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Re: Just merge something!Re: Just merge something!Posted May 29, 2008 21:49 UTC (Thu) by anholt (guest, #52292)In reply to: Just merge something! by nim-nim Parent article: GEM v. TTM
We have been told by Linus that we're not allowed to break userland API once the code gets merged to the linux kernel. We've got mistakes made 8 years ago, and fixed in better API 5 years ago, that we still have to implement because we're not allowed to break API. It means that if you're unsure of maintaining an API today, you're really scared of merging it and having to maintain it 5 years down the line when you've added better APIs and nobody in their right mind is using the old software stack.
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Not a userland API? Posted May 30, 2008 18:17 UTC (Fri) by jhohm (guest, #7225) [Link] I think TTM and GEM are not userland APIs, but in-kernel driver APIs; Linus's demand for compatibility might not apply.
Not a userland API? Posted May 30, 2008 20:34 UTC (Fri) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] Open Source 3D drivers in Linux do their acceleration using userspace drivers. The *_dri.so drivers are loaded by your Xserver-side of things and then the in-kernel DRM stuff is what opens up a hole for those userspace drivers to interact with the kernel. The Linux kernel is now slowly taking on additional duties to manage display modesetting and memory management, which should lead to help moving X out of the root account and better display performance. Even with very expensive cards there still isn't going to be enough memory on board to manage a very large display with many applications open on a 3D desktop. So your going to have to have some way to deal with intelligent way to deal with moving memory in and out of a video card.
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