nouveau in the times of nvidia firmware and open source kernel module
summary
Nouveau faces signed firmware that blocks re‑clocking and performance since Maxwell2 and now a RISC‑V GSP with 30–40 MB GSP firmware that must load before the GPU is usable. Nvidia supplies signed blobs and an open kernel module fork that is not upstreamable. Current work implements GSP support in the kernel to achieve display, command submission and re‑clocking; userland Vulkan reaches Vulkan CTS ~85–92% for Kepler→Ampere but full support needs split BOs, sync objects, VM bind. Packaging and version‑lock of firmwares remain unsolved.
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chapters (13)
- 0:00Introduction and speaker background
- 2:07Nvidia firmware and hardware history
- 6:00Nouveau project overview and stagnation
- 9:36Current Nouveau driver status
- 12:04Vulkan driver development plans
- 16:14Kernel API challenges and solutions
- 19:29Future driver architecture options
- 21:38Prospects for unified compute stack
- 23:51Q&A: Vulkan compute stack
- 25:16Q&A: Firmware bundling on ARM systems
- 28:05Q&A: Framebuffer initialization and boot speed
- 31:59Q&A: Firmware loading and emulation
- 33:07Closing remarks and thanks
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