Hello,
I am looking for Mali-400 documentation. Not high level 'This is a great GPU with 4 pixel shader' powerpoint, but something along the lines of:
Here is the list of all the CPU accessible registers for the GPU and what happen when you read/write to them...
This type of info is usually made available for CPU periferials, but I am unable to locate anything like this for Mali.
Regards, Cryille
Hi Cyrille,
There is no public information from ARM about how to use the Mali GPU hardware without our drivers; the "product" we sell is the pair of hardware and software components. If you use our drivers then you will get OpenGL ES 1.1 and OpenGL ES 2.0 support out of the box (give or take OS support).
Your chipset provider should be able to provide you with the Mali drivers for the device, or you could contact our licensing team directly about getting source access yourself.
HTH, Pete
Is there at least information on what it supports/can and can not do?
One important info for me, for example, is: What are it's 2D capability?
Can it do lines, blits, rectangles, font drawing? Within which limits (alpha blending?)
Cyrille
> Is there at least information on what it supports/can and can not do?
Well we support everything in the OpenGL ES 1.1 or 2.0 specs, plus a set of extensions to that behavior. OpenGL ES 2.0 is based on a programmable shader design (you write programs which run on the GPU) so it can pretty much do anything.
> Can it do lines, blits, rectangles, font drawing? Within which limits (alpha blending?)
lines => yes, via GL_LINES
rectangles => there is no OpenGL ES primitive for rectangles, but you can draw two triangles
fonts => there is no "font" rendering per-say; you can flatten fonts to a texture (https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=font+atlas#q=OpenGL+ES+font+atlas+image), and then render your text as an array of triangles loading the relevant parts of the texture. Most "serious" font rendering [e.g. browser rendering, etc] is done in software on the CPU (sub-pixel hinting, etc, is too complex to do on the GPU). It's good enough for game user interfaces, etc though.
alpha blending => yes, multiple run-time options of blend modes available.
HTH,
Pete