From owner-freebsd-multimedia  Mon Apr  9  7:16: 8 2001
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	id 1FC5537B422; Mon,  9 Apr 2001 07:16:06 -0700 (PDT)
From: Marc van Woerkom <3d@hub.freebsd.org>
To: cokane@FreeBSD.ORG
Cc: van.woerkom@netcologne.de, Alexander@leidinger.net,
	mreimer@vpop.net, multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG
In-reply-to: <20010407001754.C40343@cokane.yi.org> (message from Coleman Kane
	on Sat, 7 Apr 2001 00:17:55 -0400)
Subject: Re: nvidia binary drivers
Reply-To: 3d@freebsd.org
References: <200104031906.f33J6mE00856@Magelan.Leidinger.net> <200104032108.f33L8N633809@oranje.my.domain> <20010407001754.C40343@cokane.yi.org>
Message-Id: <20010409141606.1FC5537B422@hub.freebsd.org>
Date: Mon,  9 Apr 2001 07:16:06 -0700 (PDT)
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X-Loop: FreeBSD.org

>   I'll clear this up. All the DRI drivers require one to load a
>   hardware-dependent driver into the kernel. Many vendors already have their
>   support in the XFree86 4.x tree. They are as follows (with module listed):

DRI was an initiative by Precision Insight, who were later aquired by
VA Linux. The DRI project started on SourceForge (VA Linux :) and also
Brian Paul (Mesa) joined Precision Insight, as well as some other
prominent Linux graphics hackers. Later DRI went into the XFree86 4 tree.
So a couple of graphics heavy weights now works for VA Linux.
There is also personal continouty from early projects (Utah GLX, Voodoo
drivers) to involved companies nvidia and VA Linux. :)


> NVidia decided they would have SGI help them make a module that totally
> beat the other cards in performance under GNU/Linux.
 
The story I remember was nvidia having licensed some technology
for Win32 (AGP access?) that can't be opened.
Plus we know that there is a lot of patent fighting going on in
that business (3dfx suing nvidia for example)
and hard fight for technological leadership.


> This module is in no way useable by the FreeBSD kernel.

It was clear last year already, that the binary module
was using the new XF4 loader, an x86 generic mechanism.

Of course the Linux "kernel module", that piece of 
bindings that were provided in source by nvidia
was only filled with Linux stuff, but in theory it
should be possible to replace them with FreeBSD bindings.

Right now people work on doing just this, and
we got confirmation from nvidia that they will help
iron out problems, when we hit some Linuxism.

Regards,
Marc

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