<s>
nouveau	B-Application
(	O
)	O
is	O
a	O
free	B-Application
and	I-Application
open-source	I-Application
graphics	I-Application
device	I-Application
driver	I-Application
for	O
Nvidia	O
video	B-Device
cards	I-Device
and	O
the	O
Tegra	B-Operating_System
family	O
of	O
SoCs	B-Architecture
written	O
by	O
independent	O
software	O
engineers	O
,	O
with	O
minor	O
help	O
from	O
Nvidia	O
employees	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
project	O
's	O
goal	O
is	O
to	O
create	O
an	O
open	O
source	O
driver	O
by	O
reverse	O
engineering	O
Nvidia	O
's	O
proprietary	B-Application
Linux	B-Operating_System
drivers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
managed	O
by	O
the	O
X.Org	B-Application
Foundation	I-Application
,	O
hosted	O
by	O
freedesktop.org,	O
and	O
is	O
distributed	O
as	O
part	O
of	O
Mesa	B-Application
3D	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
project	O
was	O
initially	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
2D-only	O
free	B-License
and	I-License
open-source	I-License
"	O
nv	O
"	O
driver	O
,	O
which	O
Red	O
Hat	O
developer	O
Matthew	O
Garrett	O
and	O
others	O
claim	O
had	O
been	O
obfuscated	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
nouveau	B-Application
is	O
licensed	O
under	O
the	B-License
MIT	I-License
License	I-License
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
name	O
of	O
the	O
project	O
comes	O
from	O
the	O
French	O
word	O
nouveau	B-Application
,	O
meaning	O
new	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
was	O
suggested	O
by	O
the	O
original	O
author	O
,	O
Stéphane	O
Marchesin	O
,	O
after	O
his	O
IRC	B-Protocol
client	O
's	O
French-language	O
autocorrect	B-Protocol
system	O
offered	O
the	O
word	O
"	O
nouveau	B-Application
"	O
as	O
a	O
correction	O
for	O
the	O
letters	O
"	O
nv	O
"	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
nouveau	B-Application
is	O
a	O
Gallium3D-style	O
device	B-Application
driver	I-Application
and	O
works	O
on	O
top	O
of	O
the	O
Direct	B-Application
Rendering	I-Application
Infrastructure	I-Application
(	O
DRI	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
composed	O
of	O
the	O
two	O
Kernel-components	O
DRM	B-Application
&	O
KMS	B-Application
driver	I-Application
,	O
and	O
the	O
user-space	O
components	O
libDRM	O
,	O
and	O
Mesa	B-Application
3D	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
nouveau	B-Application
intends	O
to	O
support	O
all	O
Nvidia	O
microarchitectures	O
:	O
Tesla	B-Operating_System
,	O
Fermi	B-General_Concept
,	O
Kepler	B-General_Concept
,	O
Maxwell	B-General_Concept
,	O
in	O
Version	O
1.0.13	O
support	O
of	O
Pascal	B-General_Concept
and	O
in	O
Version	O
1.0.15	O
support	O
of	O
Volta	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
technical	O
reasons	O
Nvidia	B-Architecture
GPUs	I-Architecture
all	O
boot	O
with	O
a	O
low	O
frequency	O
(	O
called	O
"	O
clock	O
"	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
device	B-Application
driver	I-Application
has	O
to	O
set	O
a	O
higher	O
frequency	O
after	O
booting	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Due	O
to	O
lack	O
of	O
documentation	O
of	O
GPU	B-Architecture
,	O
nouveau	B-Application
lacked	O
this	O
capability	O
from	O
the	O
beginning	O
on	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
result	O
was/is	O
a	O
major	O
loss	O
in	O
performance	O
,	O
as	O
proven	O
by	O
benchmarks	O
which	O
compared	O
the	O
performance	O
of	O
Nvidia	O
proprietary	B-Application
device	B-Application
driver	I-Application
with	O
nouveau	B-Application
's	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
June	O
2014	O
,	O
a	O
breakthrough	O
was	O
finally	O
achieved	O
and	O
initial	O
re-clocking	O
support	O
was	O
added	O
to	O
nouveau	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
Version	O
1.0.14	O
Pascal	B-General_Concept
support	O
is	O
at	O
the	O
level	O
of	O
Maxwell	B-General_Concept
2	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
version	O
1.0.15	O
there	O
is	O
a	O
patch	O
for	O
GTX	O
970	O
with	O
4GB	O
and	O
accelerations	O
of	O
Pascal	B-General_Concept
to	O
Maxwell	B-General_Concept
2	O
Level	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Unlike	O
AMD	O
,	O
Nvidia	O
provides	O
no	O
documentation	O
about	O
their	O
GPUs	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
developers	O
of	O
nouveau	B-Application
have	O
been	O
forced	O
to	O
use	O
clean-room	O
reverse	O
engineering	O
to	O
obtain	O
the	O
necessary	O
data	O
to	O
enable	O
them	O
to	O
write	O
nouveau	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
project	O
uses	O
several	O
custom-made	O
programs	O
for	O
its	O
reverse	O
engineering	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
MmioTrace	O
(	O
Memory	B-Architecture
Mapped	I-Architecture
I/O	I-Architecture
Trace	O
)	O
,	O
REnouveau	O
and	O
Valgrind	B-Application
MMT	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
REnouveau	O
(	O
Reverse	O
Engineering	O
for	O
nouveau	B-Application
)	O
is	O
a	O
program	O
licensed	O
under	O
the	O
GNU	B-License
GPL	I-License
(	O
using	O
SDL	B-Operating_System
)	O
that	O
collects	O
data	O
for	O
most	O
of	O
nouveau	B-Application
's	O
reverse	O
engineering	O
work	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Users	O
with	O
the	O
proprietary	B-Application
NVIDIA	O
drivers	O
can	O
help	O
the	O
development	O
of	O
nouveau	B-Application
by	O
providing	O
information	O
about	O
the	O
hardware	O
of	O
their	O
NVIDIA	O
cards	O
through	O
REnouveau	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
REnouveau	O
works	O
by	O
copying	O
the	O
current	O
graphics	B-Device
card	I-Device
MMIO	B-Architecture
register	O
space	O
,	O
drawing	O
some	O
graphics	O
and	O
taking	O
another	O
copy	O
of	O
the	O
MMIO	B-Architecture
,	O
and	O
outputting	O
the	O
difference	O
to	O
a	O
text	O
file	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
runs	O
about	O
six	O
dozen	O
different	O
tests	O
which	O
the	O
user	O
of	O
the	O
computer	O
then	O
makes	O
a	O
tar.bz2	O
archive	O
of	O
and	O
submits	O
by	O
e-mail	O
,	O
after	O
which	O
it	O
is	O
automatically	O
transferred	O
to	O
the	O
project	O
's	O
FTP	O
servers	O
for	O
the	O
developers	O
to	O
analyze	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Currently	O
REnouveau	O
has	O
been	O
mostly	O
superseded	O
by	O
Valgrind-MMT	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Only	O
the	O
kernel	B-Operating_System
has	O
direct	O
access	O
to	O
the	O
hardware	O
,	O
this	O
includes	O
the	O
graphics	B-Device
card	I-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
End-user	O
software	O
accesses	O
it	O
through	O
various	O
interfaces	B-Application
,	O
that	O
are	O
specific	O
to	O
the	O
task	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
nouveau	B-Application
is	O
being	O
written	O
as	O
a	O
Gallium3D-type	O
of	O
device	B-Application
driver	I-Application
,	O
which	O
means	O
that	O
it	O
shares	O
large	O
amounts	O
of	O
code	O
with	O
other	O
Gallium3D	O
drivers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Most	O
of	O
this	O
shared	O
core	O
is	O
being	O
mainlined	O
in	O
Mesa	B-Application
3D	I-Application
and	O
then	O
distributed	O
as	O
such	O
by	O
the	O
various	O
Linux	B-Application
distributions	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Mesa	B-Application
3D	I-Application
and	O
the	O
drivers	O
it	O
includes	O
,	O
supports	O
multiple	O
rendering	O
interfaces	B-Application
,	O
all	O
designed	O
to	O
give	O
user-space	O
programs	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
video	O
games	O
or	O
CAD	B-Application
software	I-Application
,	O
access	O
to	O
the	O
correspondent	O
SIP	B-Architecture
blocks	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
free	B-License
and	I-License
open-source	I-License
implementation	O
of	O
Direct3D	B-Application
version	O
9	O
has	O
been	O
mainlined	O
into	O
Mesa	B-Application
3D	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
can	O
be	O
used	O
with	O
nouveau	B-Application
;	O
however	O
,	O
since	O
any	O
software	O
that	O
is	O
using	O
Direct3D	B-Application
is	O
programmed	O
for	O
Windows	O
this	O
software	O
can	O
only	O
be	O
used	O
together	O
with	O
Wine	B-Application
on	O
Linux	B-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
rendering	O
interface	O
OpenGL	B-Application
is	O
being	O
developed	O
by	O
the	B-Library
Khronos	I-Library
Group	I-Library
.	O
</s>
<s>
Implementations	O
of	O
this	O
API	B-Application
are	O
part	O
of	O
Nvidia	O
's	O
drivers	O
and	O
AMD	B-Application
's	I-Application
proprietary	I-Application
"	I-Application
Catalyst	I-Application
"	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Another	O
implementation	O
is	O
being	O
written	O
by	O
free	O
software	O
enthusiasts	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
Brian	O
Paul	O
or	O
Intel	O
and	O
coordinated	O
in	O
Mesa	B-Application
3D	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Being	O
a	O
Gallium3D-type	O
of	O
driver	O
,	O
nouveau	B-Application
needs	O
only	O
minor	O
adaptations	O
to	O
work	O
with	O
this	O
implementation	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
,	O
Nouveau	B-Application
does	O
not	O
support	O
Vulkan	B-Application
API	I-Application
,	O
</s>
<s>
Mesa	B-Application
3D	I-Application
supports	O
multiple	O
interfaces	B-Application
,	O
all	O
designed	O
to	O
give	O
user-space	O
programs	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
GStreamer	B-Language
or	O
HandBrake	B-Language
,	O
access	O
to	O
the	O
correspondent	O
SIP	B-Architecture
blocks	I-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
nouveau	B-Application
supports	O
PureVideo	O
and	O
provides	O
access	O
to	O
it	O
through	O
VDPAU	B-Application
and	O
partly	O
through	O
XvMC	B-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
nouveau	B-Application
does	O
not	O
support	O
Nvidia	B-General_Concept
NVENC	I-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
Mesa	B-Application
GalliumCompute	O
is	O
also	O
the	O
main	O
project	O
for	O
Nvidia	O
,	O
but	O
only	O
AMD	O
part	O
is	O
near	O
beta	O
for	O
OpenCL	O
1.0	O
,	O
1.1	O
,	O
and	O
1.2	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
nouveau	B-Application
does	O
not	O
support	O
CUDA	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
With	O
the	O
project	O
Coriander	O
,	O
conversion	O
of	O
CUDA	B-Architecture
Code	O
in	O
OpenCL	O
1.2	O
is	O
possible	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
CUDA	B-Architecture
support	O
is	O
therefore	O
possible	O
with	O
full	O
OpenCL	O
1.2	O
support	O
in	O
GalliumCompute	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Around	O
the	O
year	O
2006	O
Nvidia	O
introduced	O
FALCON	O
(	O
FAst	O
Logic	O
CONtroller	O
)	O
to	O
their	O
GPUs	B-Architecture
.	O
</s>
<s>
At	O
the	O
4th	O
RISC-V	B-Device
Workshop	O
in	O
July	O
2016	O
Nvidia	O
employees	O
introduced	O
their	O
plans	O
to	O
replace	O
FALCON	O
with	O
a	O
new	O
proprietary	B-Application
custom	O
design	O
based	O
on	O
the	O
RISC-V	B-Device
instruction	O
set	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
nouveau	B-Application
was	O
started	O
in	O
2005	O
by	O
Stéphane	O
Marchesin	O
as	O
a	O
series	O
of	O
patches	O
upon	O
the	O
"	O
nv	O
"	O
driver	O
,	O
and	O
officially	O
announced	O
in	O
February	O
2006	O
at	O
a	O
FOSDEM	O
event	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
first	O
live	O
demo	O
of	O
nouveau	B-Application
was	O
at	O
Linux.conf.au	O
2007	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
2010	O
nouveau	B-Application
was	O
accepted	O
in	O
the	O
2.6.33	O
version	O
of	O
Linux	B-Operating_System
kernel	I-Operating_System
as	O
an	O
experimental	O
driver	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
On	O
26	O
March	O
2012	O
,	O
the	O
nouveau	B-Application
driver	I-Application
was	O
marked	O
as	O
stable	O
and	O
promoted	O
from	O
the	O
staging	O
area	O
of	O
Linux	B-Operating_System
3.4	O
.	O
nouveau	B-Application
gained	O
a	O
major	O
internal	O
architecture	O
overhaul	O
in	O
Linux	B-Operating_System
3.7	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
nouveau	B-Application
originally	O
used	O
the	O
Direct	B-Application
Rendering	I-Application
Infrastructure	I-Application
(	O
DRI	O
)	O
of	O
Mesa	B-Application
3D	I-Application
for	O
rendering	O
3D	O
computer	O
graphics	O
,	O
which	O
allows	O
to	O
accelerate	O
3D	O
drawing	O
using	O
the	O
graphics	B-Architecture
processing	I-Architecture
unit	I-Architecture
(	O
GPU	B-Architecture
)	O
directly	O
from	O
the	O
3D	O
application	O
;	O
but	O
in	O
February	O
2008	O
the	O
work	O
on	O
DRI	O
support	O
ceased	O
and	O
moved	O
on	O
to	O
the	O
new	O
Gallium3D	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
On	O
23	O
September	O
2013	O
,	O
Nvidia	O
publicly	O
announced	O
that	O
they	O
would	O
release	O
some	O
documentation	O
about	O
their	O
GPUs	B-Architecture
with	O
the	O
intent	O
to	O
address	O
areas	O
that	O
impact	O
the	O
out-of-the-box	O
usability	O
of	O
NVIDIA	B-Architecture
GPUs	I-Architecture
with	O
nouveau	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
of	O
31	O
January	O
2014	O
,	O
Nvidia	O
's	O
Alexandre	O
Courbot	O
committed	O
an	O
extensive	O
patch	O
set	O
which	O
add	O
initial	O
support	O
for	O
the	O
GK20A	O
(	O
Tegra	B-Operating_System
K1	O
)	O
to	O
nouveau	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
of	O
9	O
July	O
2016	O
,	O
Red	O
Hat	O
employee	O
Ben	O
Skeggs	O
committed	O
a	O
patch	O
which	O
adds	O
support	O
for	O
the	O
Pascal-based	O
GP104	O
chip	O
found	O
on	O
GeForce	O
GTX	O
1070	O
and	O
GeForce	O
GTX	O
1080-branded	O
graphics	B-Device
cards	I-Device
to	O
the	O
Linux	B-Operating_System
kernel	I-Operating_System
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
2019	O
NVidia	O
made	O
some	O
documentation	O
about	O
their	O
Kepler	B-General_Concept
,	O
Maxwell	B-General_Concept
,	O
Pascal	B-General_Concept
and	O
Volta	B-General_Concept
chipsets	O
available	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
nouveau	B-Application
driver	I-Application
and	O
its	O
3D	O
counterpart	O
in	O
Mesa	B-Application
have	O
been	O
used	O
as	O
the	O
default	O
open-source	O
driver	O
for	O
Nvidia	O
cards	O
in	O
many	O
Linux	B-Application
distributions	I-Application
,	O
including	O
Fedora	O
11	O
,	O
openSUSE	O
11.3	O
,	O
Ubuntu	B-Operating_System
10.04	O
,	O
and	O
Debian	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Compiz	B-Language
recommends	O
nouveau	B-Application
over	O
the	O
Nvidia	O
proprietary	B-Application
driver	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
June	O
2014	O
,	O
Codethink	O
reported	O
to	O
run	O
Wayland-based	O
Weston	B-Application
compositor	O
with	O
Linux	B-Operating_System
kernel	I-Operating_System
3.15	O
,	O
making	O
use	O
of	O
EGL	B-Application
and	O
a	O
"	O
100%	O
open-source	O
graphics	O
driver	O
stack	O
"	O
on	O
a	O
Tegra	B-Operating_System
K1	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
October	O
2016	O
,	O
NetBSD	B-Device
added	O
experimental	O
nouveau	B-Application
support	O
in	O
NetBSD	B-Device
7	O
.	O
</s>
