From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Thu May 6 12:09:07 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4EFEC16A4CF for ; Thu, 6 May 2004 12:09:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from rwcrmhc12.comcast.net (rwcrmhc12.comcast.net [216.148.227.85]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5077B43D67 for ; Thu, 6 May 2004 12:09:06 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from julian@elischer.org) Received: from interjet.elischer.org ([24.7.73.28]) by comcast.net (rwcrmhc12) with ESMTP id <2004050619090501400k0hk0e>; Thu, 6 May 2004 19:09:05 +0000 Received: from localhost (localhost.elischer.org [127.0.0.1]) by InterJet.elischer.org (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id MAA83301; Thu, 6 May 2004 12:09:04 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 12:09:03 -0700 (PDT) From: Julian Elischer To: Jason Andresen In-Reply-To: <409A5F5F.1050202@mitre.org> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: Kenneth Culver cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: nVidia FX Support? X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 19:09:07 -0000 On Thu, 6 May 2004, Jason Andresen wrote: > Kenneth Culver wrote: > > > Quoting Jason Andresen : > > > >> Will Andrews wrote: > >> > >>> On Wed, May 05, 2004 at 11:28:57AM +0200, Dimitry Andric wrote: > >>> > >>>> The problem is that NVidia hasn't updated its binary-only FreeBSD > >>>> driver since July 1st, 2003. Any cards released after this date will > >>>> not work properly, or at all, with this driver. So please go bug > >>>> NVidia. :) > >>>> > >>>> But, see also this thread: > >>>> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-threads/2003-June/000530.html > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> which might explain why it takes forever for new drivers to arrive. :( > >> > >> > >> Ugh, reading through that thread I got a bad bad feeling that it will be > >> ages before we see another NVidia driver. The NVidia engineer is > >> unwilling to proceed without his %gs register, and the FreeBSD engineers > >> are unwilling to give it to him because the fast thread switching needs > >> it for good performance. The NVidia engineers needs the %gs register > >> for good performance, and will not release drivers that are 10-50% > >> slower than the Windows ones. > >> > >> It looks like the whole situation is at a standstill at the moment, > >> which means we get no new drivers until the whole thing is sorted out. > >> It's really distressing to see how frustrated the NVidia engineer was by > >> the end of the thread. > >> > > I'm pretty sure that the FreeBSD people are working on TLS, which will > > allow the > > nvidia people to be happy. > > Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but it seems like TLS is what got them in > all of this trouble in the first place. It seems that FreeBSD's > implementation uses the %gs register, which NVidia also wants to use. %gs is not theirs to use.. linux also uses the %gs register for thread identification however when TLS is implemented then they will 'piggyback' on th thread sytem, (so to speak). > > > -- > \ |_ _|__ __|_ \ __| Jason Andresen jandrese@mitre.org > |\/ | | | / _| Network and Distributed Systems Engineer > _| _|___| _| _|_\___| Office: 703-883-7755 > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-current@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-current-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >