Writing an open source GPU driver – without the hardware
After six months of reverse-engineering, the new Arm “Valhall” GPUs (Mali-G57, Mali-G78) are getting free and open source Panfrost drivers. With a new compiler, driver patches, and some kernel hacking, these new GPUs are almost ready for upstream.
In 2021, there were no Valhall devices running mainline Linux. While a lack of devices poses an obvious obstacle to device driver development, there is no better time to write drivers than before hardware reaches end-users. Developing and distributing production-quality drivers takes time, and we don’t want users to be reliant on closed source blobs. If development doesn’t start until a device hits shelves, that device could reach “end-of-life” by the time there are mature open drivers. But with a head start, we can have drivers ready by the time devices reach end users.
Let’s see how.
Also: Rosenzweig: Writing an open source GPU driver – without the hardware
And related: Graphics Driver Changes Begin Lining Up For Linux 5.18
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