GXT6500P in other platforms

[zahal]

Aquired a GXT6500 for a Power5 server (which for all intents and purposes seems to have a faulty motherboard).
Then I wondered if this can be used in other machines other than the IBM pSeries. It must have firmware compatible with PowerPC Macs and Sun SPARC machines, so that's the first I'll try (the card and my G4 tower Mac are in diferent locations). I tried to boot an Alpha DS15 with the GXT6500P installed, but seems like it would not work (no image, no boot). Has anyone had success with any such experiment?

[Shiunbird]

From my own experience and research:

- Contributors to the CRUX Linux (I think it was CRUX) made a patch so it is supported on Linux. I'm not sure the patch has ever made to mainstream. It is fairly well documented, look it up. Important caveat: there's no hardware acceleration whatsoever, so I don't see much point here. With the patch installed, you should get OpenFirmware and FB output once booted. You may need to tweak your settings file with another card (or from another system) to not have it trying anything but framebuffer.
- I can get to the OpenFirmware prompt with a flashed Radeon 7000 if it is installed on my Power5, but AIX boots to blank screen. The same card on a PowerPC Mac goes from OS 9 to Leopard flawlessly. It works fine on Debian on the Power5 as well, although at times seems slower than the GXT135p on FB mode. (I never managed to get the GXT135p to work as a Matrox, something to do with the Power5s and how they handle PCI addressing if my memory doesn't fail me)
- Two cards on the Power5 don't work.
- The GXT135p worked on a Digital Audio G4 that I used to have as a secondary card, Linux only, FB only. OS X didn't like it. I didn't try OS 9. I didn't have the GXT6500p at the time to try, and I don't have that G4 anymore.