25 years after the death of 3dfx, the Voodoo 3 gets a Linux driver update — classic Voodoo GPUs can now boot without a PC BIOS
It's been a quarter-century since the firm folded, but the graphics chips still have utility in esoteric use cases.
A vintage graphics card, the 3dfx Voodoo 3, is receiving a slight modernization in the Linux kernel 7.3 update. The update refines the tdfxfb framebuffer driver, enabling it to initialize the Voodoo 3 directly instead of depending on the system firmware. This allows the Voodoo 3 to function as a display adapter, even when the firmware fails to initialize it.
The update is primarily targeted at the Voodoo 3, and the current patch series has excluded support for the Voodoo 4 and 5 cards due to differences in their BIOS layouts. The update can be tested on modern x86-64 systems and an Amiga 4000 equipped with a Mediator PCI bridge. While this update may not significantly enhance the Voodoo 3's capabilities as a contemporary Linux GPU, it does allow old hardware to display images without relying on the firmware.
Additionally, the developer, Daniel Palmer, is building a separate 3D path for the Voodoo 3, creating a userspace library and OpenGL implementation for classic 3D software to utilize the card.
Written by urgent.news from Tom's Hardware's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
