At the end of December we reported on the 3Dfx KMS Linux developer working on VIA code to provide kernel mode-setting support for VIA's IGPs in the Linux kernel and thus TTM/GEM memory management support too. This is after VIA had promised to deliver this support (along with Gallium3D support) in 2010, but failed miserably. This code though is now moving along but without any support for VIA.

James Simmons is the developer that has been working on this code and he's now saying it needs a home for hosting it in Git along with the other X.Org drivers rather than the current OpenChrome infrastructure of using SVN and on their own servers. James is making progress on the kernel side with this DRM driver and then also with his OpenChrome DDX driver that supports both KMS (kernel mode-setting) and UMS (user-space mode-setting) paths.

Surprisingly, VIA's Bruce Chang has not commented on the matter yet of the community coming up with this support after VIA's failed attempts. Bruce still hasn't responded to my inquiries from months ago either, which begs the question if he's even with the company any longer. Fortunately, I'll see VIA at lunch tomorrow.