Even if it was filled with magic numbers for driving the chips, it would still be a huge step forward, since any incorrectly used or obsolete kernel API references in the source could still be located and fixed.

It's these sorts of bugs that the kernel devs are in the best position to fix, whether or not the chipset's fully documented.

There may be a couple places where the wrong magic numbers are being programmed into the card, or one set of magic numbers might work better than another with how the kernel wants to do things. You won't be able to do much with that until someone reverse engineers the magic. But basic errors such as using the kernel incorrectly can still be corrected.

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Program Intellivision and play Space Patrol!