Vaxstation 4000 m60 and NetBSD

[systems_glitch]

I may have a spare VS3100 with framebuffer, I don't remember if both of
mine are MicroVAX or if one is a VAXstation.

Thanks,
Jonathan

On Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 2:35 PM, David Brownlee via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> On 2 January 2018 at 21:02, Maciej W. Rozycki via cctalk <
> cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, 19 Dec 2017, Charles Dickman via cctalk wrote:
> >
> > > > Hardware support say no support for LCG Graphics :-(
> > >
> > > There are a few people willing to work on graphics for old
> > > vaxstations, but there is no documentation.
> > >
> > > If anyone has documentation, the netbsd vax port mailing list would be
> > > very interested.
> >
> >  The RAMDAC is standard, so as long as frame buffer memory is mapped into
> > the CDAL address space writing a dumb device driver should be pretty
> > straightforward with little reverse engineering effort.  And CDAL address
> > decoding is I believe documented in the KA46 board specification.
> >
> >  And all else failing you can always resort to TURBOchannel graphics
> wired
> > via a TURBOchannel adapter.  While not supported by the console monitor,
> > it can be handled by the OS just fine, and several TURBOchannel graphics
> > drivers are already available for other ports, so it's just a matter of a
> > suitable kernel configuration (with minor patching possibly, depending on
> > how cleanly written the respective drivers are).
> >
> >  I was able to get OS console output using at least the HX and one of the
> > HX+ options with my m90 and the (still very crippled and long neglected)
> > VAX/Linux port several years ago.  The MX, CX and TX options should be
> > easily supportable too.  Only accelerators (PixelStamp and PixelVision
> > architecture implementations) might cause trouble for one reason or
> > another (such as using DMA or requiring a TURBOchannel extender, which
> are
> > scarcer than hen's teeth).
> >
>
> I've been chatting to the NetBSD dev who wrote support for most of the
> sparc framebuffers (up to and including accelerated antialiased font
> console support where relevant), and if anyone has a spare VAXstation with
> a framebuffer they would be willing to part with (*) he would be very
> interested in writing driver support.
>
> (*) I'm happy to pay a reasonable amount to help find a beloved charge a
> caring new home involving active exercise with exciting new code :-p
>
> David
>