🚀 go-pugleaf

I have asked this before (but gotten no answer)...
We manufacture TMS34020 based graphics cards (ISA, EISA, Local Bus),
right now 1280x1024*256 with true-color coming. We have done drivers
for TIGA, Windows, X and AutoCAD. Each vendor provided a complete set
of tools and sample sources to make things easy for us. With IBM
things have been VERY different. We ordered every piece of
documentation that could be ordered. We also ordered any software that
could be ordered. We ordered the pre-release 32-Bits graphics engine
and got that, too. I read (or skimmed over) all the documentation.
There was no hint about a PM driver toolkit in any of the
documentation, yet apart from the fact that such a thing is simply a
MUST, there is even evidence that it exists (e.g. resources in the
32-bit graphics engine that are to be loaded into a 32-Bit PM driver).
I even saw a message from some IBM guy where he bragged about how fast
an external developer was able to come up with a "seamless Windows
driver" for (I believe) the Paradise chip set. So evidentely there IS
such a thing!

Now what do we have to do to get it? Can it simply be bought (like the
Windows DDK) or do you have to be a special friend to IBM? (How do you
become one?) I can't believe how difficult IBM seems to be making it
for independent hardware developers to support their platform.
Evidentily they are trying to sell this thing, so why are they making
it so difficult? Ok the whole PM thing seems to be in a state of
transition from 16-Bit to 32-Bit so the tools might still be alpha or
worse. I don't really care, we would like to get started. The way
things are we might actually hold an NT DDK in our hands before we see
anything from IBM. That's not how you gain marked share.

Frustrated, Thomas
---
Thomas M. Hoberg   | Internet: tmh@first.gmd.de
1000 Berlin 41     |           tmh@cs.tu-berlin.de
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Germany            | BITNET:   tmh@tub.bitnet 
+49-30-851-50-21   |