• Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12058 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > The compatibility of Radeon cards that can be used for MorphOS
    > are listed as Mac, or Windows compatible.

    I think in terms of hardware compatibility they're listed as Mac or (IBM) PC compatible. Of course, PC compatibility at hardware level includes Windows compatibility at operating system level because ATI/AMD offer the drivers for Windows.

    > Not Mac, or x86 compatible.

    Yes, they don't mention "x86", but they mention just "PC", which is short for "IBM compatible PC" and entails an x86 (or x64) processor by definition.

    > Most, if not all of the marketing and specifications requirements for the
    > Radeon cards mention which Windows OSes the cards will work with

    That's operating system level for driver compatibility, not hardware level.

    > and make no mention of the computer architecture, x86

    See "PC" above.

    > or PPC

    The cards currently supported by MorphOS came before Mac switched to x86, so "Mac" in those "marketing and specifications requirements" entails "PPC" processor.

    > nor have I seen a single reference to Linux, Unix, or any other
    > OS on any Radeon advertising, or spec documents.

    That's a limitation at driver level for the older cards, not at hardware level. System requirements for recent AMD cards mention "PCI Express based PC is required with one X16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard". Not a single word about Windows.

    > This is the only reason I use the words Windows versus Mac for the
    > two different types of video cards

    Wouldn't it have to be "Mac OS" rather than "Mac" then? After all, Mac is hardware.

    > It makes no difference that the bios file is not OS specific

    I think that it renders the term "Windows video cards" nonsensical, especially in a MorphOS context. You also used the term "Windows bios". What's that then?

    > and is either PPC fo use in Mac PPC computers, or x86 for use in computers
    > using Windows and other OSes on x86 hardware.

    ...or on PPC hardware with x86 emulator incorporated into the computer's firmware.

    > only one member felt that a snide remark was needed to help our community.

    Wrong, it wasn't an attempt at helping. It was an attempt at making a snide remark. There's no rule (that I know of) on MorphZone that each and every posting must be helpful.
  • »21.11.10 - 17:50
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