X@FOSDEM 2009: RandR 1.3, GEM, Gallium3D, Etc

All of the recordings from the X.Org meetings that took place during FOSDEM 2009 are now available on Phoronix. There were nine topics in total from RandR 1.3 to shader compiler optimization strategies.

Novell's Matthias Hopf had explained RandR 1.3 with all of the work involved in this update to the Resize and Rotate extension for the X Server that now has panning support and other new-found capabilities. An RandR 1.3 demonstration was also done by Keith Packard. Later on, Matthias had provided a 3D understanding of the ATI R600/700 series.

Beyond demoing RandR 1.3, Keith Packard of Intel had talked about rebuilding the Linux desktop with all of the work that has been done recently from the GEM memory manager to kernel mode-setting and more. Intel's Eric Anholt had talked about the work that's still left to be accomplished: largely DRI2 v-blank support and writing a new GLSL compiler. During this talk we also learned that UXA will not be merged back into EXA and Intel is considering VDPAU support for their driver.

In traditional FOSDEM fashion, Stephane Marchesin had provided a Nouveau status update on where this community-spawned open-source NVIDIA driver is at. The Nouveau team still hasn't issued a stable 2D or 3D driver release, but they are had at work on kernel mode-setting support and once that has stabilized we may see a stable 2D driver release. On the 3D front they are continuing to make good progress with Gallium3D.

As a non-graphics talk but still related to X.Org, Helge Bahmann talked about bringing multimedia and audio extensions into the X Server. Helge has written patches already that would add compressed image and audio support to the X protocol along with playback synchronization capabilities.

Back on to the topic of GPUs, Red Hat's Matthew Garrett talked about GPU power management. He is hoping to decrease the power bill for Linux users by conserving power through different strategies for the GPU, memory, outputs, and displays.

Stephane Marchesin and Jerome Glisse had ended out X@FOSDEM 2009 by talking about GPU shaders. Stephane Marchesin talked about mixing the LLVM compiler with Gallium3D to optimize GPU shaders before they are sent to the driver/hardware. Jerome talked about different shader optimization strategies.

Some of these recordings have some audio feedback or other distortions due to a faulty microphone adapter. The good news, however, is that the audio can be easily cleaned up through Audacity. For those interested in MPEG recordings for this reason or those not interested in the Flash videos, they can be found in the Phoronix Blip.TV channel.