Am Sonntag, den 07.10.2007, 00:05 +0200 schrieb Syren Baran: > Am Freitag, den 05.10.2007, 14:15 +0200 schrieb Matthias Hopf: > > On Oct 05, 07 00:22:09 +0200, Syren Baran wrote: > > > I personaly dont know how the ATI architecture differs that a kernel > > > module might be unnecesarry. Fglrx also uses a kernel module. > > > > It has a completely programmable command processor > Neat. Well, on slashdot it would probably be tagged something like itsaprocessorjimbutnotasweknowit . It´s a massivly parallel risc chip, centered mainly around the mad command and a couple other math functions. > > and all memory accesses (from the > > hardware side) seem to be virtual, so it might have a MMU. It does, its called MC. > > As long as the command processor cannot be programmed from user space, > > this scenario can be made secure for complete user space programming. While the security advantages of this approach are obvious it severly limits the GPUs use. Quite a few applications could find this massive computing power usefull. > > I have *no* idea ATM, whether this works with the current DRI > > architecture or not, so this is probably something for later > > improvements, but not for the beginning. True, more pressing matters to get this thing going. > A completely programmable GPU changes things a lot. > ATI/AMD should really open their specs on this, this is not only > interresting for a X-driver. Actually the specs were released November 06.
> > > I´ll invest a couple of hours now and then. Been a while since i > last > > > did low level gfx card stuff and 3D, but i hope i´ll be able to > > > contribute a bit more than just some pci-ids. > > > > Cool :) > > Thanks, but don't follow that road too far ATM. It'll be quite a while > > until we will see 3D docs. At least that's my estimation. > Now i got a different hunch. Waiting for 3D docs will result in an infinite loop (at least if you are looking for registers to write something like "turn this object by x degrees"). The relevant document is http://ati.amd.com/companyinfo/researcher/documents/ATI_CTM_Guide.pdf . As far as i can tell by now, it contains all information necesarry to write an assembler. > But writing a compiler is nothing i have knowledge of. I may be able to write an assembler. Except for flow control its basicly a search and replace. On the other hand, did i mention i HATE assembly language. It´s not that really hate reading assembly or hate writing it, but i REALLY HATE debugging it. Syren _______________________________________________ xorg-driver-ati mailing list xorg-driver-ati@lists.x.org http://lists.x.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg-driver-ati