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I'm really curious how Servo (and Electrolysis which I know is un-related) are planning to handle the GPU. Most GL drivers if not all of them are not multi-thre

I'm really curious how Servo (and Electrolysis which I know is un-related) are planning to handle the GPU. Most GL drivers if not all of them are not multi-thread happy. Are they implementing an internal command buffer like Chrome or is there some other solution that allows multiple threads and/or multiple processes to all output content to the same window?

programmer_dude 12y ago
I think we will need to wait for Vulkan before we get a true multithreading GL.
- Narishma 12y ago
  Vulkan will not be GL anything.
  - programmer_dude 12y ago
    What do you mean?
    - kibibu 12y ago
      It's 100% an entirely different API. It's not "OpenGL" or "GL" or "GLnext", it's "Vulkan".
      - theandrewbailey 12y ago
        Vulkan's codename before reveal was "GLnext". http://www.develop-online.net/news/glnext-revealed-as-vulkan-graphics-api/0203867 http://www.develop-online.net/news/glnext-revealed-as-vulkan...
dbcooper 12y ago
My uninformed guess is that they will rely on the new multithread friendly systems such as DX12 and the next generation of Open GL.
shmerl 12y ago
May be Vulkan will help with that.
pcwalton 12y ago
Separate per-thread GL contexts, with texture sharing via EGLImageKHR on EGL, pixmaps on X11, and IOSurface on Mac. WebGL and content display lists are proxied to a separate process for security (in the multiprocess branch).
- Cyph0n 12y ago
  I feel like an idiot after reading that, and I'm studying EE hoping for a career in firmware/low-level programming. Good luck to me :)
  - vezzy-fnord 12y ago
    You shouldn't. They're specifically titled data structures and functions inherent to various specific (some to a given platform) compositors, display servers and graphics libraries. You memorize them as you go, but it's the ideas that are more important.
- groks 12y ago
  Wayland might be taking over from X11 on a widely used Linux desktop as early as 6 months from now (Fedora 23): https://blogs.gnome.org/mclasen/2015/01/19/gnome-wayland-porting-the-endgame/ https://blogs.gnome.org/mclasen/2015/01/19/gnome-wayland-por... Obviously X11 will not just disappear, but is targeting Servo at X11 at this early stage in it's development like writing a Python library targeting Python 2?
  - lucian1900 12y ago
    X11 won't be going away any time soon. Also, the EGL backend should work just fine in Wayland.
  - pcwalton 12y ago
    Well, when I wrote this stuff for the first time a couple of years ago, NVIDIA's official position was "we have no plans to support Wayland". Even now I suspect X will be around for years. I will be the first to cheer X's demise, as we've had so many problems with multithreading and X, but we have no choice right now.

programmer_dude 12y ago

I think we will need to wait for Vulkan before we get a true multithreading GL.

Narishma 12y ago
Vulkan will not be GL anything.
- programmer_dude 12y ago
  What do you mean?
  - kibibu 12y ago
    It's 100% an entirely different API. It's not "OpenGL" or "GL" or "GLnext", it's "Vulkan".
    - theandrewbailey 12y ago
      Vulkan's codename before reveal was "GLnext". http://www.develop-online.net/news/glnext-revealed-as-vulkan-graphics-api/0203867 http://www.develop-online.net/news/glnext-revealed-as-vulkan...

dbcooper 12y ago

My uninformed guess is that they will rely on the new multithread friendly systems such as DX12 and the next generation of Open GL.

shmerl 12y ago

May be Vulkan will help with that.

pcwalton 12y ago

Separate per-thread GL contexts, with texture sharing via EGLImageKHR on EGL, pixmaps on X11, and IOSurface on Mac. WebGL and content display lists are proxied to a separate process for security (in the multiprocess branch).

Cyph0n 12y ago
I feel like an idiot after reading that, and I'm studying EE hoping for a career in firmware/low-level programming. Good luck to me :)
- vezzy-fnord 12y ago
  You shouldn't. They're specifically titled data structures and functions inherent to various specific (some to a given platform) compositors, display servers and graphics libraries. You memorize them as you go, but it's the ideas that are more important.
groks 12y ago
Wayland might be taking over from X11 on a widely used Linux desktop as early as 6 months from now (Fedora 23): https://blogs.gnome.org/mclasen/2015/01/19/gnome-wayland-porting-the-endgame/ https://blogs.gnome.org/mclasen/2015/01/19/gnome-wayland-por... Obviously X11 will not just disappear, but is targeting Servo at X11 at this early stage in it's development like writing a Python library targeting Python 2?
- lucian1900 12y ago
  X11 won't be going away any time soon. Also, the EGL backend should work just fine in Wayland.
- pcwalton 12y ago
  Well, when I wrote this stuff for the first time a couple of years ago, NVIDIA's official position was "we have no plans to support Wayland". Even now I suspect X will be around for years. I will be the first to cheer X's demise, as we've had so many problems with multithreading and X, but we have no choice right now.