🚀 go-pugleaf

>I *think* it said that most programs don't really use the 16-bit bus
>there is actually little difference when switching between the 2 setups.  I
>think windows is one of the ones that uses only the 8-bit mode.  If someone
>could dig up the article, it might shed some more light on this.

I think the point is that in normal VGA graphics modes, the VGA
architecture restricts accesses to 8 bits at a time, anyway.  The main
thing sped up by a 16 bit display card is the video BIOS.  While it is
possible to write to the video memory in TEXT mode 16-bits at a time,
this is not really that noticable since this is not normally a
noticable bottleneck.

While you may be able to write a 16 bit word to a VGA in graphics mode,
it really takes as long as two 8 bit cycles because of the architecture
of the VGA controller.

Of course, it is possible that if super-VGA drivers are included with a
16-bit card, that they write to the video memory in graphics modes
16-bits at a time in a proprietary manner.

     john nelson

uucp:	{decvax,mit-eddie}!genrad!jpn
domain:	jpn@genrad.com