Gallium3D

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Gallium3D
Basic data

Maintainer VMware (originally Tungsten Graphics)
developer VMware , X.Org Foundation , Nouveau
Current  version 0.4
(April 24, 2010)
operating system platform-independent (currently mainly Linux , macOS , BSD and other unix-like systems )
programming language C.
category Graphics library
License MIT license
Gallium3D (part of Mesa 3D )

Gallium3D (also spelled "Gallium 3D") is a programming interface originally developed by Tungsten Graphics , which is intended to facilitate the development of platform-independent graphics drivers. The main task consists in the combination of functions as required by every graphics driver in order to realize hardware-accelerated graphics outputs on modern graphics processors . Gallium3D abstracts here at various points ( operating system , computer graphics APIs such as OpenGL or DirectX , etc.) in order to offer the actual graphics driver a uniform interface.

Gallium3D has been part of Mesa 3D since 2009 and is currently used by the free drivers for AMD Radeon GPUs (from the R300 ), nVidia GeForce GPUs and some Intel GPUs (especially in the Android and Chromium OS area ).

In addition, there is a Gallium3D-based driver, LLVMpipe , which enables OpenGL to be used on graphics hardware without dedicated drivers using software rendering via LLVM .

Gallium3D drivers were slower in a number of Linux benchmarks, but the situation has changed drastically in recent years due to the provision of documentation by AMD, so that the open source radeonsi is often more powerful than the proprietary fglrx in OpenGL benchmarks. Since 2018 Intel has also been developing a Gallium3D driver for its IGP, code name iris, which has been included on an experimental basis since Mesa 19.1. Nevertheless, the quality and performance differences between open source and proprietary drivers are very large depending on the hardware.

  • Mesa / DRI and Gallium3D have different models of device drivers. However, both share large amounts of free source code.

  • A possible matrix if the Gallium3D model were implemented consistently. With the introduction of the two interfaces Gallium3D Tracker Interface and Gallium3D WinSys Interface , only 18 instead of 36 modules are required. Every WinSys module can be combined with every Gallium3D device driver module and with every State Tracker module.

  • Illustration of the Linux graphics stack

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b VMware takes over Tungsten Graphics - Alexandra Kleijn for Heise , on December 16, 2008
  2. ↑ a b c gallium.readthedocs.org .
  3. ↑ Gallium 3D with new DirectX interfaces - Golem , February 9, 2010
  4. ↑ Michael Larabel: Gallium3D Now In Mainline Mesa Code-Base! Phoronix, February 11, 2009, accessed January 5, 2012 .
  5. ↑ Michael Larabel: Google's Into Intel Gallium3D For Chromium OS? Phoronix, June 23, 2011, accessed January 5, 2012 .
  6. ↑ gallium llvmpipe driver. In: The Mesa 3D Graphics Library. Retrieved March 16, 2014 .
  7. ↑ phoronix.com
  8. ↑ phoronix.com
  9. ↑ phoronix.com