Re: Freescale Linux BSP review

[Arnd Bergmann <arnd-r2nGTMty4D4@public.gmane.org>]

On Monday 13 December 2010, Jammy Zhou wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 4:45 AM, Linus Walleij <linus.walleij-QSEj5FYQhm4dnm+yROfE0A@public.gmane.org>wrote:
> 
> > On 11 December 2010 22:41, Arnd Bergmann <arnd-r2nGTMty4D4@public.gmane.org> wrote:
> >
> > * amd-gpu -- a single but huge driver for the GPU. As is normally the
> >>             case with GPU drivers, we can expect long discussions
> >>             before it will get considered for mainline
> >>  4 patches
> >>  98 files changed, 278321 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
> >>
> >
> > Just out of curiosity, following the discussion between Dave Airlie
> > and Codeaurora this summer re GPU driver shims.
> >
> > Is the AMD GPU exposing all functionality in its kernel driver or
> > is there some userspace blob somewhere with lots of e.g. GL
> > goodies?
> > 
> All the functionality for the kernel driver of AMD GPU Z430/Z160 (now
> belongs to Qualcom) is exposed. But we need accompanied userspace library to
> call these functionality (buffer management, command submission, ...).

Who owns these components? If it's closed source, the only options we
have are lobbying for complete release of the specs for a reimplementation
or reverse-engineering the drivers, which may at least get easier with
a user space driver than it would be with a kernel driver.

Until there is a solution with an open source user space part, I would
suggest that the driver better be dropped from the Freescale BSP and
we should at least not waste time reviewing it.

	Arnd