EOF of zulu, gfb and gfxp graphics support [PSARC/2008/666 FastTrack timeout 11/07/2008]

Mon Nov 3 20:31:40 PST 2008

1) zulu (XVR-4000) V880z
   gfb  (XVR-1000) Ultra 60, 80, Sun Blade 1000, 2000
   gfxp (PGX32)    Ultra 5, 10, 30, 60, 80, Sun Blade 100, 1000, 2000,
                   Enterprise 250, 450, 220R, 420R, Enterprise 3x00, 4x00,
		   5x00, 6x00, Sun Fire 280R, V480, V880
   These drivers only support add-in cards as much as I could find.

2) The platforms have alternative graphics options with Nevada bundled drivers.
   3D accelerated options have alternative 3D accelerated graphics options with
   Nevada bundled drivers.

4) Further support of these drivers is a business decision.
   Source availability is also a business (read staffing) decision.

Ron

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From: "Garrett D'Amore" <gdamore at sun.com>
Subject: Re: EOF of zulu, gfb and gfxp graphics support [PSARC/2008/666
 FastTrack timeout 11/07/2008]
To: Eric Sultan <egs at thirdreef.sfbay.sun.com>
Cc: PSARC-ext at sun.com, ron.bielaski at sun.com

Questions:

1) What hardware platforms shipped with these options?  Add-in or 
on-board?  (If these drivers don't support any built-in motherboard 
framebuffer devices, then most of the rest of the questions are of far 
less concern.)

2) Do those platforms have alternative graphics options available for 
them that are supported in Solaris Nevada?  What about options that 
include 3D acceleration?   (Not relevant for PGX32, I realize.)

3) If the answer to question #2 above is "no", and the device is a 
motherboard device, is the intent to *also* EOL the platform from 
Solaris Nevada?

4) For some of these drivers (I know this is true for PGX32, but 
probably also others), is it possible that the OpenSolaris community 
could contribute support?  (In particular, for PGX32 I can imagine that 
an Xorg based solution might work with very little extra effort.  But 
I'm concerned that gfb and zulu might require access to Sun NDA 
information that might not be available to open source developers.  Can 
we make such information available, or even better, make source code 
available, so that 3rd parties can pick up and continue supporting these 
if they should want to?)

Thanks.  (And yes, I realize that the above questions may straddle the 
boundary of "architecture", but I think the answers are still useful and 
important.  I especially want to ensure that there are no "surprise" 
platform EOLs as a result of this case -- which isn't to say we can't 
EOL older platforms, just that if we do so, then IMO we need to be 
explicit about it.)

    -- Garrett

Eric Sultan wrote:
> I'm sponsoring this case for Ron Bielaski, with a timeout set for next
> Friday, November 11, 2008.  This proposal is to EOF three SPARC graphics
> devices: XVR-1000, XVR-4000, and PGX32.
>
>   -- Eric
>
>
>
> Template Version: @(#)sac_nextcase 1.64 07/13/07 SMI
> This information is Copyright 2008 Sun Microsystems
> 1. Introduction
>     1.1. Project/Component Working Name:
> 	 EOF of zulu, gfb and gfxp graphics support
>     1.2. Name of Document Author/Supplier:
> 	 Author:  Ron Bielaski
>     1.3  Date of This Document:
> 	30 October, 2008
> 4. Technical Description
>
> This case announces the EOF and removes SPARC graphics drivers support
> for:
>
>    zulu (XVR-4000)
>    gfb  (XVR-1000)
>    gfxp (PGX32)
>
> The last ship dates for these SPARC graphics products were:
>
>    XVR-4000   6/10/2005,  Intro# Q2FY2005-73I
>    XVR-1000  10/08/2004,  Intro# Q3FY2004-120I 
>    PGX32     09/30/2003,  Intro# Q2FY2003-86I
>
> According to Sun's announcement database, the last of these cards sold had
> its last ship date in 2005. Since this case only removes support from an
> upcoming minor or greater release of Solaris, and Solaris 10 end of support
> is not likely to happen until 2014 or later, this will give purchasers of
> these cards at least 9 years of software support.
>
> This case delivers in two phases:
>
> 1) In a patch release, announces the obsolesence of and future removal plans
>    for zulu, gfb and gfxp support.
>
> 2) In a minor release, removes the following:
>
>    From the ON Consolidation:
> 		SUNWcakr   /platform/sun4u/kernel/misc/sparcv9/zuluvm
>
>    From the Graphics Consolidation:
>
> 	The entire SUNWzulu.u, SUNWzuluc, SUNWzulur and
>         SUNWzuluw packages containing files:
>
> 		SUNWzulu.u /platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/sparcv9/zulu
> 		SUNWzuluc  /usr/lib/fbconfig/SUNWzulu_config
> 		SUNWzuluc  /usr/lib/fbconfig/sparc/libSUNWzulu_dvr.so.1
> 		SUNWzuluc  /usr/lib/fbconfig/sparcv9/libSUNWzulu_dvr.so.1
> 		SUNWzuluc  /usr/lib/zulu.ucode
> 		SUNWzuluc  /usr/sbin/zuludaemon
> 		SUNWzulur  /etc/init.d/zuluinit
> 		SUNWzuluw  /usr/openwin/server/etc/filters/catmull.filter
> 		SUNWzuluw  /usr/openwin/server/modules/ddxSUNWzulu.so.1
>
> 	The entire SUNWgfb.u, SUNWgfbcf, SUNWgfbr and
>         SUNWgfbw packages containing files:
>
> 		SUNWgfb.u  /platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/sparcv9/gfb
> 		SUNWgfbcf  /usr/lib/fbconfig/SUNWgfb_config
> 		SUNWgfbcf  /usr/lib/gfb.ucode
> 		SUNWgfbcf  /usr/sbin/gfbdaemon
> 		SUNWgfbr   /etc/init.d/gfbinit
> 		SUNWgfbw   /usr/openwin/server/modules/ddxSUNWgfb.so.1
>
> 	The entire TSIpgx.u and TSIpgxw packages containing files:
> 		TSIpgx.u   /platform/sun4u/kernel/drv/sparcv9/gfxp
> 		TSIpgxw    /usr/openwin/server/etc/pgxresinfo
> 		TSIpgxw    /usr/openwin/server/modules/ddxTSIgfx.so.1
> 		TSIpgxw    /usr/sbin/pgxconfig
>
>    From the man page consolidation:
>
> 	From the SUNWman package:
>
> 		/usr/share/man/man1m/SUNWzulu_config.1m
> 		/usr/share/man/man1m/zuludaemon.1m
> 		/usr/share/man/man7d/zulu.7d
>
> 		/usr/share/man/man1m/SUNWgfb_config.1m
>
> 		/usr/share/man/man1m/GFXconfig.1m
> 		/usr/share/man/man1m/TSIgfxp_config.1m
>
>    (Given the cross-consolidation nature of this removal, these may be
>     removed in separate builds of each consolidation.)
>
>
> 6. Resources and Schedule
>     6.4. Steering Committee requested information
>    	6.4.1. Consolidation C-team Name:
> 		Graphics, ON
>     6.5. ARC review type: FastTrack
>     6.6. ARC Exposure: open

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