Deep Dive into Tyr: A Rust GPU Driver for Arm Mali CSF

This post, the second in a series, delves into the development of Tyr, a cutting-edge Rust GPU driver for the Linux kernel supporting Arm Mali CSF-based GPUs. Using the VkCube application (rendering a rotating cube via Vulkan) as a case study, it explains the interaction between User Mode Drivers (UMDs) and Kernel Mode Drivers (KMDs). The article provides a concise overview of Tyr's API, comparing it to Panthor (the C driver for the same hardware). Key KMD responsibilities, such as memory allocation, job submission, and hardware scheduling, are highlighted. The article breaks down Tyr's API into sections covering device information, memory management, group creation and management, job submission, and tiler heap management.