Open Source CUDA Driver for Linux

I just learned about Gdev from Phoronix:

This is an open source implementation of a subset of the CUDA device API and a kernel driver for Fermi-devices on Linux. According to Phoronix, the developers have implemented a number of features that people have requested in the past:

  • Direct DMA from I/O devices to GPU memory.
  • The ability to call GPU functions from the OS kernel space, as well as user space.
  • Some kind of GPU virtualization

Looks like a project that could be the basis of some interesting research…

Yes, it could indeed. I just hope that the project reaches stability quite quickly (preferably working with the nouveau driver) instead of dying a slow death. I’ve seen too many really cool OSS projects pop up and fade away without much long-term development.