PCI card to output PC video memory

  • Thread starter Thread starter Juan R. Pozo
  • Start date Start date
J

Juan R. Pozo

Hello,

I don't know much about PC hardware so I'm sorry if this
question sounds silly.

This is for a PC system with a PCI bus. I would like to know
if there exists any PCI card which can access the video
memory and transmit it over a serial/parallel/ethernet/usb
line. I'm only interested in text mode output (that would be
80 x 25 = 2000 bytes per 'frame', or twice that in color
text mode, if I'm not mistaken).

The intention is to visualize the boot process of the PC on
a remote workstation (and, with keyboard support, interact
with it, but that's another matter), so output should start
before any OS is loaded (i.e., no software, no drivers).

I don't want to use the video output of a VGA card because
it would be harder to transmit over TCP/IP. I'm aware of KVM
over IP switches, but they have limitations in the number of
simultaneous users and/or are expensive. And text mode
output is all what I really need anyway, and it should be
easier and faster to transmit, too.

So, does any such PCI card exist?

(PS. I posted this to comp.hardware before but I don't think
it went through. If it did I'm really sorry for
multiposting.)

Thank you for your help,
 
Juan R. Pozo said:
Hello,

I don't know much about PC hardware so I'm sorry if this
question sounds silly.

This is for a PC system with a PCI bus. I would like to know
if there exists any PCI card which can access the video
memory and transmit it over a serial/parallel/ethernet/usb
line. I'm only interested in text mode output (that would be
80 x 25 = 2000 bytes per 'frame', or twice that in color
text mode, if I'm not mistaken).

The intention is to visualize the boot process of the PC on
a remote workstation (and, with keyboard support, interact
with it, but that's another matter), so output should start
before any OS is loaded (i.e., no software, no drivers).

I don't want to use the video output of a VGA card because
it would be harder to transmit over TCP/IP. I'm aware of KVM
over IP switches, but they have limitations in the number of
simultaneous users and/or are expensive. And text mode
output is all what I really need anyway, and it should be
easier and faster to transmit, too.

So, does any such PCI card exist?

(PS. I posted this to comp.hardware before but I don't think
it went through. If it did I'm really sorry for
multiposting.)

Thank you for your help,
Click to expand...

Nope, it doesn't exist.

Peace!
ECM
 
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