Re: [oc] Interested in developing CRT controller core

[Gregory M Pomerantz <gmp216@is9.nyu.edu>]

> >2. Should this CRT controller be compatible with VGA (registers, programming
> >etc.)?
> 
> I would argue against it. Today the classical VGA register model is pretty
> obsolete. Most of the graphics controllers are emphasizing their DirectX
> and OpenGL support. For us the only advantage of the VGA register model is
> the flexibility to model our display driver off of existing display
> drivers. If the opencores processor designs are successful we should be
> able to attract software talent that should be willing to write custom
> drivers.

On the other hand, for any kind of legacy PC support (if you want to work
with a PC BIOS or MS Windows) VGA compatibility is pretty important, if not
absolutely necessary. However, its also extremely complicated, and I'm not
sure how well documented it is. One alternative is to have basic support for
a simple video standard in hardware, and implement VGA in software with a
microcontroller if necessary. This would be a good solution because any
implementation that needs VGA will probably also want a higher performance
solution with directX or openGL support as well, which could be
implemented on the additional hardware. Then, a simple implementation (e.g.
an embedded system) could be done without the overhead of the VGA logic which
would probably never be used.
---
greg