directfb.org

DirectFB

DirectFB is a thin library that provides hardware graphics acceleration, input device handling and abstraction, integrated windowing system with support for translucent windows and multiple display layers, not only on top of the Linux Framebuffer Device. It is a complete hardware abstraction layer with software fallbacks for every graphics operation that is not supported by the underlying hardware. DirectFB adds graphical power to embedded systems and sets a new standard for graphics under Linux.

2008-06-02 DirectFB 1.2.0-rc1

This is the first release candidate of the new stable 1.2 series

Major feature additions include blitting with a color or alpha mask using a third surface and ongoing affine transformation support in software & hardware.

There are also lots of other improvements for embedded chips such as Renesas SH7722 or TI Davinci and an exquisite X11 system module which gives PC based prototyping of embedded software a boost.

The screenshot shows three different processes, Firefox on GTK+ with two DirectFB example programs. All run in the same X11 window which is the screen of the multi application core DirectFB session.

Click on the news header...

dok

2008-05-27 DirectFB Apparel and Gifts

As some of you might have already noticed by looking at the Main menu or by being subscribed to the users mailing list, we have opened our first merchandizing shop at spreadshirt.net.

So if you like DirectFB and want to propagate that, stop by at our shop and get some nice clothing, or a cup for your coffee. They look nice, help you stay awake to contribute to the project and you donate money to the community, since all the money we receive will be spent to buy hardware for DirectFB and Open Source Community programmers, or support them otherwise.

If you have special wishes about styles, or some nice grafiks for our store, feel free to contact me.

nin

2008-05-21 CELF-Videos

Finally available on directfb.org:

The CELF-Keynote video from the conference held at the Computer Museum in Mountain View, CA, can be watched here.

To see the Renesas-Presentation on Writing DirectFB Graphics Drivers follow this link.

And last but not least the Disko Application Presentation.

nin

2008-05-13 Liaison Statement to DirectFB.org (SC 29 N 9423)

"
In accordance with Resolution 13.1.1 taken at the 84th 
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29/WG 11 meeting, 2008-04-28/05-02, 
Archamps, France, I am pleased to send the following 
Liaison statement.

SC 29 N 9423 [SC 29/WG 11 N 9868] :
Liaison Statement from SC 29/WG 11 on 
MPEG Extensible Middleware (MXM) "

Click on news title...

dok

2008-05-02 Recent developments

While we're still working out our business plan, we're also looking for investors and other people willing to help. If you're interested, please send me a mail, preferably something with DirectFB in the subject to avoid me deleting it by accident :)

Furthermore, newer technologies will remain closed source until they can be fully used and would take a lot of time to be copied, especially regarding Water, which is already quite different from what you get in git!

I'm tired of companies using my ideas in their own closed source products...

dok

2008-04-25 Disko fever in Mountain View

ELC 2008 - we were there! This year we presented the disko framework on the ELC 2008 in Mountain View. You will find our presentation here.
Anything else?
Yes, we created an initial step by step tutorial, which can help you start writing your own Disko application/plugins. Check it out and share your experiences with us.

bere

2008-04-14 Just got married in San Francisco

How good to be here again. The actual plan was to attend the CE Linux Forum in San Jose. But how much more wonderful to combine the personal and work related success that come with the conference with declaring officially how much DoK and I love one another. Especially in the area we plan on living in the near future. Now we just have to relocate us and the business we are about to start up...

nin

2008-03-28 First screenshot of DirectVG (OpenVG API on old IDirectFBSurface)

First screenshot of Claudio's glorious work :)

dok

2008-03-14 Disko dancing on DaVinci

A video capture of a User Interface demonstrates that Disko performs well on a TI DaVinci chipset. The video shows a navigation caroussel that switches between different applications and plays TV.

A number of set-top boxes and internet appliances are running Linux and DirectFB. So the chance is good that Disko applications will run on a number of devices that come into the market.

If you consider using Disko for your own project, you can download and play with Morphine.TV, which is a media center system based on the Disko framework. Afterwards you should be able to implement Disko on your embedded hardware. We are looking forward to discuss bugs and feature requests in the Morphine.TV forums.

For more detailed benchmark information click on the news title...

bere

2008-03-13 Water - fresh and universal

First checkin of new rendering, acceleration (and media) architecture and API!

The new rendering architecture will be the optimal solution with best scalability for any graphics accelerator from most primitive (DMA copy/fill) to most advanced with/without OpenVG support.

There will always be hardware with only limited vector graphics support if at all and for these it is DirectFB's job to provide decent acceleration with breakdown of higher level or unsupported vector graphics operations down to the hardware primitives.

dok

2008-02-11 FusionSound 1.1.1

Released FusionSound 1.1.1.

klan

2008-02-08 This is Disko - makes disco (1.1.0)

Disko is a plugin based framework providing components to create media oriented applications with special user interfaces on embedded platforms. It is closely connected to the DirectFB hardware abstraction library and specialized in touchscreen and remote control navigation. There's a plugin based management component, which enables easy development, customization and extension of embedded applications.

Disko has been ported to the TI Davinci platform together with DirectFB and runs on x86 as well. The goal is to have Disko up and running on every single platform DirectFB is working on.

Disko is maintained by the Morphine.TV team but hosted on directfb.org. A complete API documentation can be found in the Morphine.TV Wiki.

dok

2008-01-18 FusionSound 1.1.0

Finally released FusionSound 1.1.0, bringing you DMA, Digital Surround (5:1) and Network support (Voodoo Sound).

klan

2007-12-15 DirectFB 1.1.1

The second development release of the 1.1.x branch brings affine transformations with a 3x2 matrix and anti-aliased edges. New embedded drivers have been added: TI Davinci with hardware accelerated blending and OSD format conversion and SH7722 which supports the new 3x2 transformation and anti-aliasing. The third one is for TI OMAP, but doesn't do any acceleration or overlay handling. All drivers have been ported to the new surface core. Major improvements also took place in the multi application core support using sockets and other IPC methods (builtin fusion).

dok

2007-11-02 TI Davinci driver

One more driver has been added, which is for TI Davinci, increasing compliance with the CELF AVG Specification 2.0 and creating a lot of new opportunities. It supports the multiple frame buffer device driver architecture by implementing surface pools for the different layers, opening all four devices by itself, not using the frame buffer system module at all. Applications can just use the DirectFB API and don't need to care about the different planes used for RGB and alpha values.
This open source development is kindly supported by Telio AG. Meet us at the ELC-E 2007!

dok

2007-09-21 Renesas SH7722 driver

A new driver for SH7722 has been added to the repository, but it's not just another driver. It's the first public one utilizing a tiny kernel module for interrupt handling, while the hardware does DMA to read the commands.
Check out the README.sh7722 in the driver directory or click on the news title. (added new benchmark results 2007-09-25)

dok

2007-09-18 Some balmy words after all...

Here are some words that Foleo analyst David Beers said about DirectFB: "I've spent some time with the Foleo operating system and it's a very nice piece of work, too. I'd go so far as to say that Palm's lightweight DirectFB windowing system sets a new standard of responsiveness and simplicity for mobile Linux. As far as I can see, it would have made a great smartphone OS." Thank you!

dok

2007-09-05 Greetings from the Hello World department!

"Keep up the good work! And don't shatter the world again..."
(he's at v2.0 now)

dok

2007-08-29 Important fix for DirectFB 1.0's Fusion module

Please use the new linux-fusion 3.2.4 for DirectFB 1.0.1 or below. There was a leak in the Fusion module which happened with "oneway" calls via Fusion as used for panning ioctls in the FBDev System module. Without the fix the system was getting slower over time, because a list got longer and longer...

dok

2007-08-27 DirectFB 1.1.0

This is the first release on the 1.1.x development branch. In addition to all updates on the release branch it has some API extensions, internal API changes and most important: the new surface core.
There's a break in the graphics driver API and not all features are working again, but the advantages of the new surface core can already be seen, e.g. the X11 System module creates surfaces using XShmImages with slave processes also mapping the shared memory segment.
The main difference of the new surface core is the abstraction of surface buffer pools implemented by the system modules, e.g. the old surface manager in the DirectFB core has been moved into the FBDev System module's implementation of a surface pool, but there are also some generic pools implemented in the core: local memory, shared memory and preallocated memory. Application surfaces like font glyph caches and general purpose surfaces are no longer put into shared memory, but use standard malloc() now.
With the new surface core it will be possible to implement a "graphics driver" on top of OpenGL or DirectX. There's already an "SDL Graphics" driver using SDL_FillRect(), SDL_Blit() and SDL_Flip(), but it does not work with multiple processes, yet.

dok

2007-08-26 DirectFB 1.0.1

Here's the first update on the 1.0.x stable release branch.

dok

2007-08-21 Morphine.TV

Morphine.TV has gone 1.0.1 just shortly before DirectFB. It's an application by "a team of 5 developers from Berlin" developing a new HTPC solution with a transparent interface.

dok

2007-07-05 Save the roots!

The c-base (translate) is one of the backings of DirectFB which has its roots there since it has been started in July 2000. It is a place of art, pleasure and inspiration. Developers and other people from over the world go there to enjoy a nice atmosphere, relax, dance, or just have conferences like the OLSR project, the Wikipedia people and many others!
After seven years of supporting DirectFB with recreation, this place is about to run out of money (translate).
Please help preserving this unique facility (translate) and donate money, become a member, have an event there or share your ideas on how to keep the spirit alive!

dok