LWN: Comments on "An update on the freedreno graphics driver"

An update on the freedreno graphics driver

solarkraft — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 16:13:21 +0000

This article has all the information I wanted. Thanks, especially since I couldn't find much else around the Internet.

An update on the freedreno graphics driver

robclark — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 23:33:26 +0000

yeah, mostly for UI type stuff (and texture upload, mipmap level generation, etc)

I guess it would have cost too many transistors, relative to the usefulness, to make it functionally complete.

An update on the freedreno graphics driver

liam — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 20:57:00 +0000

Well... that's a rather limited number of scenarios. I'm sure it's useful but now I know why Qualcomm didn't specify that the immediate mode wasn't functionally complete.
Perhaps it's mostly used for chrome elements.

An update on the freedreno graphics driver

robclark — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 18:57:43 +0000

>> Clark said that the extension could be called the "we hate tilers" extension, since handling it will perform badly on a tile-based GPU.
> Given that adreno3xx+ support immediate mode rendering (to some degree) is this really that bad?

Well, at least for a3xx the immediate mode (gmem bypass) is only for when blending/depth/stencil are not required. So probably little overlap between that case and use of NV_conditional_render.

An update on the freedreno graphics driver

Kamilion — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 18:47:12 +0000

That tears it -- I'm buying a snapdragon board.
http://www.inforcecomputing.com/products/6540-single-boar...
I SPY A DELICIOUS LITTLE SATA PORT.

Qualcomm: You shall have my dollars for your code submission. Even if it's a little pricey at $250...

An update on the freedreno graphics driver

simosx — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 10:13:09 +0000

Here is a video (by Nicolas Charbonnier) with Rob Clark,
invited by Qualcomm to show off the freedreno driver at an exhibition,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_-VKM_hPbA

It is great that Qualcomm is appreciating the work and it may get others to open-up their GPU drivers.

(Nicolas Charbonnier, ARMDevices.net, has this style of video interviews and covers many technology issues. His Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_VskFf9nosePUtxucxirRQ ).

An update on the freedreno graphics driver

liam — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 23:35:26 +0000

Clark said that the extension could be called the "we hate tilers" extension, since handling it will perform badly on a tile-based GPU.

Given that adreno3xx+ support immediate mode rendering (to some degree) is this really that bad?

An update on the freedreno graphics driver

lkundrak — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 20:37:46 +0000

You sir are a magician.

An update on the freedreno graphics driver

robclark — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 12:15:07 +0000

and while I was off at ELC talking, Ilia was busy hacking! In the last few days, we've landed a3xx MRT and UBO support. It looks like it might even be possible to get gl(es)3 going on a3xx before the mesa 10.6 branch point :-)