So this is one reason why GPU driver code is necessarily closed :( to save face.
There are some software-based graphics cores out there, and one or two VHDL/FPGA efforts, but the performance/watt ratio between those and mainstream GPUs is laughable without a second thought.
Here's hoping AMD's vision to try and be more open in the future really works out. Also that Vulkan is at least mildly sane with open-ness.
Because the current state of things reinforces ideas like "the GPU is opaque" - architecturally, graphics processing is not a magic box, and while it would take a long time to fully understand it's not technically insurmountable; but the current status quo with drivers makes it so.
(Windows has had application-specific patch/fix code since Windows 3.1. Fascinating reading: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/82860)
So this is one reason why GPU driver code is necessarily closed :( to save face.
There are some software-based graphics cores out there, and one or two VHDL/FPGA efforts, but the performance/watt ratio between those and mainstream GPUs is laughable without a second thought.
Here's hoping AMD's vision to try and be more open in the future really works out. Also that Vulkan is at least mildly sane with open-ness.
Because the current state of things reinforces ideas like "the GPU is opaque" - architecturally, graphics processing is not a magic box, and while it would take a long time to fully understand it's not technically insurmountable; but the current status quo with drivers makes it so.