Coreboot's Flashrom Moves On To Flashing AMD GPUs Up Through Polaris

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Coreboot's Flashrom Moves On To Flashing AMD GPUs Up Through Polaris

Last week I wrote about new patches adding Coreboot Flashrom support for Radeon GPUs for being able to re-program the SPI blocks on AMD graphics processors. Initially that was for old Radeon HD 2000 through HD 6000 series hardware but now it's moved onto the GCN world...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Coreboot-Flashrom-Polaris

[tildearrow]

Why is Polaris getting so much attention and not the same amount for Vega?

[Michael]

Why is Polaris getting so much attention and not the same amount for Vega?

Luc previously commented that the Vega cards are expensive (out of his budget) compared to Polaris and other older GPUs.

[R41N3R]

Great to see so many new cards added!

[Adarion]

That is very welcome. The question seems though, what kind of image do we have to flash? Are there any permanent updates to these cards? Are these images very vendor specific?

[artivision]

Polaris is not advised. Lets say that a studio programs a game's AI Antialising FX with MS DirectML, Polaris will touch bottom. Vega does have 2xFP16 and partially 4xFP8 and will do OK. So if you do want to build a cheap system with Amd do that: 2200G_90eu + rx570itx_170eu. That way you will have an extra AI core for the future.

[cb88]

Polaris is not advised. Lets say that a studio programs a game's AI Antialising FX with MS DirectML, Polaris will touch bottom. Vega does have 2xFP16 and partially 4xFP8 and will do OK. So if you do want to build a cheap system with Amd do that: 2200G_90eu + rx570itx_170eu. That way you will have an extra AI core for the future.

The vega graphics in 2200G doesn't have 2xFP16... or INT8 AFAIK its more similar to Polaris actually due to it being a low low power mobile design first and foremost.

[agd5f]

That is very welcome. The question seems though, what kind of image do we have to flash? Are there any permanent updates to these cards? Are these images very vendor specific?

The images are very vendor specific other then providing an interface for standard pre-OS environments (vesa or UEFI). The flash memory stores a vga/vesa legacy bios interface and/or a GOP driver for UEFI along with a set of data and command tables. The driver only uses the data and command tables. The data tables store board specific configuration details (e.g., number and type of display connectors, memory vendor and timing info, boards specific clock and voltage info, etc.). All of the data tables structures are described in that atom headers in the driver. The driver uses these data tables to understand the card specific information. The command tables are written in a small interpreted language. The command tables take structures as inputs and either perform a task (e.g., initialize a cold GPU, set a PLL, etc.) or provide data back to the driver (e.g., calculate some voltage parameters given a set of inputs) as a structure. The driver contains the the interpreter and you can use that to see that or other tools to see what the command tables are doing. The whole idea is to keep board specific information (configuration details and programming sequences) with the board.

[artivision]

The vega graphics in 2200G doesn't have 2xFP16... or INT8 AFAIK its more similar to Polaris actually due to it being a low low power mobile design first and foremost.

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-vega-8.c3042

You probably speak for the Polaris+ chip inside Intel processors.

[cb88]

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/radeon-vega-8.c3042

You probably speak for the Polaris+ chip inside Intel processors.

Apparently so... checking AMD's documentation also reflects this, I must have been thinking about the Polaris chip in Intel's stuff.