PCI plug n play and Graphics card implementation

[mansoor.naseer@gmail.com]

Hello all,

Can someone please answer the following questions?

1. I am using a VGA graphics core with 60Hz refresh rate and 640x480
pixels (24bit), requiring about 25MHz xtal. The FPGA development board
comes equipped with that, the problem is how to provide a fast pixel
access. The SDRAM connected has an access time of 15ns, if I could just
come up with some method to update the SRAM contents very quickly, i
can display moving graphics onto the monitor using FPGA? Are there any
simple graphic chips which can do this job for custom display designs
without using the processors?

2. The second question indirectly relates to the PCI, however, before
that, can someone please tell me exactly how plug and play works? When
the computer boots what steps are taken and how the system determine
how many legal devices are connected to the pci.

3. The base address register, it is not hardwired but assigned on the
fly? I have problems understanding the configuration step in the pci
core. Any comments for a starter?

Thanks in advance

Mak

 

[DerekSimmons@FrontierNet.]

I'm responding to your first question about moving graphics.

What development board are you using? And how much memory is available
and how is it organized?

By moving graphics, do you mean 2D or 3D graphics?

You have two choices: just in time rendering implementation or a double
buffered display. The just in time rendering display doesn't require as
much memory and it works great for text and simple 2D graphics. An
example of this is the older arcade games (Pac Man, Space Invaders,
Atari 2600). A double buffer display is memory hungry and it is used by
the 3D cards of today.

Which method are you intending on using?

Derek

 

[DerekSimmons@FrontierNet.]

When you say VGA what do you exactly mean? VGA was an implementation of
a graphics adapter made by IBM. It became the standard for PCs because
other venders picked it up and supported it on the PC.

Are you trying to create an implementation of a VGA card or are you
trying to create display card for displaying images from a PC using the
PCI bus?

Derek