GPU Offloading PRIME May Get Improvements

[phoronix]

Phoronix: GPU Offloading PRIME May Get Improvements

A week ago we reported on open-source GPU offloading, which allowed multiple GPUs from different vendors that were backed by open-source graphics drivers to offload the 3D rendering work to a secondary GPU and then to pass the rendered result back to the primary GPU driving the display. This open-source work referred to as PRIME was based on NVIDIA's Optimus Technology. This work was done by David Airlie just as a proof of concept and he doesn't intend to get the work completed and shipped in the upstream packages, but is hoping to hand off this task to someone else...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=ODA4NQ

[hax0r]

No hardware available? Go and buy it. I would be happy to buy one if I had skills and time to contribute, except that I already own the hardware but not the latter.

[SkyHiRider]

I'd say a vendor should sponsor this, its a good thing that needs to be done.
And haxOr, not everyone has the spare cash to buy a notebook. Also, if you're working on something for a company you wouldn't be happy if the company said you should buy the thing by your own funds and no the seemingly endless company stack.

[avilella]

Phoronix: GPU Offloading PRIME May Get Improvements

A week ago we reported on open-source GPU offloading, which allowed multiple GPUs from different vendors that were backed by open-source graphics drivers to offload the 3D rendering work to a secondary GPU and then to pass the rendered result back to the primary GPU driving the display. This open-source work referred to as PRIME was based on NVIDIA's Optimus Technology. This work was done by David Airlie just as a proof of concept and he doesn't intend to get the work completed and shipped in the upstream packages, but is hoping to hand off this task to someone else...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=ODA4NQ

We are also looking for enthusiastic students to apply for mentorship. David Airlie has agreed to mentor someone with basic kernel and linux graphics knowledge to do this over the summer. That is why we are looking for hardware sponsorship. My role is solely to encourage this to happen by polling the community.

[whizse]

It isn't possible to ask for donations to buy the hardware in question?

[avilella]

We are looking for students with basic Linux kernel/graphics notions
interested in applying for the X.org Open Source PRIME multi-gpu
support Google Summer of Code 2010:

http://wiki.x.org/wiki/SummerOfCodeIdeas

We are also looking for Linux users with Nvidia Optimus-enabled laptops
willing to provide debugging information for Open Source PRIME
multi-gpu support features being worked on. Please join the team and
send an email to the mailing list specifying your laptop model.

You can check the model, version and graphic card details of you laptop with this command:

sudo dmidecode -s system-product-name
sudo dmidecode -s system-version
lspci -vnnn | perl -lne 'print if /^\d+\:.+(\[\S+\:\S+\])/' | grep VGA

https://launchpad.net/~hybrid-graphics-linux

[Kano]

Why not simply use a board with Intel onboard + dedicated gfx card with onboard not disabled in bios?

[d4ddi0]

Why not simply use a board with Intel onboard + dedicated gfx card with onboard not disabled in bios?

I was thinking the same.

I have a desktop system at home that has an onboard nvidia 6100 and a separate discrete card...

I don't know if my level of knowledge is high enough... but I'd be interested (even if google sponsorship is not in the cards).

I'm a moderately experienced C coder (3 years working on AIX), but I've done nothing in the kernel beyond compiling it, and have only the vaguest idea what happens inside xorg drivers.

[Yuma]

Why not simply use a board with Intel onboard + dedicated gfx card with onboard not disabled in bios?

Because that's not how the real Optimus works.