AMD releases open-source GIM driver aimed at GPU virtualization, support for mainstream Radeon GPUs coming later

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Tiny Corp's prodding has paid off.

AMD
(Image credit: AMD)

In continued efforts to open-source its software stack, AMD has made its GIM driver open-source for developers, according to Phoronix. The driver is used for virtualization with AMD's Instinct accelerators, but could be coming to Radeon desktop GPUs in the future, according to an AMD roadmap.

The AMD GPU-IOV (GIM) driver enables the various functions needed to ensure full virtualization support for the host GPU.

Currently, the GIM driver is compatible exclusively with the Instinct MI300X running on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and using ROCm 6.4.

There is no information on when compatibility will expand or when AMD's open-source GIM driver will make its way into the mainline Linux kernel. The only detail given on the GIM driver's future is the upcoming support for Radeon desktop GPUs.

Regardless, it's a start. AMD is pushing forward with its open-sourcing plans for its software stack, something it has only seriously started doing this month. This push was initially started back in February when performance computing provider Hot Aisle lit a fire under AMD to start focusing on developers and making its hardware more accessible to AI devs.

This led to AMD finally broadening its AMD developer credit program, and giving devs a chance to try AMD's MI300X and Dell hardware for free.

Later, AMD started focusing on making its software open-source after AI hardware company Tiny Corp started pushing AMD to do so. Tiny Corp was having trouble adapting AMD's datacenter GPUs to its "TinyBox" servers, noting the GPUs were not behaving as they should. Having open-source software, firmware, and drivers would have enabled the server manufacturer to rectify these issues and customize AMD's datacenter GPUs to suit their needs.

The GIM driver is one of AMD's first drivers to be made open-source. The company has also confirmed it is making its Micro Engine Scheduler (MES) open-source, but documentation and source code for that won't be released until late May.

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Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

1 Comment Comment from the forums
  • TJ Hooker
    If this pans out for consumer cards, it could be pretty handy for any Linux users with AMD GPUs who have GPU-intensive apps (like games) that don't work well under Linux. AFAIK the functionality being discussed here would let you get the near-native performance of doing full GPU-passthrough into a Windows VM, without the usual drawback of having to give the VM exclusive access to the GPU (meaning you have no display from the host unless you have a 2nd GPU).
    Reply