FrogBlast writes:
"Last week, Broadcom released the full source of the OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0 driver stack for the Broadcom VideoCore IV 3D graphics core, which they provide under a 3-clause BSD license. The VideoCore IV core is used in many of Broadcom's processors, including the BCM2835 chip, which is used in the Raspberry Pi.
But because the release targets the BCM21553 3G cellphone chip, the Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced a bounty of $10,000 to the first person to port it to the BCM2835 chip and successfully run Quake III 'at a resolution of 1920-1080 and a minimum of 20fps, without making use of the capabilities of the blob'. The port, it says, 'should be reasonably straightforward' to accomplish."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ikanreed on Tuesday March 04 2014, @05:21PM
Do we get to see an incredibly unstable rushed-out-the-door-to-make-a-profit port that technically meets the requirements? Or is it sufficiently low a bounty that someone who would work on it anyways says to themselves "Might as well finish, it's a lot of money?"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hubie on Tuesday March 04 2014, @05:33PM
The rushed-out-the-door version would still have merit in that the startup effort has been done and one could patch what was there. Of course, if the foundation for the code was so shaky that it really warranted a complete re-write, then you're back to square one, but that would also be true of any version put forward.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by WizardFusion on Tuesday March 04 2014, @05:25PM
Looking at the following pages, they look like completely different chips to me.? Is this even possible.?
http://www.broadcom.com/products/Cellular/3G-Baseb and-Processors/BCM21553/ [broadcom.com]
http://www.broadcom.com/products/BCM2835/ [broadcom.com]
(Score: 2, Informative) by WizardFusion on Tuesday March 04 2014, @05:29PM
Replying to myself:
Apparently it can be done, TFA states it should be possible:
(Score: 1) by loufoque on Tuesday March 04 2014, @07:37PM
Both look like error 404 to me.
(Score: 1) by Toaster42 on Tuesday March 04 2014, @07:59PM
Me too... Soylent Effect?
All higher forms of thinking come from neural connections built by solving the kinds of problems encountered in math.-Md
(Score: 5, Funny) by jheath314 on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:29PM
They've been Soyled
(Score: 3, Interesting) by cmn32480 on Tuesday March 04 2014, @05:48PM
I guess if you have to have a metric, that is as good an answer as any other.
Anybody have any insight as to why Quake III? Why not Doom or Return to Castle Wolfenstein?
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 2, Insightful) by egcagrac0 on Tuesday March 04 2014, @08:00PM
Because multiplayer.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Doogman on Tuesday March 04 2014, @08:42PM
It's a useful gauge OpenGL support and performance.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:45AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 1) by cmn32480 on Wednesday March 05 2014, @02:33PM
Thanks for the insight and the frankly kind and informative answers to a question that might have been modded into oblivion at a former hangout of ours.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jcd on Tuesday March 04 2014, @06:07PM
Difficulty and potential for 'rushed-out-the-door' scenarios aside, we need more and more of this in the FOSS world. Financial incentives are powerful. Even the most well-meaning, FOSS-philosophy-believing, technical-know-how-having people need money to survive.
"What good's an honest soldier if he can be ordered to behave like a terrorist?"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Katastic on Tuesday March 04 2014, @09:17PM
If more people put their money where their mouths are, we'd have a ton of progress in areas that are lacking.
People are willing to spend thousands on televisions, guitar equipment, and plenty of hobbies. But when it comes to software, everyone thinks it should be free.
Specialize in what you're good at and outsource the rest. Otherwise, you're just wasting time.
(Score: 2) by hatta on Tuesday March 04 2014, @06:16PM
What phones are based on the BCM21553?
(Score: 4, Informative) by citizenr on Tuesday March 04 2014, @06:26PM
VideoCore IV is dead commercially. Broadcom blew it in the mobile market, even startups like Vivante overtook them shipping stuff in Chinese fly by night units (Actions, Rockchip) and brand names (Freescale). Broadcom is currently not shipping anything with VideoCore IV.
Releasing code is a really nice gesture by them, but its 2 years too late. Imagine shipping Rasppi with this documentation.
(Score: 3) by Foobar Bazbot on Tuesday March 04 2014, @06:34PM
Yeah, then instead of being the only thing besides bitcoin I ever saw on /. for months, RaspPi could have... been the only thing besides bitcoin I ever saw on /. for months.
I have no idea what actual sales numbers were, or how much better you think an open graphics driver would have made them, but they certainly couldn't have had any more hype than they did.
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheRaven on Wednesday March 05 2014, @09:49AM
sudo mod me up