Ubuntu Wiki

Please check the status of this specification in Launchpad before editing it. If it is Approved, contact the Assignee or another knowledgeable person before making changes.

• Launchpad Entry: mobile-graphics

Summary

This is the various 2D & 3D driver components for the Poulsbo graphics hardware. These components include:

• X11 2D User Mode Driver
• Mesa/DRI 3D User Mode Driver
• Generic DRM kernel module with new memory management code.
• DRM chipset specific kernel driver module

Rationale

Poulsbo has a new low power graphics hardware integrated into the chipset. It needs new 2D and 3D device drivers for good performance.

Use Cases

An OEM/ODM designs a new system with the Poulsbo chipset. (http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20070417corp_a.htm) In order to take advantage of the 2D and 3D performance of the graphics engines in the chipset, native 2D and 3D drivers are required.

Scope

Except for the generic DRM module, the code is specific to the Poulsbo chipset. However the generic DRM module is also used by other chipsets. The drm.ko kernel module however is shared between other chipsets and is not specific to Poulsbo.

Design

The drivers will be dependent on the the new DRM Video Memory Manager as described by: http://www.tungstengraphics.com/mm.pdf

Also the driver will therefore be dependent on Mesa 7, recently made available in Gutsy. http://www.mesa3d.org/

The drivers require X Server 1.3 or newer.

Licensing:

• X11 2D User Mode Driver - MIT X-Windows System License
• Mesa/DRI 3D User Mode Driver - Proprietary License
• Generic DRM kernel module - GPL v2
• DRM chipset specific kernel driver module - GPL v2

Implementation

The 2D driver is implemented as a standard Xorg 2D driver but is a separate driver from the existing xf86-video-intel driver. It will be packaged in a new xserver-xorg-video- package. The xorg package will need to be modified to add the new driver to the xserver-xorg-video-all Depends.

The 3D user mode driver is a standard DRI driver but requires Mesa 7. Since it is under a proprietary closed source license, it will be shipped in a similar manner to the Nvidia and ATI binary drivers in the linux-restricted-modules source package.

The drivers will be dependent on the the new DRM Video Memory Manager as described by: http://www.tungstengraphics.com/mm.pdf. This means the UME kernel config will need to have an updated ttm-enabled drivers/char/drm/ subsystem.

The drm drivers for the chipset will be included in linux-ubuntu-modules (or wherever the ttm-enabled drm code ends up.)

Outstanding Issues

• 3D Driver may miss Oct. Release. May need to include as update.

• The 2D driver will be available in Gutsy and uploaded to the Xorg & Mesa upstreams.

Comments

• Why is the 3D DRI driver closed source, especially if it's Intel's own hardware? Just raising the issue, as from outsider's perspective Intel and Ubuntu could have avoided going the non-free route, as both have seemed to be strong supporters of open drivers. --TimoJyrinki

CategorySpec