NVIDIA Publishes 73k Lines Worth Of 3D Header Files For Fermi Through Ampere GPUs

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA Publishes 73k Lines Worth Of 3D Header Files For Fermi Through Ampere GPUs

In addition to NVIDIA being busy working on transitioning to an open-source GPU kernel driver, yesterday they made a rare public open-source documentation contribution... NVIDIA quietly published 73k lines worth of header files to document the 3D classes for their Fermi through current-generation Ampere GPUs!..

https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVIDIA-3D-Headers-Fermi-Ampere

[pinguinpc]

Good try but prefer help arc for another gpu player, almost forget huang

[birdie]

I'm curious why you felt the need to add this inane comment which has nothing to do with this news piece.

And this ugly stupid GIF file which makes no one happy, sucks a statement, misunderstood by most people because very few actually remember/know under which circumstances it was said. In short, I won't see your messages any longer.

[schmidtbag]

I was going to come here and predict there were going to be those who "HuRr DuRr LeT's HaTe NvIdIa FoR eVeRyThInG tHeY dO!" and it seems like that's already happened.

They're finally doing something helpful, even focusing on some pretty outdated hardware. Don't make them regret it.

[Danny3]

Glad to see that Nvidia could not hold it anymore and had to submit to the open source push from all sides!
But since we know Nvidia very well, what's the catch now, what the hell did they do, they moved again a lot of functions into the closed source firmware?

[birdie]

Glad to see that Nvidia could not hold it anymore and had to submit to the open source push from all sides!
But since we know Nvidia very well, what's the catch now, what the hell did they do, they moved again a lot of functions into the closed source firmware?

The userspace part of the driver (libglx.so, nvidiadrv.so, OpenGL/CL, Vulkan, CUDA, etc. libraries) was never promised to be opened (source). Nothing has changed.

[timofonic]

I don't hate Nvidia, I dislike and not appreciate it at all. The rest arent much better, but provide cleaner open source driver alternatives at least..

I'm not going to touch Nvidia hardware nor provide it to my clients, I'm not that evil. Sorry.

[NobodyXu]

I was going to come here and predict there were going to be those who "HuRr DuRr LeT's HaTe NvIdIa FoR eVeRyThInG tHeY dO!" and it seems like that's already happened.

They're finally doing something helpful, even focusing on some pretty outdated hardware. Don't make them regret it.

Well, I'm sure nvidia has no interest in reading the comments here and they probably release it on the premise that they will benefit from this.

[Danny3]

The userspace part of the driver (libglx.so, nvidiadrv.so, OpenGL/CL, Vulkan, CUDA, etc. libraries) was never promised to be opened (source). Nothing has changed.

Then it's it's nothing of value so they deserve the usual fuck you Nvidia!

[schmidtbag]

But since we know Nvidia very well, what's the catch now, what the hell did they do, they moved again a lot of functions into the closed source firmware?

I have a couple theories:
1. The more obvious one - a few months ago they were hacked, and one of the [last-minute] conditions to not have their data released was for them to start open-sourcing drivers. Seems Nvidia took the threat seriously even before the open-source condition, so maybe they really are following through with it.
2. Nvidia may finally be realizing that doing closed-source drivers does absolutely nothing to help them. Any special exclusive API or feature they've made has had some open-source alternative, which obviously didn't need to spy on their code to work, but was also undermining their efforts (and thereby making the R&D costs not as profitable). Nvidia likely sees how AMD is creeping into more and more markets despite having an overall inferior platform, where one of the only real differences is being very open. AMD's openness sometimes makes them the only sensible choice (at least until Arc becomes good enough). For example, you can compile their drivers for obscure platforms or do PCI passthrough with VMs more easily. AMD also pretty much profits off their openness since 3rd party developers are improving their drivers for them. What company wouldn't want free labor?