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Does it have an GPU? I can't quite decipher the specs. Random googling suggests that SiFive have partnered with PowerVR for GPU, which might even enable vulkan
by scoopr 6y ago
Does it have an GPU? I can't quite decipher the specs.
Random googling suggests that SiFive have partnered with PowerVR for GPU, which might even enable vulkan support, but I suppose this SoC is not one of those?
- archanox 6y agoAs per the Ars link; > The initial pilot run of BeagleV will use the Vision DSP hardware as a graphics processor, allowing a full graphical desktop environment under Fedora. Following hardware runs will include an unspecified model of Imagine GPU as well.
- pabs3 6y agoAlso, ImgTec are planning on writing and upstreaming open drivers for Linux and mesa for another RISC-V based board, so probably those drivers will work here too. https://riscv.org/blog/2020/11/picorio-the-raspberry-pi-like-small-board-computer-for-risc-v/ https://riscv.org/blog/2020/11/picorio-the-raspberry-pi-like...
- Narishma 6y agoAnybody know what changed their mind? As I recall, they've always been pretty hostile to open source.
- CameronNemo 6y agoMaybe the realization that they are not NVIDIA.
- brucehoult 6y agoApple dropping them?
- monocasa 6y agoI don't think that necessarily says that ImgTec will be upstreaming the open drivers, more that they don't have a better option at the moment and will be replacing closed source components with each revision. I hope they will, but I'll believe it when I see it. They've been extremely allergic to open source in the past.
- stragies 6y agoThey've been delivering that vacuous promise every few years. Being bought by Canyon Bridge, a private equity fund owned by the Chinese government, a few years ago has unfortunately not changed anything.
- monocasa 6y agoTotally. Having reverse engineered a bit of the drivers, I think it's because they culturally think that all of their value add is in the software. Patents have expired on the TBDR fixed function hardware blocks. The rest is just a combo of a little RISC core that does job dispatch (Programmable Data Sequencer in their parlance), and a cluster of SMT barrel scheduled cores (used to be called USSE in the SGX days, not sure now) that do the heavy lifting wrt shaders that don't really have any secret sauce AFAICT. The value add is all in the software stack where they run a full little ukernel on the main GPU cores, and optimizing the shit out of the software that runs on those cores from their pretty clever compiler. I bet they think that if they open source the drivers, that's giving away the one thing that makes PowerVR GPUs special in the first place. If a IMG person reads this: y'all are wrong with that last piece. Your company is dying without opening the drivers, and you'll be able to control the hardware/software co-design in a way that nobody else can even if you give away the software. You'll have to keep doing work to have new hardware available and stay ahead of the curve, but that's true anyways and is the sign of a healthy business. Sure beats withering away as your patents expire.
- pabs3 6y agoWas anything about that reverse engineering publicly released?