STI(4)

📦
version 11.0 · 2 versions
, in nixpkgs unstable

💅 STI(4) — HP Standard Text Interface ✨

okay bestie, so this is sti(4) from the Kernel Interfaces Manual — and no, it's not the other thing, it's the HP Standard Text Interface and honestly it's kind of iconic. 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

sti — HP Standard Text Interface

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

sti* at mainbus0
sti* at phantomas?
sti* at pci?
wsdisplay*     at sti?

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so like. HP made sti to give their 9000/300 and 9000/700 series workstations one uniform way to do frame-buffer access operations. one interface to rule them all, no cap. 👑

these are the models it supports (tho ngl, not every feature or frame buffer depth might actually be available on every one):

  • EVRX — 8 bits, 0.5 MB, no 3D — HP9000/362/382
  • EVRX — 8 bits, 0.75 MB, no 3D — HP9000/382
  • EVRX — 8 bits, 2 MB, no 3D — HP9000/425e
  • GRX — 8g bits, 2 MB, no 3D — SGC
  • CRX — 8 bits, 2 MB, no 3D — SGC
  • Tomcat — 8 bits, 2 MB, no 3D — SGC
  • Stinger — 8 bits, 2 MB, no 3D — HP9000/7[12]5/74[257]i
  • Artist — 8 bits, 2 MB, no 3D — HP9000/712/7[12]5/74[38]i
  • CRX-24 — 24 bits, 16 MB, no 3D — SGC
  • HCRX-8 — 8 bits, 2 MB, no 3D — GSC
  • HCRX-24 — 24 bits, 16 MB, no 3D — GSC
  • Visualize EG — 16 bits, 2 MB, no 3D — HP B/C-class, GSC/PCI
  • Visualize FXE — 24 bits, 24 MB, 3D: y — PCI 32/66
  • Visualize FX2 — 24 bits, 24 MB, 3D: y — PCI 64/66
  • Visualize FX4/FX6 — 24 bits, 32 MB, 3D: y — PCI 64/66

the implementation is literally a set of functions burnt into the PROM on the card, and those functions give you the following (peep below for the PROM revision history of which functions a particular PROM revision actually supports):

  • Initialize graphics.
  • State management.
  • Print a character onto the screen using currently selected font.
  • Copy a region of the frame-buffer to another location.
  • Self testing.
  • Exception handling.
  • Frame-buffer configuration enquiry.
  • Setting colour-map entry.
  • DMA parameters.
  • Flow control.
  • User timing.
  • Processing management.
  • Miscellaneous utility functions.

🫶 the two access modes 🫶

there are exactly two modes for accessing the PROM: “byte” and “word”, and the difference matters, okay?

in “byte” mode, each 4-byte word contains only the low-ordered big-endian byte of data — so to compose one word of data you gotta read 4 words and shift the low-ordered bytes of those correspondingly. it's giving "assemble it yourself" energy. 😭

in “word” mode, each word contains all 4 bytes of valid data. luxurious. 💅

🌈 PROM revision history 🌈

  • 8.02
    • Original release.
  • 8.03
    • OSF-extended self test (a.k.a fast).
    • Restore display.
  • 8.04
    • Implement curr_mon function.
    • Graphical boot screen.
    • Implement “block move”.
    • Implement “set colour-map entry”. sti Implement word mode.
    • Support for multiple monitors.
    • Support user_data sti space usage.
    • Support for extra memory.
    • Support for Windows NT (tm).
    • Monitor frequency reference.
    • Early console.
    • Support added for: PCXL, GSC bus, ROM-less operation.
  • 8.05
    • Interrupt support.
    • Report card's power usage.
    • Birds of Prey.
    • User interrupts.
  • 8.06
    • Multiple fonts.
    • Monitor table descriptor strings.
    • PCXL2 and PCXU monitor descriptors.
  • 8.08
    • HP-UX 10 support for Visualize FX
    • dma_ctrl function added.
    • flow_ctrl function added.
    • user_timing function added.
  • 8.09
    • Addition changes for Visualize FX due to rearchitecture for performance.
    • process_mgr function added.
  • 8.0a
    • PCXL2 and PCXU dual PCI EPROM map mode, implemented on Visualize EG.
  • 8.0b
    • Support for HP-UX non-implicit locking DMA, implemented on Visualize FXE.
  • 8.0c
    • sti_util function added (flashing under HP-UX and other sideband traffic).
  • 8.0d
    • Colour frame buffer support.

💜 SEE ALSO 💜

intro(4), phantomas(4), wsdisplay(4)

Standard Text Interface For Graphics Devices, Hewlett-Packard, Revision 8.13, March 1, 2000.

🌸 HISTORY 🌸

the sti driver was written by Michael Shalayeff <mickey@openbsd.org> for the HPPA port for OpenBSD 2.7. king behavior honestly 👑✨

💀 BUGS 💀

rn, neither scroll back nor screen blanking functions are implemented. so like. no scrolling back to reread the group chat, and no screen blanking. we cope. 🙈

🎀 that's the whole page bestie, every last option and version string accounted for — no cap, fr fr. page came from Debian, dated May 29, 2025, and that's the vibe check, periodt. 💖🦋
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