[SGVLUG] Dual video cards -- possible/supported?

[Michael Proctor-Smith]

On 6/29/06, Emerson, Tom <Tom.Emerson at wbconsultant.com> wrote:
> I just got an alienware ad in my inbox -- it seems they have a couple of
> models of notebooks that have DUAL video cards -- per the site, one card
> renders "the top half of the display", while the second card manages the
> lower half.
>
> Is this via a really funky proprietary driver, or (since these are
> nvidia cards I think...) is there an existing linux driver that would
> support this sort of processing?  (I presume there is an inter-card
> connector that passes through "the other half" of the video signal to
> the actual VGA/DVI connector -- that *should* independent of any
> software, but I'll bet a corner or two was cut...)

Not a funky proprietary driver the same proprietary driver you have to
use if you what good 3d for all of the NVidia cards. Remember we have
NVidia drivers at all because the movie industry are (as Robin put it
are 99%) Linux desktops. That is the real reson NVidia bothered, us
linux desktop people are not really worth there time right now but the
Workstion market is.

SLI and what ever ATI calls there similar technology are not a new
concept. Way back in the early days of the first add in 3d
accelerators, before video cards had there own 3d rendering units,
there was such dual 3d accelerator setups.

Remember a 3d video card "driver" is more then just a wrapper for what
the hardware does, the video subsystem is really an intergrated
hardware/software package with somethings being implamented in
software and some in hardware. As mere mortals we are not told what is
done in hardware and what is done in software.