Nova GPU Workshop: GPU Firmware: status and 2026 plans
summary
Nova targets Turing and later GPUs and locked on to 570.144 for a stable GSP firmware ABI, with a planned migration in 2026 to roughly move to ~600 in 2026 and drop the old firmware; tests already block commits when struct-layout changes break R570. The driver splits into a low-level Nova core that talks to GSP and an upper layer for DRM/compute, and work on a simplified bootloader reduces on-disk blobs so distros can avoid shipping older firmware; early UEFI framebuffer-only booting proves insufficient.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (7)
- 0:00Introduction and setup
- 1:46Current firmware version and stability
- 3:54Stable GSP API plans for 2026
- 7:26Supporting multiple firmware versions
- 9:52Simplified boot and firmware size
- 12:39Nova driver architecture and API isolation
- 13:40Early boot firmware limitations
related talks
33mnouveau in the times of nvidia firmware and open source kernel module
39mnouveau and kernel GPU VMA management
47mEverything Awesome about GPU Drivers
39mOverview of a Modern DRM Driver
32mReasonably Secure GPU Acceleration
16mKeynote: NVIDIA’s secure RISC-V processor
39mOverview of a Modern DRM Driver
25mAttesting NVIDIA GPUs in a confidential computing environment
