Mali (GPU)

Mali is the name of a graphics processor family that was developed by ARM and manufactured by other companies such as Samsung . The graphics units are mainly used in mobile devices such as smartphones and, more generally, in single-chip systems .

more details

Like other embedded IP cores for 3D - rendering acceleration has the Mali - unlike traditional desktop - graphics card - no video display controller to control a screen. Instead, the calculated images are forwarded to another core that controls the display. The Mali units are based in part on the so-called Bifrost architecture .

On August 7, 2016, a device driver was added to the Linux kernel (4.8) for the first time , which brought support for three processors from the Mali graphics processor family.

In 2017 a free Linux driver called Panfrost was started to be developed, which also supports 3D rendering. A few years earlier they started developing another free Linux driver called Lima .

support

graphic

More general

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c Mali-G72: ARM's graphics unit for deep learning smartphones - Golem , on May 29, 2017; u. a. with "[...] a new GPU for Systems-on-a-Chip (SoC)." and "The [...] graphics unit uses [...] the new Bifrost architecture, [...]"
↑ ARM Mali GPU: Simplified Application-Driver Interaction (English; PDF , ≈ 1.5 MB, p. 8 of 36) - at the Institute for Computer Science at Lund University (published or last uploaded on December 9, 2016)
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Panfrost: Free Linux GPU driver runs on modern Mali GPUs - Golem , September 4, 2018; u. a. with "For more than a year [...] a free Linux graphics driver has been created" and "Five years ago the manufacturer ARM [...] was publicly criticized by the then Lima driver developer [...]."
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ARM Mali-G52 and G31: Smartphone graphics units with Vulkan support - Heise , on March 6, 2018
↑ Linux 4.8 brings drivers for new ARM, Intel and Nvidia graphics processors - Heise , on August 8, 2016
↑ Linus Torvalds: Linux 4.8-rc1 (English) - Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) , on August 7, 2016
↑ Lima project: Free Linux driver for Mali GPUs revived - Golem , June 30, 2017
↑ yuq / mesa-lima (English) - at GitHub (accessed September 26, 2018)
↑ Mali-G76: ARM's graphics unit learns faster and more deeply - Golem , June 2, 2018; u. a. with "machine learning"
↑ Mali-G52 / V52: ARM brings new GPU / VPU for AI smartphones - Golem , March 6, 2018; u. a. with "machine learning"

[Golem,_am_29.5.2017-1] Mali-G72: ARM's graphics unit for deep learning smartphones - Golem , on May 29, 2017; u. a. with "[...] a new GPU for Systems-on-a-Chip (SoC)." and "The [...] graphics unit uses [...] the new Bifrost architecture, [...]"

[2] ARM Mali GPU: Simplified Application-Driver Interaction (English; PDF , ≈ 1.5 MB, p. 8 of 36) - at the Institute for Computer Science at Lund University (published or last uploaded on December 9, 2016)

[Golem,_am_4.9.2018-3] Panfrost: Free Linux GPU driver runs on modern Mali GPUs - Golem , September 4, 2018; u. a. with "For more than a year [...] a free Linux graphics driver has been created" and "Five years ago the manufacturer ARM [...] was publicly criticized by the then Lima driver developer [...]."

[Heise,_am_6.3.2018-4] ARM Mali-G52 and G31: Smartphone graphics units with Vulkan support - Heise , on March 6, 2018

[5] Linux 4.8 brings drivers for new ARM, Intel and Nvidia graphics processors - Heise , on August 8, 2016

[6] Linus Torvalds: Linux 4.8-rc1 (English) - Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) , on August 7, 2016

[7] Lima project: Free Linux driver for Mali GPUs revived - Golem , June 30, 2017

[8] yuq / mesa-lima (English) - at GitHub (accessed September 26, 2018)

[9] Mali-G76: ARM's graphics unit learns faster and more deeply - Golem , June 2, 2018; u. a. with "machine learning"

[10] Mali-G52 / V52: ARM brings new GPU / VPU for AI smartphones - Golem , March 6, 2018; u. a. with "machine learning"