On 12/14/2011 06:40 PM, Alex Deucher wrote:
On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 12:27 PM, batouzo batouzo@gmx.com wrote:
AMD develops and releases the ucode images. No source is available.
This means that entire firmeware of GFX card is flashed on bootup? Btw this is a form of virus protection you could say (or anyway such firmware is volatile and lost on reboot?)
The ucode is volatile and is lost on reboot. The different ucode images are used for different things. The PFP and ME ucode images provide the acceleration API and the RLC ucode is required to make the interrupt controller work. On newer asics, the MC ucode is used for the gddr5 controller on the chip and is required to link train the memory so it will run at full speed.
Thanks for explanation.
I hoped using radeon and KMS I'm choosing the "good" (secure / FOSS philosophy etc) solution, but it seems to not be the case then.
What should one do to have 100% opensource, maximally secure X on radeon cards? Maybe I should disable firmware to achieve this goal at cost of performance - or may disabling firmware actually introduce any security/stability problems?
Would Intel build-in card be better for this use? Any particular family?