On Wed, Feb 26, 2003 at 10:03:40PM +0100, Klaus Niederkrueger wrote: > Hi, > > Sorry that I don't have a better understanding of how DRI works. Maybe my > idea is completely stupid, but I will try anyway: > > I wonder, why the DRI-module linked into XFree depends on the hardware > used. Wouldn't it be possible to make only the kernel-module being > hardware specific?
All three parts: XFree86 DDX module, DRM kernel module, 3D DRI module. > My idea is that there is just one module for all graphics cards that goes > into the XFree. At initialization time it asks the kernel, which functions > are supported by the hardware. Then it uses a common API to talk to the > kernel-module and non-existing functionality is overriden by the > software-mesa. > > Well, I guess that if this was possible it had already been implemented, > so why is this idea not good? Because the OpenGL is already a fairly low level HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) of the 3D capabilities of a card. So what you're really proposing is to write a OpenGL driver in kernel! This not only is overbloat to kernel but the kernel is not the apropriate place to necessary stuff as floating ooperations. Therefore we have "divided the evil by the vilages" (does this portuguese experession exists in english?): - XFree86 gets to do the 2D drawing, windowing, and client authorization - DRM kernel modules gets to do stuff like DMA (Direct Memory Access), locking, which usually can't be done properly elsewhere. - The libGL driver does the actual OpenGL state management, fills in DMA buffers and asks the DRM to send them to the card. Also note that X/DRI runs in more OS's than just Linux, and there is no way to do what you propose in a OS independent manner. I hope this has enlightened you. If you are curious to know more about DRI architecture take a look to the DRI Developers' FAQ, http://dri.sourceforge.net/doc/faq/ . José Fonseca __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Scholarships for Techies! Can't afford IT training? All 2003 ictp students receive scholarships. Get hands-on training in Microsoft, Cisco, Sun, Linux/UNIX, and more. www.ictp.com/training/sourceforge.asp _______________________________________________ Dri-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dri-devel
