There Might Be An Open PowerVR Driver In Q3'11

[libv]

I think the closest to open source is the N900, and it has a powervr SGC530. Those people would do a damn good thing if they released their driver under GPL.

Sadly, currently, the owner of the powervr, imagination technologies, only GPLs the kernel part, in accordance with the GPL. This part is mostly a conduit for userspace, with some stream management and checking in place.

I am sure that the userspace part (with not only a management part, but also, for instance, full opengles stacks), as it exists today, cannot be open sourced, even if imagination technologies would want to (which it currently doesn't).

This situation has not changed much since the n900 was released, even though there are quite a few very good people at nokia working on X, display and graphics drivers for meego/maemo.

[Xavier]

I think the closest to open source is the N900, and it has a powervr SGC530. Those people would do a damn good thing if they released their driver under GPL.

[libv]

This is no doubt being pushed from all angles against powervr.

1) Intel GMA500 == powervr SGX535.
(major hate on intel over this...)

2) Samsung/Google Nexus S = powervr SGX535.
(also a whole lot more mobile phones.... but this is the closest to open source thus far...)


Imagine being powervr and licensing out your hardware to a whole bunch of organizations that mostly want open source. Not a lot they can do to hold it back.

Aside from the GPU, the other remaining closed blobs on the nS are the RIL, GPS, and some stupid orientation sensors. The RIL is the only thing that will definitely never be opened.

Pretty much everything ARM shipping today, well, those SOCs with 3d graphics, except for snapdragons (remember AMD buying ATI, and selling off the imageon to qualcomm?), is pvr. This makes the numbers astronomical, especially compared to PC market. Luckily ARM is coming with the mali and nvidia is coming with something too (the latter will of course never be free).

[droidhacker]

This is no doubt being pushed from all angles against powervr.

1) Intel GMA500 == powervr SGX535.
(major hate on intel over this...)

2) Samsung/Google Nexus S = powervr SGX535.
(also a whole lot more mobile phones.... but this is the closest to open source thus far...)


Imagine being powervr and licensing out your hardware to a whole bunch of organizations that mostly want open source. Not a lot they can do to hold it back.

Aside from the GPU, the other remaining closed blobs on the nS are the RIL, GPS, and some stupid orientation sensors. The RIL is the only thing that will definitely never be opened.

[Apopas]

I don't understand the current relation betwwen PowerVR and Linux. I mean back at 2.4 kernel series they had a future rich and good Linux driver for their Kyro and KyroII chipsets. I had such a card myself and know first hand. So I mean if they had the motivation and especially the knowledge for such a driver, why now is worse even than VIA?

[Xavier]

They are aware that their clients aren't happy with the closed-source situation (especially big players such as found at Linaro), and are afraid of loosing them. So they promise something for 2012 (that's what a marketing droid means by "third quarter of 2011").
Rest assured that they won't do it unless really pressured by big clients (end-users don't count), like Broadcom has been.

[Adarion]

Well, I believe this when I see it. I talked with a lot of people on exhibitions, developers as well as marketing clowns (sorry but they are clowns) and they had high soaring plans for everything but in the end there was nothing.
We'll see. If it happens fine, if not then I am at least not disappointed.

[Plombo]

Even if a driver release didn't document older hardware it would probably give some insite into thier workings as older ideas were probably carried forward in newer designs.

Well, the Dreamcast PVR has been almost completely figured out over the years. KallistiOS has a fully functional homebrew driver for it. But there are still no Linux drivers as far as I know.

Its not like micheal is doing the code release anyway LOL.

That's true...

[some-guy]

2.6.40. Maybe its about time the kernel went to 2.7

[cb88]

Michael, could you please be more specific in your articles about which PowerVR you're talking about? Talking about PowerVRs without being more specific is no better than doing the same for Radeons. My Sega Dreamcast has a PowerVR graphics card, and I am almost positive that you are not referring to that particular model.

Well probably not that particular model but ... It would be nice if they would. The n800 developers and users have made it quite clear they want a working driver which is next to impossible with the binary driver.

Even if a driver release didn't document older hardware it would probably give some insite into thier workings as older ideas were probably carried forward in newer designs.

Its not like micheal is doing the code release anyway LOL.