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The problem with nouveau is more that it's trying to replicate the Nvidia blob driver (and then some), in that it supports multiple disparate architectures and
by deaddodo 6y ago
The problem with nouveau is more that it's trying to replicate the Nvidia blob driver (and then some), in that it supports multiple disparate architectures and at different levels (three generations might be a similar uarch, for instance). Replicating a single GPU driver would be significantly easier, albeit still a Herculean task. Especially if your main goal out of the gate is simply framebuffer support and maybe some 2D acceleration.
At least, this is from my experience dealing with the Tegra X1 on a Jetson board for hobby osdev.
- boardwaalk 6y agoSounds like a fun project, honestly. I wonder how much 2D-only “legacy” functionality even exists on the thing. I expect not much. Going for something like Vulkan right off with a mind for it probably being built to accelerate Metal might be a viable angle. Total spitballing though. Once they come out with the 16” MBP I may have fun poking at it.
- deaddodo 6y agoYou can read about the architecture in their docs: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/metal/gpu_features/understanding_gpu_family_4 https://developer.apple.com/documentation/metal/gpu_features... It's a fairly generic TBDR architecture based on it's slowly-replaced PowerVR heritage and it still has fixed function hardware in the core of the architecture.