From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 7 09:51:30 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 CE09316A4CE for ; Fri, 7 May 2004 09:51:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail.qubesoft.com (gate.qubesoft.com [217.169.36.34]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B183C43D39 for ; Fri, 7 May 2004 09:51:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dfr@nlsystems.com) Received: from bluebottle.qubesoft.com (bluebottle.qubesoft.com [192.168.1.2]) by mail.qubesoft.com (8.12.9/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i47GoqkM088101; Fri, 7 May 2004 17:50:52 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from dfr@nlsystems.com) Received: from builder02.qubesoft.com (builder02.qubesoft.com [192.168.1.8]) i47GonON024299; Fri, 7 May 2004 17:50:50 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from dfr@nlsystems.com) From: Doug Rabson To: Julian Elischer In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain Message-Id: <1083948649.5822.7.camel@builder02.qubesoft.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.4.6 Date: Fri, 07 May 2004 17:50:49 +0100 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV version 'clamd / ClamAV version 0.65', clamav-milter version '0.60p' 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: Fri, 07 May 2004 16:51:30 -0000 On Thu, 2004-05-06 at 20:09, Julian Elischer wrote: > 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). For what its worth, TLS works nicely in the P4 kse branch for i386.