NVIDIA Posts Open-Source DRM Kernel Driver For NVDLA

NVIDIA has posted 13k lines of new Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) kernel driver code for review for supporting their NVDLA IP block.

NVDLA is for the NVIDIA Deep Learning Accelerator aimed for high performance deep learning inference workloads.

Back in 2017 they announced NVDLA as an "open-source" hardware project while finally in 2022 we are seeing this DRM kernel driver under review. The NVDLA is found with the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier, Orin, and future NVIDIA SoCs as an AI accelerator.

The NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier with NVDLA IP block.

The 13.2k lines of code "NVDLA" DRM driver is under review now on the kernel mailing list. There is also the open-source user mode driver as well that interfaces with the kernel driver -- including compiler and run-time code. With there also being that NVDLA user-space driver code, that does clear the way for the NVDLA to be at least considered for the mainline kernel with having a open user-space client, assuming the kernel driver code quality is up to scratch.

More details on the NVIDIA NVDLA IP block via NVDLA.org.