Xorg's X Window innovation - it's not ALL about the graphics (but there's quite a lot of it)

Jun 02, 2009, 13:03 (0 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Mitch Meyran)

[ Thanks to steve hill for this link. ]

"DRI/DRM: let's add another layer!

"Currently, X can make use of 3 types of hardware access: indirect access, DRI1 and DRI2. I covered how and when each of them appeared. Here, I'll give more detailed explanations.

"Indirect access

"In order to not reprogram each and every driver every time X changes, an ABI was created (then superseded) to allow X to communicate with every DDX driver in the same way.

"To perform an operation, say, draw an ellipse, fill it with a colour, X issues a command under XAA (originally, now it's more often EXA/UXA) format, to the DDX driver; said driver translates the command in a way the hardware can understand."

Complete Story

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