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NVIDIA Begins Supplying Open-Source Register Header Files
An anonymous reader writes: NVIDIA's latest mark of their newly discovered open-source kindness is beginning to provide open-source hardware reference headers for their latest GK20A/GM20B Tegra GPUs while they are working to also provide hardware header files on their older GPUs. These programming header files in turn will help the development of the open-source Nouveau driver as up to this point they have had to do much of the development via reverse-engineering. Perhaps most interesting is that moving forward they would like to use the Nouveau kernel driver code-base as the primary development environment for new hardware.
We have nVidia helping but not making their own Open Source driver. Intel, after a long period of Open Drivers, said it would require BLOBs for future graphical interfaces. AMD helps with Open Drivers more than nVidia so far but doesn't support them.
Bruce Perens.
Approximately zero people actually use Tegra in real life, which is probably the whole reason that this was authorized. Every generation they make huge noise about how awesome the new Tegra is, then it ships in maybe 5 or 6 devices, half of which can't actually be bought anywhere.
> Would their driver magically become open again if that blob lived in factory loaded microcode you couldn't change?
This is the usual cheap stab against RMS's stance. The truth is... it's just more complicated.
- On the one hand (1) there's your position: firmware can be fixed for bugs, new blob, hardware works now. And there's hope to reverse-engineer all that (far harder "inner") stuff, potentially opening a new avenue, if you're willing to ignore all the scary warnings on the package.
- On the other hand (2) there's this thing: if firmware is fixed, you've got a fixed target (functionality and bug set) to reverse-engineer against (now I'm talking of the far easier "outer" stuff). And your efforts can't be forced into obsolescence by an update of the binary blobs. Besides (think firmware signing), manufacturers are doing all what's in their might to take control of the firmware side of things. Just a question of time until they find a way of forcing upgrades whenever they please (watch mobile phones OTA to see what I mean).
Look. I started more as an (1) guy, but knowing RMS I thought "maybe he has a point. He mostly has". But seeing what shenanigans this clusterfuck of manufacturers, "intellectual property" industry and (commercial and police-state) surveillance is coming up with, I'm more and more on (2). The less control the manufacturer has over "his" hardware once I coughed up the dough for it the better.
A well said "fuck you" does wonders! :-)
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
A fellow can dream.
---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
Haven't used Linux for ages. Under Windows I can have a deluxe NVIDIA driver installed right now.
ATI and nVidia try to compete for share. They have high-payed repstrying to convince companies making the games used in the benchmarks to use features that favor their cards over their competitions'. I can see publicizing the drivers leading to the discovery of new holes that screw up a specific card getting pushed.
Security by obscurity is not a replacement for real security, but it helps in this narrow case.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
They license a lot of technologies from other companies, and the conditions of those licenses usually specifically mention not being allowed to publish details of its operation, and especially not precise details. That alone means their hands are tied in this respect. It's the price we pay for the performance we get.
In all these years I've been wondering why they are so jealous about their drivers. I know, it's a very complicated matter of APIs, exposing internal details, etc.
nVidia doesn't own a lot of the IP in their mainstream graphics cards. Tesla is a separate development, and they do own most of the GPU IP in there, so they can release the specs. But nVidia got deeply into bed with Microsoft in the NV2x era. They got insider information on Direct3D, which they used to guide geforce development, and they got their chip into the original Xbox, but they also wound up beholden to Microsoft. They have never outright come out and said that, but they've strongly implied it, and it makes sense.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Could you perhaps find a synonym for effete? I'm asking this with the utmost sincerity because looking at your post history I think that your use of the word has become, well, effete.
1) They license other companies intellectual property. They can't just willy-nilly make all of their drivers' source code public.
2) A decade ago, NVIDIA other companies were so competitive, they were concerned that revealing their driver source code could reveal their hardware tricks to speed up graphics performance. Then their competitors could reverse-engineer the detail in their next generation card, and "catch up" to NVIDIA's performance. Luckily, they may be finally realizing that they get more of an advantage by utilizing free debugging & fixes from their enthusiast customers.
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
Kudos for sticking with Linux, but you should be bright enough to figure out that this the "price" you pay for using Linux. The price of "anarchy" is that the community chooses its leaders; there is no "vetting" or removal procedure. Basically, things have to get XFree86 bad before something gets done about it. Your whining about the "proletarian coders' paradise" falls on deaf ears, much like the Soviet Union. Hell, there aren't even Linux (not RMS) evangelists that will bother to raise the battle flag anymore.
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
Good points, but it doesn't change the fact that Linux is getting worse lately.