FreeBSD OpenCL/CUDA nVidia

[Steve O'Hara-Smith]

On Sat, 1 Sep 2018 14:54:26 +0000
Carmel NY <carmel_ny at outlook.com> wrote:

> I don't believe that is a correct interpretation of the problem. Several
> years ago, FreeBSD was unable to support nVidia's 64 bit drivers.

	You have it backwards - nVidia's drivers come from nVidia they
choose what platforms to write drivers for, how often to update them and
what features to support on each platform. They naturally prioritise the
platforms that lead to the most sales - which would be Windows (several
versions for different versions of Windows) then Linux then FreeBSD.

	If memory serves correctly FreeBSD originally supported running
nVidia's 32 bit Linux drivers with the aid of the linux emulation layer. It
was some time before FreeBSD had a 64 bit Linux emulation layer. Nothing to
do with supporting nVidia products, everything to do with supporting Linux
ABIs. Now nVidia provide FreeBSD drivers so there's little incentive to
consider running the Linux drivers under emulation.

> A far more easily implemented plan would be for the FreeBSD developers to
> pin point exactly what FreeBSD needs to do to become fully compatible
> with nVidia products.

	nVidia make products for several versions of Windows, Linux and
FreeBSD these drivers are all different and tailored to their targets by
nVidia with the help of the OS makers in each case. There's no such thing
as "fully compatible with nVidia products", it's not as though Windows and
Linux run the same drivers.

-- 
Steve O'Hara-Smith <steve at sohara.org>