Custom video driver

[KHank1]

I have an application that I need help with for an N270/945GSE + ICH7M chipset, with integrated GMA 950. This particular board has VGA out, LVDS out, and TV out. I would like to be able to have an extended desktop over the two monitors (VGA and LVDS) with the TV out also enabled and functioning as a mirror of the LVDS out, or as the sole second display. Right now the TV out only works when the Intel Dual Display Clone mode is being used, and it is a mirror of the VGA out. As I said, I want two independent displays allowing an extended desktop, with the TV out enabled and showing the second monitor. I would like to hire someone to write/modify the software for this. Looking to hire some short-term developer help or whatever else will help me to get this done. Thanks!

Kurt

[FMcNu1]

Hi Kurt,

Welcome to the Intel® Embedded Community.

A few ideas you might consider: 1. Is this a custom board you designed yourself? If not, if it's an off-the-shelf board you might want to check with the manufacturer. A lot of the board vendors offer custom services. 2. Within Intel's embedded ecosystem, there are a number of companies that offer custom services. See link below. I suggest your search the directory by "System Integration / Services" or "Softare / Firmware" http://www.intel.com/design/network/ica/index.htm http://www.intel.com/design/network/ica/index.htm Not all of these companies would be appropriate, but I believe you might find one that is a good fit for your needs. For example, Alt Software advertises a specialty in graphics drivers for Intel systems. Please note I am not endorsing this company. I just know they exist in the ecosystem. I am sure there are others. https://www.intelcommsalliance.com/kshowcase/view/view_profile/c50a5abee4dfda3fc2a68d5ea951e5209e65d2aa?classification=system https://www.intelcommsalliance.com/kshowcase/view/view_profile/c50a5abee4dfda3fc2a68d5ea951e5209e65d2aa?classification=system Please also know that not all of these companies regularly monitor this forum looking for questions like yours so you will have to reach out to them.

I hope this helps.

Felix

J. Felix McNulty

Community Moderator (Intel contractor)

[KHank1]

Thank you Felix

The prices being quoted for this work are too high, so I have been trying to use

IEGD 10.4 to see if I can't do this myself, but am running into problems.

I get error messages when expanding the resulting zip file that says the system

can't find certain files, then when I run the installer I get an error message that

says the installation was incomplete.

I have watched the movie called IEGD demo, gone through the user manual,

and have done exactly as described therein, but to no avail.

Honestly this whole thing seems like such a convoluted way to get help.

I have to post on a forum and hope that someone notices and wants to help.

Or watch a video that may or may not provide answers to my specific questions.

I have an application here that will sell Intel base boards by the tens of thousands,

the only remaining thing is this one obstacle and that is to get dual independent

displays on a 945GSE with GMA 950, with the second display either coming through

the TV out port or coming through the LVDS and being mirrored at the TV out.

I should be able to call someone at Intel and explain the problem, and have some

immediate answers. Instead I have to go this whole by gosh and by golly thing.

If I ran my business that way I wouldn't have any customers!

Kurt

[FMcNu1]

Hi Kurt

Sorry you are having difficulties.

I think you were directed to the forum because your initial request indicated you were looking for contract development help, as opposed to technical support. Now if you want to do this work yourself, for support from Intel there are various options. On the community main page, please find the "Contact Intel" link at the top of the page, to the right of the "Search the Intel Embedded Community" box.

In the meantime, I will alert someone on the IEGD team and perhaps there is an easy answer.

I hope this helps,

Felix

[Kirk_B_Intel]

Hello Kurt,

What you want to do is a very interesting capability and is actually one I have advocated to implement in our driver. Getting LVDS and VGA working in extended mode is straight forward, as is getting any of the two displays going as extended of each other. Limitations start when you want to try to get that third possible display port going also. The hardware only supports two unique displays at the same time as that is the limit of the hardware. In theory you could have two displays extended and the third one a TWIN of one of the other displays but that requires the two twined displays to have EXACTLY the same display timing as they would feed off the same display pipe that sets the resolution and timing,

The good news is that the driver is capable of doing exactly that, but the bad news is that the INFRASTRUCTURE does not (i.e. CED, IEGD Gui, Mode sets, etc.are not designed to handle that third display). So if you were to go into the registry and find the entry for the active IEGD display you might see an entry for DC (display config) that would be set to 0x0000041 if you had only the LVDS running. 4 is port 4 which is LVDS and the one indicates Single mode.

If you were to set up LVDS extended with VGA (or CRT as we call it) you will see something like 0x00500048 in the DC. The "5" is port for CRT which is enabled on the second pipe, and the 4 is still the LVDS but the8 indicates to extend to the second pipe.

There is possible more bad news- there are additional port limitations in the hardware- LVDS and internal TV out (if your chipset has that and uses it for the TV out) must be on thier own pipe alone with no twin. If your platform implements an SDVO chip for the TV out like a Chrontel chip then it is possible to force the mode you want by setting the DC to 0x05200048 which is Extended on LVDS to CRT and SDVO. Note the DC might need to be 0x05300048 if the SDVO is SDVOC instead of SDVOB. These port numbers and mode numbers above are documented in the users guide- we generally just do not tlak about the structure of the DC specifically.

Please note the instant you touch the any Windows controls to set resolution or color depth, this will break and will need to be manually set again.

Although we implemented this multiple display capability in the driver, our focus for embedded went a different directiosn and we never added the capability to make the infrastructure full handle this. We never found any embedded customers that HAD to have the feature and the chips we concentrate on now do not have this ability at all.

Hope this helps.

Kirk