Writing a Rust GPU kernel driver: a brief introduction on how GPU drivers work

As promised in the first iteration, we will now explore how GPU drivers work in more detail by exploring an application known as VkCube. As the program name implies, this application uses the Vulkan API to render a rotating cube on the screen. Its simplicity makes it a prime candidate to be used as a learning aid in our journey through GPU drivers.

This article will first introduce the concept of User Mode Drivers (UMDs) and Kernel Mode Drivers (KMDs), breaking down the steps needed to actually describe VkCube‘s workload to the GPU. This will be done in a more compact way for brevity as it’s a rather extensive topic that has been detailed in several books.

We will wrap up with an overview of the actual API offered by Tyr. As previously stated, this is the same API offered by Panthor, which is the C driver for the same hardware.

↫ Daniel Almeida

There isn’t much to add here, except maybe this kitten.