An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers • Hacker News Board

Re: An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers

#41

Post by wmf » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 10:30 PM UTC

whatever1 wrote: post #36

dividuum wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it's these two files? The original 2600+ lines of C++: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/asahi/mesa/-/blob/main/src/ga... The translated code: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/asahi/mesa/-/blob/main/src/as...

She is not doing CI/CD so the PMs would fire her in any modern company. "Where are the unit tests?!? How is it possible to write code without tests and 100% coverage!"

OpenGL and Vulkan have tons of tests and Alyssa runs them. I don't know if it's automated through CI.

Re: An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers

#42

Post by refulgentis » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 10:34 PM UTC

tedunangst wrote: post #40

gigatexal wrote: post #30

Is anyone else astonished at how much is missing in the hardware and how much is emulated?

Is this really so different from any other mobile derived GPU?

Idk, TIL, had a career in mobile for 15 years running and I didn't know this was a distinctive quality of mobile GPUs. (makes sense! but all that to say, I'm very interested to hear more, and I'll trade you an answer to that question: "maybe not! sounds like you got some smart stuff to share :)")

Re: An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers

#43

Post by colechristensen » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 10:47 PM UTC

talldayo wrote: post #35

colechristensen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you being offended for yourself or on behalf of other people? If the latter, please leave that for others to judge for themselves.

There's something rich about this gjsman showing up to defend Apple as an unpaid lackey, and inventing controversy to justify hating the opposition. I'd say something like "I wonder what it's like inside this user's head" but it seems like their deepest insecurities have been made quite external by now.

Here it is best to not engage or add any volume to discussions like this. How you get a community that isn't infested with shallow controversy is by not giving it any attention but small amounts of gentle discouragement.

Re: An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers

#44

Post by nwallin » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 10:51 PM UTC

scottlamb wrote: post #14

> tessellator.cl is the most unhinged file of my career ...so far. The presenter is only 23 apparently. Maybe I'm speaking only for myself here, but I think career unhingedness does not go down over time as much as one might hope. In all seriousness, she does really impressive work, so when she says this 2,000 lines of C++ is inscrutable, that gives one pause. Glad it's working nonetheless.

It's unfathomable that she's 23 and wrote an open source graphics driver for a closed-source graphics card. At least Einstein had the decency to wait until he was 26 to invent special relativity.

Re: An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers

#45

Post by egwor » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 10:51 PM UTC

Really impressive. Well done (and thanks for the laughs. Starting in French would be so funny)

Re: An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers

#46

Post by flykespice » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 10:52 PM UTC

kachapopopow wrote: post #15

I always wondered about these /SubscriberLink/ links. Is sharing them considered unethical?

It's not different from shared articles here from subscriber-only newsletters being accompanied by the archived link in the topmost comment.

Users here seem to not care about those "ethics"

Re: An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers

#47

Post by ferbivore » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 10:56 PM UTC

tedunangst wrote: post #40

gigatexal wrote: post #30

Is anyone else astonished at how much is missing in the hardware and how much is emulated?

Is this really so different from any other mobile derived GPU?

Yes. Apple have their own graphics API. They were able to decide that, say, geometry shaders aren't worth the chip area or engineering effort to support. Other IHVs don't get that choice; for geometry shaders, for instance, they're part of both Vulkan and OpenGLES, there are games and benchmarks that use them, and customers (end-users, gamedevs, review/benchmark sites, SoC vendors) will evaluate GPUs based, in some small part, on how good their geometry shader support is. Same story for tessellation, transform feedback, and whatever else Apple dropped.

Re: An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers

#48

Post by hi_hi » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 11:05 PM UTC

UncleOxidant wrote: post #3

Will M3/M4 need completely different drivers?

I think the answer is yes. I'm making assumptions based on this part of Alyssas talk a couple of weeks ago where she talks about M3 having specific driver support for raytracing which doesn't exist in previous versions.

https://youtu.be/pDsksRBLXPk?t=2895

The whole thing is worth watching to be honest, it's a privilege to watch someone share their deep knowledge and talent in such an engaging and approachable way.

Re: An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers

#49

Post by ewoodrich » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 11:10 PM UTC

sophacles wrote: post #28

kachapopopow wrote: post #15

I always wondered about these /SubscriberLink/ links. Is sharing them considered unethical?

Representatives of LWN have posted here before saying they are OK with it, along with a polite request not to have it go overboard since they need to fund the site and writers, editors, etc. That funding comes from subscriptions only IIUC. FWIW an LWN subscription is pretty affordable and supports some of the best in-depth technical reporting about Linux and linux-related topics available. (I am not affiliated with L…

A couple times now I’ve remembered to refill my subscription after my old one ran out of months thanks to an LWN free article being posted to HN.

So n=1 it’s an effective advertising tactic even though I can read the specific article for free.

Re: An Update on Apple M1/M2 GPU Drivers

#50

Post by hi_hi » Thu, Oct 31, 2024, 11:12 PM UTC

renewiltord wrote: post #2

The work by Alyssa R and Asahi Lina is great stuff. I have to say that a lot of this is really inscrutable unless you’re used to driver code. I wish it were much easier to write this stuff but hardware stuff is so idiosyncratic. Have to say I do enjoy all the old school style whimsy with the witch costume and whatnot.

I've just been watching her recent talk. I noticed she appears to change slides with a wave of her wand. Is there an known piece of hardware one can purchase to do this?

I tried googling, but trying to find the specific result I'm interested in amongst all the blog spam garbage related to powerpoint is beyond me. Even googles own AI couldn't help. Sad times!