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List:       opensolaris-discuss
Subject:    Re: [osol-discuss] Graphic cards for SPARC
From:       Alan Coopersmith <alan.coopersmith () oracle ! com>
Date:       2011-03-21 17:17:50
Message-ID: 4D87883E.7000003 () oracle ! com
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On 03/21/11 09:39 AM, Nikola M. wrote:
> I see now that on Oracle Desktop site, there are few graphics cards:
> 
> Graphics Cards
>     * Sun XVR-300 Graphics Accelerator
>     * Sun XVR-2500 Graphics Accelerator
>     * NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 Graphics Accelerator
>     * NVIDIA Quadro FX 4600 Graphics Accelerator
>     * NVIDIA Quadro FX 570 Graphics Accelerator
>     * NVIDIA Quadro NVS 290 Graphics Accelerator (128MB)
> 
> So Oracle is selling graphic cards that can not work under SPARC/Solaris but
> only under x86,
> and the only two that can work on SPARC are XVR* ones?

Yes, since Sun made both SPARC & x64 workstations, they sold graphics cards for
each.   The XVR series are for the SPARCs, the NVIDIA Quadros for the x64.

> I suppose drivers are not there since low amount of cards is needed on SPARC
> market and cards needs to have special ROM inside.
> Is it only software/firmware side on the graphics card for OBP support or
> hardware needs to be different, too for Graphics card to work under SPARC?

The hardware needs to fit into the slots & space available in your machine, and
not use more power than is available.   Many SPARC servers can't take a full
size PCI-E x16 card that you'd find in a typical PC, and cabling in all the
extra power for a high powered GPU may not work well either.

> Seems to me like interesting point of sale for small to very small company for
> production of SPARC OBP supporting cards.

There used to be a few small companies doing that.   http://techsource.com/
seems to still have a few.

-- 
	-Alan Coopersmith-        alan.coopersmith@oracle.com
	 Oracle Solaris Platform Engineering: X Window System

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