I am confused on the history of the frame buffer device.

On Linux, it seems that /dev/fbdev originated in 1999 from work done by  Martin Schaller and  Geert Uytterhoeven (and some input from Fabrice Bellard?).

However, it would seem at first glance that early SunOS also had a frame buffer device (/dev/cgoneX. /dev/bwoneX, etc.) which was similar in nature (a character device that could be mmap’ed to give access to the hardware frame buffer, and ioctl’s to probe and configure the hardware). Is that correct, or were these entirely different in nature?

Paul