Mill Computing, Inc. Forums The Mill Architecture Graphics card on a Mill Machine

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  • sakras
    Participant
    Post count: 2
    #3599 |

    One of my primary uses for a computer aside from development is gaming, so this question is sort of near to my heart. Will the Mill have support graphics cards (such as through PCIe)? Is there going to be one builtin, and if so will it support any graphics APIs like Vulkan or OpenGL, or any GPGPU-type APIs like OpenCL?

    Thanks!

  • Ivan Godard
    Keymaster
    Post count: 689

    There will be PCIe controllers in the initial configurations, and typically in most others as well; our config software and process lets the uncore be configured to suit the application, and not all applications need them. We do not anticipate configuring any graphics capability directly on the initial chips; it’s not our expertise. Later on, possibly, if resources permit and markets demand.

    We expect to port software support for most industry-standard interfaces, likely including OpenGL. As for others, it’s too soon to sketch out a path.

  • Witold Baryluk
    Participant
    Post count: 33

    You can easily use AMD GPUs on any architecture, as long as you have some PCIe controller, and Linux support for this PCIe controller. AMD GPUs have fully stack open source support in Linux kernel, Mesa 3D drivers (for OpenGL, OpenCL, Vulkan, and other stuff, like video decode/encode), etc. And Intel new dGPUs too. The Nvidia state in Mesa is reasonably good too, and can be definitively be used, but not close to performance of proprietary drivers. However, there are no technical reasons it can’t be supported on other architectures. (I.e. Nvidia GPUs work on x86, POWER and ARM64, and more are possible if there is a will, it is mostly software problem).

    Most PCIe controllers are of the shelf IP blocks, that are integrated into the other silicon. This is because PCIe is mostly complex high speed analog / RF signals, and it is not just digital logic. I am pretty sure Mill will be using one of the known IP blocks for this, like Synopsys or Cadence, or such. They are battle tested, certified, have drivers for the host in Linux, comply with PCIe standards, etc. When the time is right it will be there. Mill without PCIe host controllers, would be unusable for anything interesting.

    • Ivan Godard
      Keymaster
      Post count: 689

      We expect to use 3rd party IP for all the uncore that we can.

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