✧✦Catherine✦✧Apr 8

hey wanna see somethng cursed

one part of this NIC is downloading UEFI boot options from another part of this NIC over HTTP. (well, failing to do it for some reason)

you're welcome

Show threadRa (Freyja) (it/its)𒀭𒈹𒍠𒊩Apr 8
@whitequark oh no. oh no that implies multiple fucking processors
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Apr 8
@freya yes it has two linuxes on it
Show threadRa (Freyja) (it/its)𒀭𒈹𒍠𒊩Apr 8
@whitequark why. what. what. what
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Apr 8
@freya second is AST2600
Show threadRa (Freyja) (it/its)𒀭𒈹𒍠𒊩Apr 8
@whitequark what the fuuuuck, that's a wholeass BMC
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Apr 8
@freya yup
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Apr 8
@freya with 1 GB of RAM (256 MB of it is full of some crap)
Show threadAlexBApr 8
@whitequark @freya would not be surprised if that was (reserved for) the (host's) video framebuffer
Show threadRa (Freyja) (it/its)𒀭𒈹𒍠𒊩Apr 8
@vmp_ @whitequark yep, you would be exactly correct, the AST2600 is configured to prevent to be a Matrox MGA-G200 VGA chipset
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Apr 8

@freya @vmp_ what

no that's not the case at all. what the hell are you talking about

Show threadRa (Freyja) (it/its)𒀭𒈹𒍠𒊩Apr 8
@whitequark @vmp_ the Aspeed AST2600 uses a hunk of ram to be a VGA chipset because it's used as a BMC in servers, right?
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Apr 8
@freya @vmp_ first, you need barely any RAM for a Matrox framebuffer (the Matrox card you're talking about came with eight megabytes of it. today you could put that in on-die SRAM if you wanted). second, i'm talking about Linux-accessible RAM, on the Linux kernel, that I have root on
Show threadARGVMI~1.PIFApr 8

@whitequark @freya @vmp_

Also, the G200 is a 3D GPU. If you just want to just draw a simple GUI once a fortnight, it's total overkill.

Although that does make me wonder what's the simplest and/or cheapest video chip manufactured today. Some kind of dumb RAMDAC where the CPU does all the work, I guess?

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Apr 8
@argv_minus_one @freya @vmp_ this will 100% depend on your definition of "video chip"
Show threadARGVMI~1.PIFApr 8

@whitequark @freya @vmp_

A device that generates a DP/HDMI/whatever video signal by reading pixel data from a block of memory, I guess.

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Apr 8
@argv_minus_one @freya @vmp_ how "whatever" are we talking?
Show threadARGVMI~1.PIFApr 8

@whitequark

I'm…not sure? VGA and SCART and such are fine too, I guess, but I assume those are more complex because there's DAC involved.

Must be pixel graphics, though, so vector displays and RS232 don't count.

@freya @vmp_

Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧
@argv_minus_one @freya @vmp_ you can get LCDs where you can write the framebuffer via SPI, so probably "a shift register" could be a video card :p
Apr 8 at 3:12amWeb
Show thread✧✦Catherine✦✧Apr 8
@argv_minus_one @freya @vmp_ there are also ones without a framebuffer (there's one on my desk that's basically SPI but you have to drive it in an exactly specific way so it refreshes at 60 Hz or something)
Show threadARGVMI~1.PIFApr 8

@whitequark

Yep, that's pretty simple.

What about actual DP/HDMI/DVI-D? What's the simplest solution there?

@freya @vmp_