Some development notes
======================


Infos about ati-packages:
Most are identical, even when 64bit packages have a different name
Only a couple of cards have its own special package. We need to
investigate, if they are different or one package works for all.

It seems - only for the FireMV 2200 PCI graphics card, they offer an older
version (8.25) of the unified fglrx-driver. For the FirMV PCIE-Card they
offer a more recent Version (8.5).
By the time of writing the drivers were at version 8.7

From the ATI-FAQ:

Q2: Which ATI graphics cards can use this driver?
A2: The ATI Proprietary Linux driver currently supports Radeon 8500 and
later AGP or PCI Express graphics products, as well as ATI FireGL 8700
and later products. We do not currently plan to include support for any
products earlier than this. 

Support for earlier graphics card can be achieved by "radeon" or "ati" drivers!

===============================================================================

Infos about nvidia packages:
they seem to differ much more as ati if you search directly for a
specific graphic card. But if you take a look on
http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html there seem to be just 3 different
ersions - all for different architectures (ia32, ia64, amd64)



Supported graphics cards can be read from the nvidia-documentation

For the 173.14.12-NVIDIA-Driver go to
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_173.14.12.html
and click on "Supported Products List" on the right side

(below each unified driver a line to symbolize the evolution of
 drivers - correct me if I'm wrong)

173.14.12 driver: GeForce FX 5100 & all newer supported
           |---------------------------------->
 71.86.06 driver: Riva TNT - GeForce 6800 Ultra
|---------------|
 96.43.07 driver: some GeForce3 - GeForce 7900 ??
     |---------------|

The Question is, wether we need to support older graphics cards. 
Probably we don't need to bother because the user can download right 
driver package for his needs - almost the same interfaces for the installer...



===============================================================================
Taken from the readme on 
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/96.43.07/README/README.txt

since 96.43.07 no longer supported in the unified driver:

    NVIDIA chip name                      Device PCI ID
    ----------------------------------    ----------------------------------
    RIVA TNT                              0x0020
    RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro                    0x0028
    RIVA TNT2 Ultra                       0x0029
    Vanta/Vanta LT                        0x002C
    RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro       0x002D
    Aladdin TNT2                          0x00A0
    GeForce 256                           0x0100
    GeForce DDR                           0x0101
    Quadro                                0x0103
    GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Pro             0x0150
    GeForce2 Ti                           0x0151
    GeForce2 Ultra                        0x0152
    Quadro2 Pro                           0x0153