Announcing free software graphics drivers for Intel i965 chipset

Announcing free software graphics drivers for Intel i965 chipset

[Keith Packard]

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The Intel Open Source Technology Center graphics team is pleased to announce
the immediate availability of free software drivers for the Intel® 965
Express Chipset family graphics controller. These drivers include support
for 2D and 3D graphics features for the newest generation Intel graphics
architecture. The project Web site is http://IntelLinuxGraphics.org.

This release represents the start of a long term effort by Intel to work
with the X.org and Mesa communities to continuously improve and enhance
the drivers.  While these drivers represent significant work at both
Tungsten Graphics and Intel, as our first release of this code, they're
still in need of significant testing, tuning and bug fixing before
they'll be ready for production use. We're releasing them now to
demonstrate our ongoing commitment to providing free software drivers
for Intel hardware.

The Intel® 965 Express Chipset represents the first product family that
implements fourth generation Intel graphics architecture. Designed to
support advanced rendering features in modern graphics APIs, this chipset
family includes support for programmable vertex, geometry, and fragment
shaders. By open sourcing the drivers for this new technology, Intel enables
the open source community to experiment, develop, and contribute to the
continuing advancement of open source 3D graphics.

We would like to especially thank our partners at Tungsten Graphics - Alan
Hourihane and Keith Whitwell - for developing the new 3D driver and enhancing
the 2D driver to support the new hardware. 

Intel has assembled a team within the Open Source Technology Center to
manage Intel graphics driver development going forward:

Development

        Eric Anholt <eric.anholt@intel.com>
        Guangdeng Liao <guangdeng.laio@intel.com>
        Keith Packard <keith.packard@intel.com>
        Zhenyu Wang <zhenyu.z.wang@intel.com>

Testing

        Gordon Jin <gordon.jin@intel.com>
        Shuang He <shuang.he@intel.com>
        Wang Wei <wei.z.wang@intel.com>
        Weiliang Chong <weiliang.chong@intel.com>
        Wu Nian <nian.wu@intel.com>

Following the release of this driver, future work will continue in the
public X.org and Mesa project source code repositories. The project Web site,
http://IntelLinuxGraphics.org, will serve as the central site for users of
Intel graphics hardware in open source operating systems.

-- 
keith.packard@intel.com

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Re: Announcing free software graphics drivers for Intel i965 chipset

[Jeff Garzik]

Keith Packard wrote:
> The Intel Open Source Technology Center graphics team is pleased to announce
> the immediate availability of free software drivers for the Intel® 965
> Express Chipset family graphics controller. These drivers include support
> for 2D and 3D graphics features for the newest generation Intel graphics
> architecture. The project Web site is http://IntelLinuxGraphics.org.

Very cool, and I definitely applaud Intel for supporting open source 
here.  A couple questions...

* is the 3D stuff available from git somewhere?  The download filename 
includes "-git-", but the checkout instructions reference cvs.

* is anyone working on a more dynamic GLSL compilation system?  i.e. a 
"JIT", in compiler technology terms.

Thanks,

	Jeff

Re: Announcing free software graphics drivers for Intel i965 chipset

[Nicholas Miell]

On Thu, 2006-08-10 at 02:08 -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> Keith Packard wrote:
> > The Intel Open Source Technology Center graphics team is pleased to announce
> > the immediate availability of free software drivers for the Intel® 965
> > Express Chipset family graphics controller. These drivers include support
> > for 2D and 3D graphics features for the newest generation Intel graphics
> > architecture. The project Web site is http://IntelLinuxGraphics.org.
> 
> Very cool, and I definitely applaud Intel for supporting open source 
> here.  A couple questions...
> 
> * is the 3D stuff available from git somewhere?  The download filename 
> includes "-git-", but the checkout instructions reference cvs.
> 
> * is anyone working on a more dynamic GLSL compilation system?  i.e. a 
> "JIT", in compiler technology terms.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 	Jeff
> 

More importantly, where's the source to intel_hal.so?

-- 
Nicholas Miell <nmiell@comcast.net>

Re: Announcing free software graphics drivers for Intel i965 chipset

[Alex Riesen]

On 8/10/06, Nicholas Miell <nmiell@comcast.net> wrote:
> > > The Intel Open Source Technology Center graphics team is pleased to announce
> > > the immediate availability of free software drivers for the Intel(r) 965
> > > Express Chipset family graphics controller. These drivers include support
> > > for 2D and 3D graphics features for the newest generation Intel graphics
> > > architecture. The project Web site is http://IntelLinuxGraphics.org.
> >
...
>
> More importantly, where's the source to intel_hal.so?
>

...and what'd break if the call to intel_hal_set_content_protection is omited?

Re: Announcing free software graphics drivers for Intel i965 chipset

[Nicholas Miell]

On Fri, 2006-08-11 at 16:05 +0200, Alex Riesen wrote:
> On 8/10/06, Nicholas Miell <nmiell@comcast.net> wrote:
> > > > The Intel Open Source Technology Center graphics team is pleased to announce
> > > > the immediate availability of free software drivers for the Intel(r) 965
> > > > Express Chipset family graphics controller. These drivers include support
> > > > for 2D and 3D graphics features for the newest generation Intel graphics
> > > > architecture. The project Web site is http://IntelLinuxGraphics.org.
> > >
> ...
> >
> > More importantly, where's the source to intel_hal.so?
> >
> 
> ...and what'd break if the call to intel_hal_set_content_protection is omited?

Where's that call at?

All I saw were intel_hal_wm_pass and intel_hal_recalculate_urb_fence in
Mesa, both of which appear to be strictly optimizations.

-- 
Nicholas Miell <nmiell@comcast.net>

Re: Announcing free software graphics drivers for Intel i965 chipset

[Alex Riesen]

Nicholas Miell, Fri, Aug 11, 2006 20:31:03 +0200:
> > >
> > > More importantly, where's the source to intel_hal.so?
> > >
> > 
> > ...and what'd break if the call to intel_hal_set_content_protection is
> > omited?
> 
> Where's that call at?
> 

In XOrg parts, I believe. I don't have that tarbal handy, and there is no
traces of that symbol anywhere on the driver's pages (not even in git repos)
anymore.

> All I saw were intel_hal_wm_pass and intel_hal_recalculate_urb_fence in
> Mesa, both of which appear to be strictly optimizations.

still not very nice.

Re: Announcing free software graphics drivers for Intel i965 chipset

[Alex Riesen]

On 8/12/06, Alex Riesen <fork0@t-online.de> wrote:
> Nicholas Miell, Fri, Aug 11, 2006 20:31:03 +0200:
> > > >
> > > > More importantly, where's the source to intel_hal.so?
> > > >
> > >
> > > ...and what'd break if the call to intel_hal_set_content_protection is
> > > omited?
> >
> > Where's that call at?
> >
>
> In XOrg parts, I believe. I don't have that tarbal handy, and there is no
> traces of that symbol anywhere on the driver's pages (not even in git repos)
> anymore.
>

More precisely in i830_driver.c, in the function I830VESASetMode, of the archive
xf86-video-intel-git-master-08092006.tgz.

Re: Announcing free software graphics drivers for Intel i965 chipset

[Keith Packard]

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On Wed, 2006-08-09 at 23:21 -0700, Nicholas Miell wrote:

> More importantly, where's the source to intel_hal.so?

This module contains stuff which Intel can't publish in source form,
like Macrovision register stuff and other trade secrets. It's optional,
so if you don't want to use a binary module, you don't get to use code
written by Intel agents for these features. And, we also haven't figured
out how and when to release this binary blob, so there's no way you can
use it today. The driver remains completely functional in the absense of
the binary piece, and in fact has no reduction in functionality from
previous driver releases.

One important note -- the interface for the binary module exists only in
user-mode code which is licensed under the MIT license, not the GPL.

-- 
keith.packard@intel.com

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Re: Announcing free software graphics drivers for Intel i965 chipset

[Keith Packard]

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On Thu, 2006-08-10 at 02:08 -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:

> * is the 3D stuff available from git somewhere?  The download filename 
> includes "-git-", but the checkout instructions reference cvs.

Yes, the 3D stuff is in the Mesa CVS repository, but you'll need the
X.org 2D driver and the DRM kernel bits to use it.

> * is anyone working on a more dynamic GLSL compilation system?  i.e. a 
> "JIT", in compiler technology terms.

Yes, that's all included at the same price. Mesa includes the pieces to
get to a reasonable IR which can then be converted to the necessary
target-specific instruction set by the driver. Much of the 3D driver for
the 965 actually uses GLSL to execute things previously handled by the
traditional fixed function pipeline.

-- 
keith.packard@intel.com

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Re: Announcing free software graphics drivers for Intel i965 chipset

[Jeff Garzik]

Keith Packard wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-08-10 at 02:08 -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> 
>> * is the 3D stuff available from git somewhere?  The download filename 
>> includes "-git-", but the checkout instructions reference cvs.
> 
> Yes, the 3D stuff is in the Mesa CVS repository, but you'll need the
> X.org 2D driver and the DRM kernel bits to use it.

So, the answer to "is the 3D stuff available from git?" is "no"?


>> * is anyone working on a more dynamic GLSL compilation system?  i.e. a 
>> "JIT", in compiler technology terms.
> 
> Yes, that's all included at the same price. Mesa includes the pieces to
> get to a reasonable IR which can then be converted to the necessary
> target-specific instruction set by the driver. Much of the 3D driver for
> the 965 actually uses GLSL to execute things previously handled by the
> traditional fixed function pipeline.

Very cool, thanks.

	Jeff

Re: Announcing free software graphics drivers for Intel i965 chipset

[Keith Packard]

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On Thu, 2006-08-10 at 03:26 -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:

> > Yes, the 3D stuff is in the Mesa CVS repository, but you'll need the
> > X.org 2D driver and the DRM kernel bits to use it.
> 
> So, the answer to "is the 3D stuff available from git?" is "no"?

Yeah, Mesa is still using CVS. Brian Paul has promised to switch to git
after the 6.5.1 release sometime later this month. Until then, have fun
using CVS to look at the code.

-- 
keith.packard@intel.com

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Announcing free software graphics drivers for Intel i965 chipset

[Keith Packard]

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The Intel Open Source Technology Center graphics team is pleased to announce
the immediate availability of free software drivers for the Intel® 965
Express Chipset family graphics controller. These drivers include support
for 2D and 3D graphics features for the newest generation Intel graphics
architecture. The project Web site is http://IntelLinuxGraphics.org.

This release represents the start of a long term effort by Intel to work
with the X.org and Mesa communities to continuously improve and enhance
the drivers.  While these drivers represent significant work at both
Tungsten Graphics and Intel, as our first release of this code, they're
still in need of significant testing, tuning and bug fixing before
they'll be ready for production use. We're releasing them now to
demonstrate our ongoing commitment to providing free software drivers
for Intel hardware.

The Intel® 965 Express Chipset represents the first product family that
implements fourth generation Intel graphics architecture. Designed to
support advanced rendering features in modern graphics APIs, this chipset
family includes support for programmable vertex, geometry, and fragment
shaders. By open sourcing the drivers for this new technology, Intel enables
the open source community to experiment, develop, and contribute to the
continuing advancement of open source 3D graphics.

We would like to especially thank our partners at Tungsten Graphics - Alan
Hourihane and Keith Whitwell - for developing the new 3D driver and enhancing
the 2D driver to support the new hardware. 

Intel has assembled a team within the Open Source Technology Center to
manage Intel graphics driver development going forward:

Development

        Eric Anholt <eric.anholt@intel.com>
        Guangdeng Liao <guangdeng.laio@intel.com>
        Keith Packard <keith.packard@intel.com>
        Zhenyu Wang <zhenyu.z.wang@intel.com>

Testing

        Gordon Jin <gordon.jin@intel.com>
        Shuang He <shuang.he@intel.com>
        Wang Wei <wei.z.wang@intel.com>
        Weiliang Chong <weiliang.chong@intel.com>
        Wu Nian <nian.wu@intel.com>

Following the release of this driver, future work will continue in the
public X.org and Mesa project source code repositories. The project Web site,
http://IntelLinuxGraphics.org, will serve as the central site for users of
Intel graphics hardware in open source operating systems.

-- 
keith.packard@intel.com

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