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AMD Releases 900+ Pages Of GPU Specs

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the out-in-the-open dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Ending off the X Developer Summit this year, Matthew Tippett handed off ATI's GPU specifications to David Airlie on a CD. However, the specifications are also now available on the X.org site. Right now there is the RV630 Register Reference Guide and M56 Register Reference Guide. Expect more documentation (and 3D specifications) to arrive shortly. The new open-source R500/600 driver will be released early next week."

4 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet! by timeOday · · Score: 5, Informative

    Closed-source drivers can be OK, except they tend to discontinue support after a while. Eventually the binary driver won't load into a current kernel and you are high and dry. With open-source drivers, the prospects for long-term support are better.

  2. Re:Hopefully a meaningful contribution by ThisNukes4u · · Score: 5, Informative

    The specs are for the brand-spanking-new RV630 series, the mid to low range chip in the r600 line. And the specs are only for 2d modesetting at the moment, so they likely apply to the whole r600 series. When the 3d specs are released they'll likely be a separate spec sheet for each specific chip. So to answer your question, they are for the newest cards ATi currently makes not their old, outmoded ones.

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    thisnukes4u.net
  3. Re:Wow! by jmitchel!jmitchel.co · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, (IIRC) the driver has been sitting in somebody's desk drawer for months, waiting for AMDTI to bless it. The developer got the specs under NDA or something quite a while ago.

  4. Re:Great by putzin · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yeah, but the article clearly states 3D specs sometime soon (next week was it?). So why complain?

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    Bah