MiniGLX

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MiniGLX is a unix programming library that provides a means to use DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure, a facility in the linux kernel that allows access to the OpenGL features of graphics cards) without needing to use the X windows system. In essence it provides functions that mimic those of X, so that programs written using MiniGLX should be compileable as X windows programs. However, MiniGLX renders directly to the framebuffer device. MiniGLX allows only one window to exist. In X many windows are created, not just a window for each application, but normally Widgets - buttons, editboxes, menus - are each individual windows. This window fills the whole framebuffer.

MiniGLX is intended to allow 3D programs to run on embedded systems without the overhead of X. It could also be useful for GPGPU applications, using the power of graphics card processors for general, non-graphical tasks.

[edit] References

  • [1] (MiniGLX sepcification at www.mesa3d.org)