The real point [LWN.net]

The real point

Posted May 18, 2006 23:29 UTC (Thu) by pak9rabid (guest, #37821)
In reply to: The real point by man_ls
Parent article: GPL concerns halt Kororaa live CD (NewsForge)

No. We cannot demand that nVidia and ATI open the source to their drivers. And here is why.

There are trade secrets contained within the video drivers themselves that either vendor cannot afford to have open for the competition to see and copy. I'm not sure how familiar with people are with modern 3d-accelerated video drivers, but according to an article I read on AnandTech (www.anandtech.com) years ago, video drivers contain what's called a "runtime compiler". From what I understand, this is the part of the video driver that allows for a fully programmable GPU by allowing 3rd party developers to write their own programs to utilize the hardware on the video card. When a developer writes a program (such as a pixel shading function utilizing the pixel shaders on the card's hardware), the source code for the program must be compiled by the runtime compiler on the fly at runtime. The overall performance of the video card relies heavily on the ability of the video driver to compile these programs as fast as possible.

Some of you may remember back in 2000 when nVidia released their Detonator 3 and 4 drivers. These drivers alone increased performance on the GeForce-based cards by a great amount. This was made possible by finding ways to optimize the runtime compiler contained in the driver itself.

As you can see, the runtime compiler contained in the video driver plays a very important role in the overall performance of the video card. We all know how cut-throat of an industry the video chipset maket is. Because of this, each company must protect the source to their runtime complilers found in their drivers, otherwise they lose their trade secret, which they've invested lots of time and money in to develope and protect.

This isn't intended to be an argument for either side, just an explaination of why nVidia and ATI will not open-source their drivers and their reasoning behind it.

(Log in to post comments)

The real point

Posted May 19, 2006 1:24 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link]

And here is why.

Well, here comes the real explanation. Let's hold our collective breath now for a minute.

I'm not sure how familiar with people are with modern 3d-accelerated video drivers, but according to an article I read on AnandTech (www.anandtech.com) years ago, video drivers contain what's called a "runtime compiler".

Well, I don't know either how familiar with people are with modern 3d-accelerated video drivers, but if you read on AnandTech an article some years ago, it must be pretty advanced! Furthermore if said drivers contain what is called a "runtime compiler". This must mean that they are, wow, like, you know, compiling stuff or something. Like I said, wow, I mean, wow. Compile and stuff.

Some of you may remember back in 2000 when nVidia released their Detonator 3 and 4 drivers.

We may remember it because, wow, Detonator, I'm sure it compiled stuff into other stuff, or wow, I mean, compile dude! That's something. And it's called "Detonator", so it must be pretty wicked stuff.

This was made possible by finding ways to optimize the runtime compiler contained in the driver itself.

Yeah, like I said, wow dude, it finds ways to optimize the compiler, you know. Pretty advanced stuff, huh! Worth some trade secrets, and then some!

As you can see, the runtime compiler contained in the video driver plays a very important role in the overall performance of the video card.

Yeah, we saw that, dude. It was pretty clear, huh. So there is a little mean compiler contained into the driver and in every other card, dude! A very important role indeed.

Because of this, each company must protect the source to their runtime complilers found in their drivers, otherwise they lose their trade secret, which they've invested lots of time and money in to develope and protect.

Yeah! If they are, you know, like compiling stuff, then it's very much worth protecting, because, you know, they are like compiling! Without a trade secret, would people even learn how to compile stuff into other stuff? I very much doubt it, sir!

This isn't intended to be an argument for either side, just an explaination of why nVidia and ATI will not open-source their drivers and their reasoning behind it.

Now it's all clear. And we were running around in circles like headless chicken, in our ignorance; but now we have learnt the real truth! The real explaination behind why nVidia and ATI will not open-source their drivers. They are, you know, compiling stuff! Thank you very much sir! Now, if anyone could tell us how to do runtime compile optimization! But no, they would certainly lose their valuable runtime secret! No sir!