VIA Interested In Gallium3D For Chrome 9

Following the release of a new VIA 3D graphics stack by Tungsten Graphics, there has been a discussion on the OpenChrome development mailing list as to the next steps to take in open-source VIA support.

One of the items now being discussed between VIA Technologies and Tungsten Graphics is Gallium3D. VIA wants a Gallium3D driver for the Chrome 9 series, but they don't really know anything about Gallium3D, which makes it hard for them to write the driver. With help from Tungsten's Thomas Hellström this though could work out. Seeing VIA immediately jump on the Gallium3D bandwagon would be significant and certainly a step in the right direction.

Gallium3D is supposed to simplify driver development and will provide a number of features over the current Linux 3D stack. Gallium3D will allow for features like Generic GPU video decoding and while right now this library is all about 3D, Gallium3D may gain 2D support.

VIA is also interested in having EXA acceleration for 2D support on the Chrome 9 series. Unfortunately, VIA hasn't released the needed code or documentation for independent developers to actually write support for this acceleration interface.

This could be a good year for Gallium3D and finally be on its way to entering the limelight. The current VIA 3D discussion can be followed in this mailing list thread.