such as I/O space references. The hypervisor uses this to emulate some hardware (such as, originally, a soundblaster). The video is also "in the CPU" (steals buffer memory from the cache). There can be troublesome interactions between some versions of the hypervisor and various BIOSes. The current trend seems to be to write OS drivers that go directly to the "raw real hardware" and avoid the simulated hardware. I think National is trying to avoid the VSA/BIOS version compatibility issue by trying to require use of their own BIOS (XpressROM) with their most recent systems. I know people that have had no problem running FreeBSD (stable and current) on Advantech GX1 systems. I believe Advantech assured a decent VSA/BIOS match. Within the last few months National's full-featured native GX1 video driver ("nsc") was included in the XFree86 CVS tree. The older "cyrix" driver still works, and the "vesa" driver, of course, can be used. I have run both FreeBSD stable and current on National's own reference platforms. On these platforms, I have always had to use the two patches posted in the following: Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 Subject: FreeBSD on Nat Semi Geode (GX1) SBC. http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=2304+0+archive/2002/freebsd-small/20020203.freebsd-small These patches can also be found at: http://alumni.cse.ucsc.edu/~brucem/diskless_aries.htm#geode_patches (Buried in a web-page aimed at a ugrad lab). I have written a "newpcm" FreeBSD native audio driver for the audio hardware included in the 5530 southbridge (often used with the GX1 and present in some of the follow-on "integrated CPU/Southbridge" chips). See: http://alumni.cse.ucsc.edu/~brucem/gx_audio/ Yoy may want to inquire as to whether someone is running FreeBSD on the exact hardware you are looking at... - bruce To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message