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NVIDIA Open-Sources Tegra K1 Graphics Support
An anonymous reader writes "NVIDIA's next-generation Tegra K1 ARM processor now has open-source support for its Kepler-based graphics. NVIDIA decided to submit a large queue of patches to the open-source, reverse-engineered Nouveau project for supporting their ARM Kepler graphics with the open-source driver. The patches are still experimental but this is the first time NVIDIA has contributed open-source code to Nouveau."
Tegra has been a horrid disappointment for Nvidia till now, and the competition in the ultra-mobile SoC market is ramping up at a terrifying rate.
-Tegra 1. The equivalent of Microsoft's Windows 1,2. If it ever existed, no-one noticed.
-Tegra 2. Horribly late, missing NEON, and missing hardware acceleration for H264 video decode. Used in devices only because Nvidia was forced to give it away.
-Tegra 3. First ARM SoC part from Nvidia worth using. Late, but good enough to get still get some major contracts as a highish end part.
-Tegra 4. Pretty much an unmitigated disaster. Late and expensive enough to lose the small progress Tegra 3 had made. Wrongly specced, so Nvidia had to announce the 4i.
-Tegra 5, renamed the K1. Built on the wrong process (not really Nvidia's fault- TSMC and others have failed to make the shrink progress expected years ago when this part was first planned). Using the wrong ARM core (A15), so Nvidia had to announce a later version of the K1 that will come with Nvidia's own 64-bit ARM core. Of course, this means the first K1 is already obsolete, long before it is on sale. First Tegra with PC class GPU cores, but not the NEW Maxwell GPU architecture Nvidia launches on the desktop in a few weeks time (750TI). So, the GPU is also out of date before the K1 goes on sale.
The Tegra 5/K1 has a lot of graphic clout for an ARM SoC, BUT cannot use that power in a phone/normal tablet form factor. Therefore, Qualcomm and Apple will best the K1 in performance per Watt, once again.
So, Nvidia has zero (ZERO!!!!!) to lose by throwing out all the tech details of the K1 into the public arena. Intel pulls the same stunt with its laughably poor integrated GPUs on its current CPU chips. If you can't compete, make your documentation open-source in the hope this will boot-strap some extra business.
That jump all over how terrible Tegra SOCs are, the chips still power a crapload of cheap devices all over the planet. What opening up the source on these chips will do is make it easier for smaller companies to create Android and other OS based devices for the expanding cheap device market. What some here refuse to realize is that China is a have and have not market. Those who cannot afford iPads and iPhones will go for the best cheap alternatives and Samsung's products are not significantly cheaper than Apple products. The stuff that they make that is low end could easily be blown out of the water by other companies that clone both the iPad the iPhone and high end Samsung products like the top end Note series and Galaxy 4 phones. You can bet within a very short period of time there will be a flood of cheap knock offs that do everything that these devices do and with just as much grunt but much cheaper.
The high end portable device market that is run by SOCs is undergoing the same thing the pc market went through, aggressive competition and a patent portfolio will not adequately stop the production of knock offs. This is most likely what NVidia is counting on happening, all they care about is selling a gazillion SOCs as fast as they can, just like everybody else that relies on sales of hardware for revenue. NVidia realizes that their SOCs are not going to make it into iPads and Win8 RT is a complete bust so they are instead taking a run at Samsung by opening up their software specs and making cheap but much more powerful versions of Android and even things like Firefox OS and Ubuntu on arm a real possibility. No doubt this will make many more powerful cheap devices possible than what we currently see coming out of the east. This sort of game change is only to be expected, even if many would like to see NVIDIA FOD they are in a position to change the game simply by not playing by the old closed source software design rules that killed many manufactures in the PC market place. My prediction is the next company to bite the dust will be Creative unless someone like NVidia buys them out and teams up with someone like Lenovo to produce killer pro devices and the like as well as consumer do dads. There will be a huge consolidation in the industry and this time Microsoft and their so called "hardware partners" could be left in the dust, perhaps NVidia sees the writing on the wall this time and is breaking free from Redmond's apron strings for a change.
This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
The title should be "NVIDIA publishes Nouveau patches to support Tegra K1"
Nothing has been "open sourced" as it was never closed sourced to start with. It's all original code written specifically for Nouveau.
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