AMD Open-Source GPU Kernel Driver Above 5M Lines, Entire Linux Kernel at 34.8M
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Re: AMD Open-Source GPU Kernel Driver Above 5M Lines, Entire Linux Kernel at 34.8M
#2"Of course, much of that is auto-generated header files... A large portion of it with AMD continuing to introduce new auto-generated header files with each new generation/version of a given block. These verbose header files has been AMD's alternative to creating exhaustive public documentation on their GPUs that they were once known for."
So what's the point of saying that it's large?
Re: AMD Open-Source GPU Kernel Driver Above 5M Lines, Entire Linux Kernel at 34.8M
#3"Of course, much of that is auto-generated header files... A large portion of it with AMD continuing to introduce new auto-generated header files with each new generation/version of a given block. These verbose header files has been AMD's alternative to creating exhaustive public documentation on their GPUs that they were once known for." So what's the point of saying that it's large?
I read it as a bit of a negative situation. So the reason for mentioning it is to shame AMD into doing a more correct or sane thing instead of spewing out enormous amounts of what is basically repetitive noise.
Pointing out that enormity is important because source files need to be stored; interpreted, versioned and parsed by humans/IDE's. It has an externalised cost (but, then again, isn't capitalism all about externalising costs?)
Re: AMD Open-Source GPU Kernel Driver Above 5M Lines, Entire Linux Kernel at 34.8M
#4The openbsd situation is even worse. over there the driver is bigger than the rest of the kernel.
Don't get me wrong I use the driver every day and AMD is definitely one of the good guys for making an open source driver and them who ported it are absolute heros. However.... Sometimes I wish AMD had tied down the isa to their cards a little better. Narrowed the interface if you would. because as it is the driver is so big because there is this combinatorial explosion of generated header files.
Re: AMD Open-Source GPU Kernel Driver Above 5M Lines, Entire Linux Kernel at 34.8M
#5"Of course, much of that is auto-generated header files... A large portion of it with AMD continuing to introduce new auto-generated header files with each new generation/version of a given block. These verbose header files has been AMD's alternative to creating exhaustive public documentation on their GPUs that they were once known for." So what's the point of saying that it's large?
Because it's large and large is difficult to maintain.
AMD maintains it but do we know how they are generated? Probably not.
It's like a gift that stinks but you can't complain about because it's a gift.
Re: AMD Open-Source GPU Kernel Driver Above 5M Lines, Entire Linux Kernel at 34.8M
#6"Of course, much of that is auto-generated header files... A large portion of it with AMD continuing to introduce new auto-generated header files with each new generation/version of a given block. These verbose header files has been AMD's alternative to creating exhaustive public documentation on their GPUs that they were once known for." So what's the point of saying that it's large?
Because it's large and large is difficult to maintain. AMD maintains it but do we know how they are generated? Probably not. It's like a gift that stinks but you can't complain about because it's a gift.
>but do we know how they are generated? Probably not
Having worked in the semi industry, I can fathom a guess: It's a spaghetti mess of cascading Perl scripts that parse the Verilog/VHDL design files, with their development going back 20+ years, full of comments like "don't touch this line because it breaks another line, nobody knows why", and maintained by a team where a gray-beard "Gandalf" engineer wearing an ATI t-shirt, has most of the deep-down low-level knowledge on how to un-fuck them whenever they get fucked, pardon my french.
Re: AMD Open-Source GPU Kernel Driver Above 5M Lines, Entire Linux Kernel at 34.8M
#7It's not completely clear from the article, but: are the files generated 'on-the-fly' during the build process (and therefore not in git), or generated once (by AMD), and then committed?
Re: AMD Open-Source GPU Kernel Driver Above 5M Lines, Entire Linux Kernel at 34.8M
#8It's not completely clear from the article, but: are the files generated 'on-the-fly' during the build process (and therefore not in git), or generated once (by AMD), and then committed?
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Re: AMD Open-Source GPU Kernel Driver Above 5M Lines, Entire Linux Kernel at 34.8M
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because it's large and large is difficult to maintain. AMD maintains it but do we know how they are generated? Probably not. It's like a gift that stinks but you can't complain about because it's a gift.
>but do we know how they are generated? Probably not Having worked in the semi industry, I can fathom a guess: It's a spaghetti mess of cascading Perl scripts that parse the Verilog/VHDL design files, with their development going back 20+ years, full of comments like "don't touch this line because it breaks another line, nobody knows why", and maintained by a team where a gray-beard "Gandalf" engineer wearing an ATI…
Having too worked in the semi industry, this is spot on
Re: AMD Open-Source GPU Kernel Driver Above 5M Lines, Entire Linux Kernel at 34.8M
#10I would much rather have a large amount of in-tree driver source over a small driver with a "large" firmware binary.