Writing fast X servers for dumb color frame buffers
Joel McCormack · Software Practice and Experience · 1990
Processor speeds are improving faster than memory access speeds. The current generation of RISC processors can perform many two-dimensional graphics operations at or near memory or bus bandwidth speeds, rendering specialized hardware unnecessary for all but the most demanding applications. This paper describes the DECStation 3100 and DECStation 500/200CX color frame buffer hardware and several of the graphics algorithms used in the X server implementation. Measured performance numbers are presented and compared to memory bandwidth speed, and the most important contributors to the frame buffer's performance are summarized.