Video cards, Xinerama, and IC design tools.

[Stephen Ryan]

On Fri, 2004-02-13 at 15:12, Ken D'Ambrosio wrote:
> Hi, all.  Through no fault of my own, I've suddenly had the title "CAD
> tools manager" appanded to my name.  This makes me sad.   But, regardless
> of my feelings on the matter, I've got some Linux-based challenges, and am
> running into some problems.
> 
> Currently, our ASIC crew runs on getting-older HP/UX machines, and we're
> making a push for Linux: on a per-CPU basis, it's a LOT cheaper.
> 
> However.
> 
> The engineers, by and large, are running in dual-head single-desktop mode
> (a la "Xinerama" under Linux).  I went through hell and high water to get
> a combination that a) worked well, and b) worked well at 24 bits in
> 1600x1200 mode.  This was a lot harder than I thought it would be. 
> Unfortunately, when I was done, and the engineers kicked the tires, it was
> s-l-o-w.  I mean, this 3.06 GHz machine was made to run at something like
> 1/3 the apparent speed of the 552 MHz HPs.  The video cards were decent,
> but not great.  Singly, they work pretty well.  So: does anyone have any
> suggestions for video cards that work well, and FAST, in dual-head mode? 
> Preferably one video card (akin to the Matrox G-450, which didn't work). 
> Price, while something to consider, is not a particular obstacle.  OTOH, I
> don't want to go buying high-end video cards willy-nilly in the hopes that
> I hit paydirt.  I have asked this question (or a similar one, at least) of
> the XFree86 list, and got the "Sounds of Silence" in return.

Slow for what purpose?  I have a G400 running in dual-head mode (but not
Xinerama; I'm too used to having many virtual desktops and I want
independent control on each monitor), and it runs decently well for me
with XFree86 4.1; it worked fine with Xinerama for a while, too.  I did
download the MGA PowerDesk for initial configuration, though.  I forget
if that's necessary for the second head or not.

Anyway, it's well documented that the second head of a dual-head card
typically doesn't have 3d acceleration.  Is that what you're referring
to?