OpenGL status

[Carlo Pisani]

hi

the latest update to the eLinux page happened in 2015, and the OpenGL was reported: "not supported yet, but the development is on-going". 

- "SGXGPU drivers rely on userland binaries and kernel module sources. The work to move to a DRI based system is on-going at IMG. Until the drivers are updated, using the GPU (openGL etc) will not be possible."

(https://elinux.org/CI20_upstream)

I'd like to know the status of the support, before taking the decision of buying a Ci20 unit.

let me know.

Thanks

[Paul Boddie]

As far as I can tell, neither Imagination nor MIPS (or their current owners) support the Creator boards any more. So, the matter of supporting the GPU falls on the community, which is quite a burden given the secrecy of Imagination with regard to PowerVR. However, there are efforts to make the drivers suitable for upstreaming:

https://github.com/openpvrsgx-devgroup

Note that this effort focuses on ARM-based SoCs that use PowerVR, so there may be other complications.

Also challenging is buying a new CI20 given that only Mouser seemed to be distributing them still, and now I see that they have "restricted availability" and don't seem to ship to anywhere I seemed to choose in the Mouser Web interface (although I didn't try anywhere particularly exotic).

Paul

[Mathieu Malaterre]

Hi Paul,

I agree with your conclusion (CI20 is dead arch) and would even go a little further as MIPS/Linux activities is rather extremely low these days. I also confirm the issue with Mouser, but there is still RS these days (if you can afford it):

https://fr.rs-online.com/web/p/products/1253305/

Cheers

[Paul Boddie]

On Monday 18. March 2019 06.37.08 Mathieu Malaterre wrote:
>
> I agree with your conclusion (CI20 is dead arch) and would even go a little
> further as MIPS/Linux activities is rather extremely low these days. I also
> confirm the issue with Mouser, but there is still RS these days (if you can
> afford it):
>
> https://fr.rs-online.com/web/p/products/1253305/

Interesting to know. I've updated the CI20 availability page on the eLinux
site:

https://www.elinux.org/CI20_Availability

I don't really follow Linux on MIPS very much myself. I still have to get
round to looking at later kernels for the Ben NanoNote (JZ4720), and I might
get some mileage out of looking at L4Linux for testing those kernels, but my
interest shifted to L4-based systems a while ago.

The JZ4780 is apparently still an active Ingenic product, along with the
JZ4775 and some other more narrowly-targeted products, unlike the JZ4770 in
the GCW Zero which is apparently being hoarded and is therefore not easy to
obtain. Meanwhile, there appears to be a continuous stream of JZ4760-based
handheld gaming devices coming out of China, so presumably a lot of those
chips were fabricated and left unsold at the time.

I guess none of the above says very much about MIPS at the higher end, but it
does still seem to have a presence in routers and IoT applications, at least
judging from various wireless-related product lines.

Paul