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Mali GPU development boards

guestposter guestposter
Note: This was originally posted on 12th October 2009 at http://forums.arm.com

While there are a variety of Mali GPU licensees currently designing Mali GPUs into their SoCs, there are not necessarily many development boards available to the general public.

In order to provide application developers on Mali GPU-based projects with the hardware they need to get their work done, we would like to gain a strong (and accurate) understanding of what needs to be made available. What are the things you look for in a development platform?
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  • Note: This was originally posted on 7th November 2009 at http://forums.arm.com

    ARM's Mali has the chance to not only offer an IP core with similar or better hardware performance.  It has the chance of being several orders of magnitude better when it comes to providing a "standard Linux graphics stack".  This means that
    * kernel framebuffer driver + DRI2 (or TTM/KMS), open source under GPL, actively contributed back to the mainline kernel
    * Xorg driver with EXA/XAA + Xvideo), open source under MIT license, against latest development version of Xorg
    * OpenGL driver (not only ES), preferrably open source. If it has to stay proprietary, keep the proprietary part as small as possible and make sure it only uses standardized DRI/DRM interface to the kernel

    If ARM can provide something along these lines, they will make it at least 10 times easier to build a Linux-based netbook or MID.  If they don't, it will not make a difference if you use Imgtec or Mali


    This makes the difference, not if the GPU has 5MPoly/sec more or less.
    Anyways, the core business of ARM is the processor architecture, I would do a long term strategy, giving and doing what all the other companies like IMGTEC didn't (source code, helping the open source community, etc), low license prices for the GPU that will supplement the next CortexA8-A9 licenses (the collateral effect is most important: makes stronger the Core business). This is the right moment and a chance that ARM cannot waste.
Reply
  • Note: This was originally posted on 7th November 2009 at http://forums.arm.com

    ARM's Mali has the chance to not only offer an IP core with similar or better hardware performance.  It has the chance of being several orders of magnitude better when it comes to providing a "standard Linux graphics stack".  This means that
    * kernel framebuffer driver + DRI2 (or TTM/KMS), open source under GPL, actively contributed back to the mainline kernel
    * Xorg driver with EXA/XAA + Xvideo), open source under MIT license, against latest development version of Xorg
    * OpenGL driver (not only ES), preferrably open source. If it has to stay proprietary, keep the proprietary part as small as possible and make sure it only uses standardized DRI/DRM interface to the kernel

    If ARM can provide something along these lines, they will make it at least 10 times easier to build a Linux-based netbook or MID.  If they don't, it will not make a difference if you use Imgtec or Mali


    This makes the difference, not if the GPU has 5MPoly/sec more or less.
    Anyways, the core business of ARM is the processor architecture, I would do a long term strategy, giving and doing what all the other companies like IMGTEC didn't (source code, helping the open source community, etc), low license prices for the GPU that will supplement the next CortexA8-A9 licenses (the collateral effect is most important: makes stronger the Core business). This is the right moment and a chance that ARM cannot waste.
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