Samsung's Proposal For A Picture Processing API In Linux DRM

While not yet merged into the mainline Linux kernel and so far not seen as favorable by upstream DRM kernel veterans, Samsung developers have been working on a picture processing API for the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM). At this week's LinuxCon Europe, they are presenting their API proposal.

The Samsung effort is about offering a picture processing API within the Direct Rendering Manager subsystem. This would expose picture processing hardware blocks in a unified and generic way for copies, color space conversion, scaling, etc while making use of DRM objects and properties, etc while being a forward-thinking design with support for extensions. To date there hasn't been a generic DRM API for this in the embedded world but rather vendor-specific methods.

If you are interested in learning more but not in Berlin for LinuxCon Europe 2016, the PDF slides are available that cover this proposed API. However, it hasn't been merged upstream as, "no positive feedback from DRM maintainers", the slides mention from its review. The Exynos DRM driver meanwhile continues to offer its own image processing API.