Raspberry Pi's V3D Kernel Driver Prepares For "CPU Jobs" To Assist Vulkan

[Quackdoc]

Sounds like they're planning to keep using the Videcore VI GPU if they're doing all this work. Hopefully though it'll have a major clockspeed boost and be multicore.

considering that rpi3b will be in production until 2028, it's a safe assumption that the rpi4b will be in production much longer. and even then there will be a healthy used market im sure. These gpus will indeed be used for a very long time, though I doubt it will be in their next gen hardware

[coder]

Sounds like they're planning to keep using the Videcore VI GPU if they're doing all this work.

Not necessarily. There are a lot of Pi 4 devices out there, and more will ship before Raspberry Pi 5 launches. Good Vulkan support seems to be a priority, with ever more software using it and OpenGL essentially at a dead end.

[monkeynut]

Sounds like they're planning to keep using the Videcore VI GPU if they're doing all this work. Hopefully though it'll have a major clockspeed boost and be multicore.

[coder]

Why hasn't the Raspberry Pi foundation released a Raspberry Pi 5 already? Pi4 is ancient. There's so many features that could be added and upgraded.

Because the Raspberry Pi is not trying to compete like that. They're trying to be affordable, accessible, versatile, and well-supported. If you want the latest or fastest hardware, it will never be from the Raspberry Pi foundation.

They've already said a Raspberry Pi 5 won't be coming this year, but they do expect to have enough of their existing products in the channel that scalper pricing and scarcity should no longer be issues.

BTW, the Pi 4 launched nearly a year early. They said they planned for more respins than needed. Once they had a working system, they went ahead and launched it. That partly explains why the Pi 5 seems so late.

[coder]

Winmodem, ugh, I had flushed those abominations from my memory until now.

You say that, and yet you'd probably agree that software radio is a good thing?

I bought one of those modems, back in the day, because I wanted to use it to build my own voicemail system. Didn't get very far on the project, but there are upsides to having essentially a DAC/ADC for your POTS phone line.

[Quackdoc]

Why hasn't the Raspberry Pi foundation released a Raspberry Pi 5 already? Pi4 is ancient. There's so many features that could be added and upgraded.

I wouldn't expect a new pi until late 24/25 ish timeframe, don't forget rpi as far as i can tell is still playing catchup thanks to global lockdowns. Persoanlly No new chips have really grabbed my attention either. It may be a bit hard to hit the pricepoints and availibility they want at this point in time too

[gnarlin]

Why hasn't the Raspberry Pi foundation released a Raspberry Pi 5 already? Pi4 is ancient. There's so many features that could be added and upgraded.

[Quackdoc]

Making use of newer APIs and optimizations on low-power devices such as RaspberryPi is of great importance, perhaps more thought should have been put into the GPU and Driver stuff when it comes to supporting latest software/firmware/API solutions before settling on a design. If broadcom could fix it in software, they should be compelled to do so ASAP.

Everyone knows V3D as "raspberry pi gpu driver" however it's important to remember that it does not exist in a vacuum, V3D uses the Broadcom VideoCore VI gpu. the vc-4 was announced 2009, with devices releasing 2010-2011 time period? can't remember. mantle was released in 2013. Im sure Broadcom really really had a lot of chance to thinking about vulkan support.

[Retramon]

Making use of newer APIs and optimizations on low-power devices such as RaspberryPi is of great importance, perhaps more thought should have been put into the GPU and Driver stuff when it comes to supporting latest software/firmware/API solutions before settling on a design. If broadcom could fix it in software, they should be compelled to do so ASAP.

[Dark-Show]

Can't wait to test this out. I'm all for increased GPU specs.