V3D Gallium3D Driver Making Progress On OpenGL ES Conformance

[phoronix]

Phoronix: V3D Gallium3D Driver Making Progress On OpenGL ES Conformance

The V3D Gallium3D driver (formerly known as VC5) for supporting Broadcom's VideoCore V hardware and newer is reaching a better grade for OpenGL ES conformance...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=V3D-Better-Conformance

[squash]

I'm a huge fan of the Raspberry Pi series and I really hope all this work indicates a release of a substantial Pi upgrade in the future. unfortunately as much as I like the Pi series my use cases for a small device have changed to mostly things it's bad at. Wireless stability is still a real problem, and io performance is still bottom rung. I regularly contemplate buying some cheap x86 device because I know I can use reliable peripherals and I'll have much more substantial io performance. Obviously raw CPU performance isn't the main issue but AES acceleration, USB3, and SSD support makes this look nice: https://amzn.to/2LyKuuM

[caligula]

I'm a huge fan of the Raspberry Pi series and I really hope all this work indicates a release of a substantial Pi upgrade in the future. unfortunately as much as I like the Pi series my use cases for a small device have changed to mostly things it's bad at. Wireless stability is still a real problem, and io performance is still bottom rung. I regularly contemplate buying some cheap x86 device because I know I can use reliable peripherals and I'll have much more substantial io performance. Obviously raw CPU performance isn't the main issue but AES acceleration, USB3, and SSD support makes this look nice: https://amzn.to/2LyKuuM

RPi isn't even supposed to cater to your use case. It's a hobbyist machine designed for learning basic computing. The performance is more than sufficient for running Python scripts that flash GPIO leds.

[squash]

Yes if you read my post I acknowledged that my use cases have changed since I started with Pi, but thanks for pointing it out a second time in case it was unclear to another reader.

However, unstable wireless and bluetooth is a problem unrelated to how you use it. Device drivers shouldn't crash no matter what you do, and it's a cop out to dismiss it as "this is a device for gpio with python" when it includes 802.11ac wireless.

[starshipeleven]

it's a cop out to dismiss it as "this is a device for gpio with python" when it includes 802.11ac wireless.

That's still what the raspi is though.

It's competing with Arduinos, not with PCs.

[starshipeleven]

Obviously raw CPU performance isn't the main issue but AES acceleration, USB3, and SSD support makes this look nice: https://amzn.to/2LyKuuM

If you need a "devboard"-like device you should look at UP and UP2 boards http://www.up-board.org/ instead. Basically same hardware as that mini-pc, but you have exposed GPIO and other embedded development stuff.

[SpyroRyder]

That's still what the raspi is though.

It's competing with Arduinos, not with PCs.

It's the step above Arduinos really. It's form factor, cheap price and HDMI port made it quite useful to run a lot of things that went beyond basic computing and making arduino breadboards. The makers realised that too which is why the original doesn't have wireless or bluetooth, two features that you normally would have as extensions to such a board, but the later versions did. A little bit of an upgrade to those components isn't going to subtract from the other more hobyist things you can do with the board while making it a little more versatile for others who want to use it as a media center, etc.

[starshipeleven]

It's the step above Arduinos really. It's form factor, cheap price and HDMI port made it quite useful to run a lot of things that went beyond basic computing and making arduino breadboards. The makers realised that too which is why the original doesn't have wireless or bluetooth, two features that you normally would have as extensions to such a board, but the later versions did. A little bit of an upgrade to those components isn't going to subtract from the other more hobyist things you can do with the board while making it a little more versatile for others who want to use it as a media center, etc.

May I point out that Arduino can operate bluetooth modules, and there are Arduino-like wifi microcontrollers like ESP8266?

Raspi is still in the same category even if more powerful, it's designed for simple embedded project where even high end Arduino does not cut it, or for people that need easier programming languages than the "arduino language" (aka C++ with some limitations).

And no I don't condone its use as media center, or server, or router or access point. It sucks at that, it always sucked, and it will keep sucking at that as it's not what it is designed to do. Does not stop people from doing it but facts don't change.

[fuzz]

May I point out that Arduino can operate bluetooth modules, and there are Arduino-like wifi microcontrollers like ESP8266?

Raspi is still in the same category even if more powerful, it's designed for simple embedded project where even high end Arduino does not cut it, or for people that need easier programming languages than the "arduino language" (aka C++ with some limitations).

And no I don't condone its use as media center, or server, or router or access point. It sucks at that, it always sucked, and it will keep sucking at that as it's not what it is designed to do. Does not stop people from doing it but facts don't change.

Having a full linux stack to work with makes a big difference with some things too, even for just embedded work.

[starshipeleven]

Having a full linux stack to work with makes a big difference with some things too, even for just embedded work.

Yup. Webserving more than a few simple pages, doing half-decent secure communication (Arduinos lack crypto acceleration and therefore suck at that, the ESP8266 does have it but it's somewhat limited), dealing with a webcam or a microphone (beyond very basic levels), reading any storage device at decent speeds a microcontroller can't do...