OT: nVidia driver [was: Wish list] -- understanding the GPU market

[Bryan J. Smith]

Matrox has been proprietary.
ATI is now proprietary.
The XFree86 4.0+ model introduced a loadable module option, which
allowed binary drivers.

nVidia just adds some kernel memory and AGPgart interfaces.
Until recently, those were Intel "trade secrets" nVidia could not
disclose.

As far as the unified driver, Matrox, nVidia and now ATI have the
same issue, Intel, Microsoft and a host of other companies' lawyers
would have a field day if they were GPL'd.

ATI should be commended for attempting to make a "clean room" DRI/
GLX implementation.  But eventually they had to give in, and started
withholding specifications as of R300 (Radeon 9500+).  And even before,
many 2D and 3D interfaces were _never_ published by ATI.

What really gets to me here is the _real_market_conditions_ involved.

We're not talking about a product that is released and modern for 2-5
years.  We're talking about a product that is _obsolete_ in less than
_12_months_!

GPUs double in speed 2-3 times faster than CPUs.  The drivers are
under development alongside engineering under NDA, and that's not
going to change.  If they opened up the driver model, then they'd
still either need to A) have you sign a NDA, or B) you'll see
drivers for Linux come out some 6+ months _after_ release.

I think there are lessons to be learned from ATI's prior attempts.

In reality, we're still talking an "open standard" in GLX, with
ARB extensions and in a few cases, yes, some GPU-specific extensions
(that get rolled into ARB much faster than DirectX where many
_never_ become part of the spec).

The concept that leading-edge video drivers will _ever_ be GPL is 
very slim-to-none.  And as far as the license, the drivers are
unified, and written for _all_ platforms, so there is the argument
that they do not require Linux (and Linus' comments have been used
similarly for justifying binary-only WLAN objects).

In reality, yes, I'd like to see nVidia's memory interfaces in the
kernel GPL'd.  And now that the _standard_ PCI-Express is here from
the PCI Standards Group (AGP was _never_ a standard, but an Intel
trade secret of PCI), I hope Intel takes off some chains on nVidia.

But there is just too much IP involved, and too many NDAs.  GPUs
are far, far, _far_ more complex than even CPUs these days -- and
the IP in the software even more so and closely tied.

There is some open source GLX code out there for both ATI and nVidia
-- but you're _never_ going to get the "cutting edge" under the model.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                     b.j.smith at ieee.org 
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