[Openchrome-devel] Future of via drm and unichrome 3D driver.

[BruceChang@via.com.tw]

Hello Thomas:
    Thank you very much for your information. Sorry for my stupid questions. Do you mean your new DRM is totally incompatible with the DRM inside mainline kernel? If so, can VIA's MESA UniChrome driver, which we released to both openchrome and VIA's portal, be compatible with your new DRM module? Please be informeded that we expect it's the last patch with only few bugs fixed for the UniChrome from VIA although VIA is active in the opensource DRI/DRM field because it's qualified by OEM customer with stable function. If new OpenChrome DRM path created, will the new DRM(OpenChrome) branch impact VIA's MESA function?

>For an open-source chrome9 driver built on this framework, the following would be needed:
>2) Add chrome9 EXA support. Nobody's working on this. Needs more shader info. This is a good way for an open-source developer to get a feeling for how the new 3D engine behaves.
I am also interested if there is any experts can help this. As VIA is developing this function based on our code before the feature of openchrome's code can meet customer's requirement, we can provide the information and share our experience if there is any expert is interested in this.
>3) A new chrome9 3D driver. Preferrably based on gallium. I don't think  anybody in the open source community is working on this. Is VIA doing any efforts in this direction?
We prefer the G3D for Chrome9 too but we have few information about G3D. Based on your full experience, it will be appreciated if you can give us the guideline for the developing.

Thanks and Best Regards
=================================================
Bruce C. Chang(???)
VIA Technologies, Inc. 
Address: 1F, 531, Chung-Cheng Road, Hsin-Tien, 231 Taipei
Tel: +886-2-22185452 Ext 7323
Fax: +886-2-22186282
Skype: Bruce.C.Chang
Email: BruceChang at via.com.tw


-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Hellstrom [mailto:thomas at shipmail.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 4:33 PM
To: Bruce Chang
Cc: openchrome-devel at openchrome.org; Benjamin Pan (Fremont); Harald Welte
Subject: Re: Future of via drm and unichrome 3D driver.


Hi Bruce.

Openchrome currently has OpenGL support using the "unichrome" driver in 
current mesa. However, that driver is full of bugs, logical errors and 
quite unstable. Tungsten Graphics was asked to improve that driver and 
add OpenGL 1.3, S3TC, accelerated GL_EXT_frame_buffer_objects and 
GL_ARB_pixel_buffer_objects by a customer. This involved reworking the 
DRM and the 3D driver to a point where it really became different 
drivers. Also the memory management of the openChrome 2D driver has been 
reworked to fit the unified memory manager in DRM. Part of this work was 
done by Tungsten Graphics before the VMware merger. Part of it was done 
by me on my spare time.

At some point I'd like to push this work open-source, and the suggestion 
is to create a new openchrome DRM driver and, during a period, obsolete 
the VIA drm driver. Since VIA is starting getting very active in the 
opensource DRI / DRM field, I won't do this if VIA thinks it's a bad idea.

The OpenChrome 2D driver also has EXA support, using the 3D engine, but 
that is separate from the mesa OpenGL driver. The OpenChrome 2D driver 
directly programs the 3D engine.

This is all CX700 and earlier unichromes.

For an open-source chrome9 driver built on this framework, the following 
would be needed:

1) Port VIA's new drm patches over to the new openchrome DRM. I can 
volunteer to do that.
2) Add chrome9 EXA support. Nobody's working on this. Needs more shader 
info. This is a good way for an open-source developer to get a feeling 
for how the new 3D engine behaves.
3) A new chrome9 3D driver. Preferrably based on gallium. I don't think 
anybody in the open source community is working on this. Is VIA doing 
any efforts in this direction?

Thanks,
Thomas