Intel's Special Driver For Poulsbo Uses Gallium3D

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Intel's Special Driver For Poulsbo Uses Gallium3D

Yesterday afternoon we ran a story on a new Linux driver for the Intel Poulsbo chipset, which right now is known for being notorious with its troubling Linux support. However, Intel apparently had been working on a new "special driver" that the Linux Foundation was showing off recently in Munich at a mobile development camp...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NzY2Mg

[bugmenot]

bam! that's very interesting. and it's funny to see that they use TTM instead of GEM.

it's an interesting mix of closed and open source software. too bad that it can't be 100% open source.

[dilettante]

If this works with Sodaville, does this mean it'll work for Sodaville's predecessor, Canmore? Canmore also has a Poulsbo integrated in the SoC.

[d2kx]

That would have been excellent news if the Gallium3D driver wouldn't be closed source. But it's still better than a fully closed source stack.

[djtm]

I'm just happy if I finally have a working driver!!!

The netbook they used looked like an MSI U110, which currently does not work at all with Linux poulsbo drivers as far as I've tried it...

[Kazade]

Wait. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the new driver uses Gallium3D, that would mean all calls from the closed driver will pass through the open Gallium3D layer...

So doesn't that mean that it would be quite easy to trace exactly what the closed source driver is doing and then create an open source driver that does the same?

Luke.

[val-gaav]

The new DRM code, which the developers will be working on merging upstream soon (after a failed attempt with their older code),

I just hope it will not be accepted ... VIA tried the same and it wasn't accepted or was it in the end ?

Anyway a year ago I said somewhere on those forums that intel is the number one as far as open drivers go and AMD/ATI is second (and nvidia non existant ) Right now though AMD/ATI is IMHO the number one. The poulsbo mess moves intel to a second place.

[Ant P.]

Originally Posted by Kazade

Wait. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the new driver uses Gallium3D, that would mean all calls from the closed driver will pass through the open Gallium3D layer...

So doesn't that mean that it would be quite easy to trace exactly what the closed source driver is doing and then create an open source driver that does the same?

Luke.

I think that's the idea. PowerVR are being jerks, so Intel have given them what they want in a way that completely undermines them.

[Svartalf]

Originally Posted by Ant P.

I think that's the idea. PowerVR are being jerks, so Intel have given them what they want in a way that completely undermines them.

I'd concur...but don't make the rumblings of that TOO loud.

If something does come of it, it'd be nice to have FOSS drivers for the OMAP3...

[Veerappan]

Originally Posted by Svartalf

I'd concur...but don't make the rumblings of that TOO loud.

Agreed. There's no reason a debug version of mesa couldn't be used to create an open-source version of this driver, and Intel very well knows this... but as you said, mum's the word. Except that it's already been posted publicly...

On the other hand, I'm really glad to see usable 3D acceleration, and in addition to video acceleration, for PowerVR chips in Linux. I could definitely see a future use for a mini-ITX atom/arm + powervr board as a mythtv front end, especially if there's full video decode acceleration. The power use should be fantastic, and it might still have enough performance for NES/SNES emulation (dare I hope for N64?).