Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

TI Posts Open-Source DRI3 WSEGL Plug-In For PowerVR SGX Graphics

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • TI Posts Open-Source DRI3 WSEGL Plug-In For PowerVR SGX Graphics

    Phoronix: TI Posts Open-Source DRI3 WSEGL Plug-In For PowerVR SGX Graphics

    Texas Instruments is still dealing with Imagination Tech PowerVR SGX GPUs and has now posted an open-source DRI3 WSEGL plug-in for getting this binary blob to work with 3D acceleration under an X.Org Server using Direct Rendering Infrastructure 3...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    I'd rather see a mainlined kernel driver, but at least this is something. Might be useful for the Pyra Handheld.

    Comment


    • #3
      Heh, I salute the effort. Still a shim for a blob, but that's just a step towards freedom.

      Comment


      • #4
        Is this code going to in any way help people developing on devices with an OMAP3 CPU, say, the OMAP3430 or OMAP3630? (both of which have SGX530 GPUs)

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Djhg2000 View Post
          I'd rather see a mainlined kernel driver, but at least this is something.
          Well the kernel driver is already open source. The reason it's not mainlined is because a mere glance at the source code makes you want to vomit. Nevertheless, after taking an anti-emetic I've found it's not that hard to fix issues that may arise when trying to move it to a newer kernel. While not ideal, this situation is infinitely better than binary kernel drivers.

          The open source release of this WSEGL plugin is a big deal because it is "platform glue" that integrates the platform-independent components of the userspace drivers into the rest of the system. This part is dependent on kernel APIs, the window system, etc, and having it closed source constrains your choices in those (e.g. X11 was previously not supported with these drivers), and could even prevent you from upgrading the kernel in the future if the vendor neglects to provide updates. Thanks to this release, the APIs used by WSEGL plugins are now also public, which opens up the possibility to implement different platform glue when desired.

          Originally posted by jonwil View Post
          Is this code going to in any way help people developing on devices with an OMAP3 CPU?
          Current userspace drivers aren't built anymore for the older SGX530 core versions found on older OMAP3 devices (34xx/35xx), so I'm afraid those are a dead end unless TI can be convinced to compile the drivers for these older devices. The SGX530 instance on newer OMAP3 devices (36xx/37xx) is the same version (1.2.5) as on the AM335x, so it might be possible to get the current userspace drivers working on them if someone puts in the effort. I don't know if having open source platform glue will help with that, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

          Comment

          Working...
          X