Could Graphics Drivers be Included on the Card?

starseeker asks: "With all of the difficulties (both technical and legal) caused by binary graphics card drivers (e.g. the nVidia drivers) the question naturally arises - why is it necessary to have all of this logic at the 'kernel' level in the first place? Why couldn't the necessary logic be abstracted on-board the nVidia/ATI/etc card and just have the OS use one generic driver to access the functionality in all of them? Use OpenGL or similar standards on the software side, and have the card handle things on-board from that point on down? That way, hardware manufacturers wouldn't have to listen to all the flack about binary drivers, and Linux users don't have to suffer with second-rate graphics and/or deal with binary drivers in an open (and dynamic) environment. Are there technical reasons this isn't practical? Or is it simply that it's easier/cheaper to do that type of work in the OS?" There are several issues that currently make such a thing impractical, but the large hurdle at this point is that there doesn't seem to be any interest (neither commercially or technically) to make such a leap.

Comments

It seems to me that all the hardware

[iminplaya]

should the drivers built in. It would definitely shorten boot up time. The present method is such a kludge. I don't understand why it happened that way in the first place. Now if I can only get a car that includes the driver...

Wasn't that the whole point of PCI?

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember sitting in stupid ass Windows 95 training classes, them going on and on about how the PCI peripherals would be able to ship with their own drivers... oh well.

Re:I've got a different question:

[Surt]

Why do GPUs need huge drivers when CPUs don't?

CPUs have this enormous driver called the operating system.

Re:Make it flashable?

[ebonkyre]

Heck, stick a jumper on there that clears the memory and resets to factory defaults.

Are you kidding? Those jumpers cost two cents each...

By the time it makes it past the lawyers (are jumpers patented?), engineering (DIP switches are cooler, man), QA (Oh, you wanted them soldered on, too?), and marketing (Exclusive New Sleeve-and-Pin Programming Control Interface!) - the card will cost $100 more.