PowerVR SGX Driver Code Gets Leaked

[libv]

The interesting part is: "Modified reference driver kernel source code may be released under a GPL licence by our licensees. It is their choice to do this." And that in most (all?) files there is a GPLv2 header.

Yes, and no. His statement is by and large correct. The kernel side is always licensed under the GPLv2, as such is the license of the kernel. It is indeed left up to the licensees, but the licensees are forced to give out the kernel code the second any customer of the licensee asks for this code. So as far as embedded vendors go, they got very close, and this is why there are plenty of kernel trees out there with IMG kernel code in there.

[libv]

So to spell it out, IMG thinks their shitty closed source drivers are the most valuable commercial asset they have. That most likely means they are more hostile towards open sourcing their work than any other vendor. I'd recommend boycotting them at all costs. Such waste.

I once thought that ARM itself would be most open to open source. I could not have been more wrong (according to my information, mostly thanks to my good friend Jem). IMG is already better with actively having release the shader assembly language, and since this now makes the patent excuse hollow, i have some hope for IMG still. But not for ARM, at least not until Jem retires.

[caligula]

These statements are clearly showing their age though, because "in line with market requirements and other players in this space" is not exactly true anymore. The other players are quickly embracing open source and starting to take advantage of it. IMG will have to reconsider their stance eventually, and I hope that this might happen as part of addressing this code leak situation.

Well Apple is one major buyer of IMG tech. It is in Apple's best interest that IMG hardware works as badly as possible with other vendors and OSes because then the iPad competition would look bad. Apple is also very pro closed source when it comes to critical core system code.

[ssvb]

Well Apple is one major buyer of IMG tech. It is in Apple's best interest that IMG hardware works as badly as possible with other vendors and OSes because then the iPad competition would look bad. Apple is also very pro closed source when it comes to critical core system code.

Apple also used to be licensing the CPU cores designed by ARM, but this did not last long. Now they are designing their CPU cores in-house and even managed to leap ahead of the competition with the move to 64-bit

The rumors say that Apple might be going to eventually introduce their own custom GPU design. And Apple is the company with a track record of easily stabbing its partners in the back without any hesitation. Probably nobody cares about our little chit chat here, but in my opinion IMG is better to have a backup plan rather than putting all eggs into one basket. And in fact, IMG probably has some long term plan, because they have acquired MIPS. It does not make much sense speculating at this point. Also it is not very nice to have a prejudice and assume that IMG has bad intentions. Let's see what happens.

[Adarion]

Good blog post, libv. Some "leaked" code that is not official will not really help achieving anything on the long term.
Best is to avoid ImgTec at all. And so also Marvell chips. It is incredible how little support is existent for those storage chips. But sadly recently a whole wave of chips of all kinds flooded the market that seemed kind of new, customer-specific and not backed up by documentation/specs/free code. And with the high degree of integration today the whole (main)board or even machine becomes useless. I taught myself to do some research before buying anything. Sadly this is sometimes far more complicated than I'd like to.
Ever called (wrote to) support of a company and asked for chip types soldered on the mainboard? Chips used in a laptop? I could "hear" their eyes widen in panic through the phone.
Sadly, once you have the opportunity to put a live linux into the machine and check the real thing it is normally too late and you have all the hassles to return something you just bought and explain why you won't take this machine cause some chip is not supported in Linux.

[gigaplex]

Well, we should give credit where it is due. The whole GMA500 situation is upon us because Intel was simply not able to provide a better mobile GPU hardware of their own.

Intel went with IMG because it seemed easier to go that route rather than reinvent their own. They got burned badly by the poor driver support, so they dropped IMG in favour of scaling down their own in-house stuff.

[ssvb]

Intel went with IMG because it seemed easier to go that route rather than reinvent their own. They got burned badly by the poor driver support, so they dropped IMG in favour of scaling down their own in-house stuff.

Dropped since when? Have a look at Atom Z3580, it says "Launch Date Q2'14". And Atom Z3580 has a PowerVR GPU.

[gigaplex]

Dropped since when? Have a look at Atom Z3580, it says "Launch Date Q2'14". And Atom Z3580 has a PowerVR GPU.

Huh, I wasn't aware they were still using them. At least some of the Atoms use Intel graphics, I guess I just assumed they did that across the line.

[Remdul]

@libv: What is your stance/opinion on 'clean room' reverse engineering? In this particular case (or otherwise)?

I find it a really disturbing thought that there are people afraid of learning things. Especially those who stand to learn the most of it.

You are spreading irrational fear, libv.

Any law/contract that restricts your thoughts should be considered void (which thankfully is coded in law in most of Europe). I can't believe you (Americans?) are so easily intimidated/influenced by these (corporate) abuses. Please assert your natural rights in the future, lest it grow worse. We (Europe/the rest of the world) can't do that for you.

(Reverse engineer speaking here)

[gigaplex]

@libv: What is your stance/opinion on 'clean room' reverse engineering? In this particular case (or otherwise)?

I find it a really disturbing thought that there are people afraid of learning things. Especially those who stand to learn the most of it.

You are spreading irrational fear, libv.

Any law/contract that restricts your thoughts should be considered void (which thankfully is coded in law in most of Europe). I can't believe you (Americans?) are so easily intimidated/influenced by these (corporate) abuses. Please assert your natural rights in the future, lest it grow worse. We (Europe/the rest of the world) can't do that for you.

(Reverse engineer speaking here)

I'm pretty sure he's the developer of the clean room Lima/Mali driver...

Edit: And not American