LCE-EU 2015

The GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) is one of the most complex and interesting components of a modern personal computer, be it a desktop machine or a mobile SoC. This talk is intended to be a gentle introduction to GPU history, how modern GPUs work, and how the Linux graphics stack is built to take advantage of all their features. Due to obvious time limits we will only scratch the surface, but we hope to lift some of the mystery that shrouds GPUs and encourage curious but potentially scared developers to study and contribute to the open-source graphics stack. The talk will cover how 3D graphics are rendered, how GPUs accelerate the process, and the basic layout of the kernel and user-space drivers. NVIDIA GPUs and the Nouveau Free driver will be used as references for this talk, but the general principles should be applicable to any modern GPU.