Author Topic: the microcode question  (Read 5294 times)

pocock

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the microcode question
« on: May 07, 2020, 05:18:02 pm »
Raptor's workstations come with the AMD WX7100 GPU by default

While AMD is officially engaged in the production of the free/open source amdgpu driver, the AMD cards still require some microcode / blobs.

From the perspective of Talos II buyers/users, can anybody make suggestions about the best links/documents for helping decide upon the graphics and GPU strategy?

To put that another way: given that Talos II has VGA and the Blackbird's built-in HDMI can only do Full HD (1080p), if somebody wants to have one or more 4K displays and they don't need 3D, what are the recommended options without any microcode?
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MauryG5

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Re: the microcode question
« Reply #1 on: August 09, 2020, 03:44:49 am »
I currently have a 4K display and can use that resolution on my Power system. Also if I run the command to check 3D acceleration enabled, it tells me that it is enabled on my board. I use an AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT to get all of this.

ClassicHasClass

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Re: the microcode question
« Reply #2 on: August 10, 2020, 11:16:59 am »
Maury, that doesn't help him because that still requires an AMD blob.

I'm not aware of a fully free 4K framebuffer ... yet. I'm told some people were putting RISC-V to such a task but I haven't heard much further and it might just be wishful thinking.

MPC7500

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Re: the microcode question
« Reply #3 on: August 10, 2020, 05:37:05 pm »
What comes to mind is libreSOC. At first I was a bit skeptical, but now it looks promising.

MauryG5

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Re: the microcode question
« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2020, 07:58:42 am »
I didn't quite understand your question at the time. Sorry... :-)

ClassicHasClass

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Re: the microcode question
« Reply #5 on: August 11, 2020, 03:16:03 pm »
Wow, libreSOC seems to have gotten along further than I thought. Worth keeping an eye on.