CTM: was Re: [radeonhd] Necessary for 3D

[Syren Baran]

Am Sonntag, den 07.10.2007, 00:05 +0200 schrieb Syren Baran:
> Am Freitag, den 05.10.2007, 14:15 +0200 schrieb Matthias Hopf:
> > On Oct 05, 07 00:22:09 +0200, Syren Baran wrote:
> > > I personaly dont know how the ATI architecture differs that a kernel
> > > module might be unnecesarry. Fglrx also uses a kernel module.
> > 
> > It has a completely programmable command processor
> Neat.
Well, on slashdot it would probably be tagged something like
itsaprocessorjimbutnotasweknowit .
It´s a massivly parallel risc chip, centered mainly around the mad
command and a couple other math functions.
> >  and all memory accesses (from the
> > hardware side) seem to be virtual, so it might have a MMU.
It does, its called MC.
> > As long as the command processor cannot be programmed from user space,
> > this scenario can be made secure for complete user space programming.
While the security advantages of this approach are obvious it severly
limits the GPUs use. Quite a few applications could find this massive
computing power usefull.
> > I have *no* idea ATM, whether this works with the current DRI
> > architecture or not, so this is probably something for later
> > improvements, but not for the beginning.
True, more pressing matters to get this thing going.
> A completely programmable GPU changes things a lot.
> ATI/AMD should really open their specs on this, this is not only
> interresting for a X-driver.
Actually the specs were released November 06.

> > > I´ll invest a couple of hours now and then. Been a while since i
> last
> > > did low level gfx card stuff and 3D, but i hope i´ll be able to
> > > contribute a bit more than just some pci-ids.
> > 
> > Cool :)
> > Thanks, but don't follow that road too far ATM. It'll be quite a while
> > until we will see 3D docs. At least that's my estimation.
> Now i got a different hunch.
Waiting for 3D docs will result in an infinite loop (at least if you are
looking for registers to write something like "turn this object by x
degrees").
The relevant document is
http://ati.amd.com/companyinfo/researcher/documents/ATI_CTM_Guide.pdf
.
As far as i can tell by now, it contains all information necesarry to
write an assembler.
> But writing a compiler is nothing i have knowledge of.
I may be able to write an assembler. Except for flow control its basicly
a search and replace.
On the other hand, did i mention i HATE assembly language.
It´s not that really hate reading assembly or hate writing it, but i
REALLY HATE debugging it.

Syren