| 摘要 |
PURPOSE: A universal graphics adapter is provided to supply a hardware independent video display facilitated through firmware services that abstract video hardware and expose an interface to an operating system. CONSTITUTION: A UGA virtual machine(210) facilitates an access via a UGA interface to UGA hardware(220). The UGA virtual machine(210) is implemented in firmware and stored in a BIOS on a chip associated with the UGA hardware(220). A boot time application(242) and a run-time application(250) considers a system(200) to have only a UGA hardware(220) through the interaction of a hardware abstraction layer(260)(HAL) and a UGA kernel services(270). The HAL(260) abstracts the details of video display hardware into an interface. The boot time application(242) calls a boot time display API(Application Programming Interface)(280) to perform actions like displaying messages during POST and to display a power on banner. The run time application(250) calls a run time display API(290) to perform display functions. The HAL(260) implements abstracted methods to work with the VGA hardware(230) through the conventional register interface(240). However, when UGA hardware(220) is present, the HAL(260) implements the abstracted methods to work through the UGA virtual machine(210) to interact with the UGA hardware(220).
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