Learning More About Explicit Fencing & Android's Sync Framework
With the sync validation framework leaving the staging area in Linux 4.9 and other work going on around the Android sync framework and explicit fencing, this functionality is becoming a reality that ultimately benefits the Linux desktop.
Collabora developer Gustavo Padovan presented at this week's LinuxCon 2016 conference about explicit fencing support in the mainline kernel with a "new era of graphics."
Fencing comes down to ordering between operations and synchronized buffer sharing. With explicit fencing, user-space is aware of what's happening with fences going to user-space and user-space being able to control synchronization. One of the benefits is that it can avoid blocking the rendering of an entire desktop if it would otherwise be held up waiting for a buffer to render. Mesa's implementation in user-space is being worked on to support Android's EGL extensions around sync with the new kernel functionality. Explicit fencing is also mandated by the Vulkan API.
For those interested in what's going on for explicit fencing and the port from Android Sync, the Collabora presentation is now online. So if you want to learn more about this topic, grab a weekend beverage and hit up the PDF slides.
Collabora developer Gustavo Padovan presented at this week's LinuxCon 2016 conference about explicit fencing support in the mainline kernel with a "new era of graphics."
Fencing comes down to ordering between operations and synchronized buffer sharing. With explicit fencing, user-space is aware of what's happening with fences going to user-space and user-space being able to control synchronization. One of the benefits is that it can avoid blocking the rendering of an entire desktop if it would otherwise be held up waiting for a buffer to render. Mesa's implementation in user-space is being worked on to support Android's EGL extensions around sync with the new kernel functionality. Explicit fencing is also mandated by the Vulkan API.
For those interested in what's going on for explicit fencing and the port from Android Sync, the Collabora presentation is now online. So if you want to learn more about this topic, grab a weekend beverage and hit up the PDF slides.
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