AMD Publishes AMDGPU UVD Firmware For Southern Islands

[L_A_G]

The explanation as to why it took so long in the article seems a little inaccurate or indirect when Bridgman himself has said multiple times here in the comments, both before and after the UVD firmware for early GCN parts was posted, that the issue was they didn't figure out until now how to do it within the space available to them.

While I definitely applaud supporting hardware this long after it's gone out of production, I am somewhat concerned that higher level management may not look too kindly upon using limited engineering resources on something that doesn't generate any tangible revenue.

[bridgman]

The explanation as to why it took so long in the article seems a little inaccurate or indirect when Bridgman himself has said multiple times here in the comments, both before and after the UVD firmware for early GCN parts was posted, that the issue was they didn't figure out until now how to do it within the space available to them.

While I definitely applaud supporting hardware this long after it's gone out of production, I am somewhat concerned that higher level management may not look too kindly upon using limited engineering resources on something that doesn't generate any tangible revenue.

I may have mis-interpreted the patches... agd5f posted after me and his post suggested that we ported the radeon code across (along with radeon memory layout) rather than coming up with new microcode that could handle the amdgpu memory layout.

[bridgman]

Also my LP R7 240 (HTPC). No HDMI audio with AMDGPU and choppy and distorted with RadeonSI (tried with Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04, Debian 10/11, Kernel up to 5.6... no way). Near impossible to use with Linux. Now work with sh*tty Win10 2004. :-(

Did it work with radeon kernel driver ? AFAIK that's what we recommend for R7 240.

[duby229]

I guess that I should rephrase my question. What features are still missing from AMDGPU that the radeon kernel driver already has for GCN 1.0/1.1? It's not a big deal for me if AMDGPU isn't considered the default driver for them.

The radeon kernel driver doesn't have the interfaces required for Vulkan support. Huge deal breaker, no DXVK.... The same hardware on the amdgpu driver works just fine, except then it doesn't support hardware video decode, at least until now that is.... And the biggest problem about that is that AMD released GCN1 and GCN2 hardware for years on several generations of product lines and those products are still being sold as new even still.

[duby229]

The explanation as to why it took so long in the article seems a little inaccurate or indirect when Bridgman himself has said multiple times here in the comments, both before and after the UVD firmware for early GCN parts was posted, that the issue was they didn't figure out until now how to do it within the space available to them.

While I definitely applaud supporting hardware this long after it's gone out of production, I am somewhat concerned that higher level management may not look too kindly upon using limited engineering resources on something that doesn't generate any tangible revenue.

Your statement isn't true. AMD released GCN1 and GCN2 hardware for years and for generation after generation of product lines. They are still being sold as new products in the box even still..... Brand new products with that hardware is still being bought....

[L_A_G]

Your statement isn't true. AMD released GCN1 and GCN2 hardware for years and for generation after generation of product lines. They are still being sold as new products in the box even still..... Brand new products with that hardware is still being bought....

Sure, there probably are people selling old leftover stock the same way there are people are still selling leftover stock chrome tape C-cassettes, 5.25" floppies and Sega Dreamcasts. However the last 2nd gen GCN parts released, Carizzo-L APUs using Steamroller CPU cores, came out 5 years ago.

[agd5f]

Just a minor correction, as I've said several times, the original radeon UVD firmware could have been used directly. It works today in radeon. New firmware was a not a hard requirement. It just make a few things slightly cleaner in the driver.

[qarium]

Just a minor correction, as I've said several times, the original radeon UVD firmware could have been used directly. It works today in radeon. New firmware was a not a hard requirement. It just make a few things slightly cleaner in the driver.

yes very nice. thank you.

[duby229]

Sure, there probably are people selling old leftover stock the same way there are people are still selling leftover stock chrome tape C-cassettes, 5.25" floppies and Sega Dreamcasts. However the last 2nd gen GCN parts released, Carizzo-L APUs using Steamroller CPU cores, came out 5 years ago.

I'm not talking at all about enthusiasts buying replacement parts for legacy hardware, I'm talking about end users buying brand new hardware for their daily use. On this forum alone, I've had to warn people about GCN1 and GCN2 many times over the last few years. Even just last week I had to explain the situation to someone....

[L_A_G]

I'm not talking at all about enthusiasts buying replacement parts for legacy hardware, I'm talking about end users buying brand new hardware for their daily use. On this forum alone, I've had to warn people about GCN1 and GCN2 many times over the last few years. Even just last week I had to explain the situation to someone....

As I said, the last GCN2 hardware they released were 5 years ago. You're not going to see hardware that old being sold new unless it's old stock being sold cheaply (it's not old enough to get a "vintage extra" like on chrome tape cassettes or 5.25" floppies). This isn't the 80s when you could keep selling the exact same product like the Commodore 64 or VIC-20 year in and year out.

You've been going on about this for years and it may have been true when you started, but new GCN1 and GCN2 hardware hasn't been sold as new hardware for years.