[Mageia-dev] ARM 3D support was Re: [fedora-arm] ARM summit at Plumbers 2011

Wed Aug 24 00:26:00 CEST 2011

On 08/23/2011 07:01 PM, omalleys at msu.edu wrote:
+> Quoting Gordan Bobic <gordan at bobich.net>:
+>> Unfortunately there is no way I could make it, but on the subject of 3D
+>> support on ARM, Luke recently mentioned something that initially seemed
+>> outlandish but upon closer examination doesn't seem like a bad idea. As
+>> we all know, the state of openness of specifications of commonly used
+>> ARM 3D GPUs is at best dire. What has been proposed is a bit radical,
+>> but it doesn't actually seem that implausible. Specifically, combining
+>> Open Graphics Project (http://wiki.opengraphics.org/tiki-index.php) and
+>> the xilinx zynq-7000 or similar (dual core Cortex A9 + FPGA). The idea
+>> is to have an OGP GPU in firmware in FPGA. In terms of the power budget,
+>> it seems to work relatively sanely considering what it is, and it is as
+>> ideal as it gets as far as openness and flexibility goes.
+>>
+>> I just thought it's worthy of a mention.
+>
+> It does seem outlandish, but it is kind of cool. Is it going to give
+> enough 3d speed? The next gen tegra is supposed to have a 24 core GPU.
+
+If you can quantify what "enough 3D speed" means, then perhaps that can 
+be assessed. There really aren't many applications around at the moment 
+to make this an issue. I'd be more interested in it's ability to decode 
+1080p.
+
+Then again - it's FPGA! You can load a different "firmware" depending on 
+whether you need 1080p decoding or 3D rendering, or some other kind of 
+specialized DSP offload with only bare minimal VGA. :)
+
+Personally, I think OGP would be worth it even if just for the fact that 
+we would no longer have to beg (in vain) the vendors for decent drivers 
+or published specs. The added flexibility on top is just a "free extra". :)
+
+Gordan
+