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NVIDIA Cg Compiler Technology to be Open Source

Posted by timothy on from the whose-idea-of-nonrestrictive dept.

Jim Norton writes "This announcement from nVidia states that their Cg compiler technology for 3D applications will be Open Source and available under a free, unrestrictive license. The ETA for this is in August and will be available here." The linked company release says it will be under "a nonrestrictive, free license," but does not give further details. BSD?

1 of 234 comments (clear)

  1. Does this really address the matter of concern? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm in a field totally different from graphics programming and hardware, but:

    In my reading of earlier coverage of Cg, my understanding that most people weren't concerned about Cg or its compiler being open source, but rather that Cg would depend to some extent on hardware specs that are proprietary. This would have the effect of driving other hardware competitors out of business because they can't implement Cg components because of hardware patents. Sort of similar to fears associated with MS open sourcing part of C# while keeping a good deal of it dependent on proprietary stuff. The fear is that Cg would lead to people saying things like "well, your video card is so crappy it doesn't even support a standard graphics programming language" (all the while being unaware that the card can't because of hardware patents). Just because the language and compiler is open-source doesn't mean the hardware it will run on is.

    Anyone more knowledgable care to comment? Am I misunderstanding this?