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Future AMD GPUs To Be More 'Open-Source Friendly'

Posted by Zonk on from the finally-get-some-good-games-going dept.

skaroo writes "Phoronix is reporting that future AMD GPUs will be more open-source friendly. After AMD started releasing their GPG specifications to the open-source community, questions arose whether there would be information covering the Unified Video Decoder (UVD) found on the Radeon HD 2000 graphics cards. The UVD information is needed in order for hardware-accelerated video playback, but it likely cannot be opened due to DRM. However, an AMD representative said that moving to a modular UVD design is a requirement for future GPUs and that they will be more open-source friendly. They will also be opening the video acceleration information for their earlier graphics cards."

2 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. The Artiicle is abot GPU's not CPU's by RotateLeftByte · · Score: 4, Informative


    And as far as raw performance goes, Intel GPU's are a bit 2nd division. Granted that they have opened up their specs. However this has tipped the hand of ATI(AMD) and Nvidia to do the same with theirs.
    After all, how many top notch graphics cards are there on the market that use Intel GPU's?

    Here, AMD seem to be saying that we are looking at ways to change parts of the GPU so that bits that we can't get permission to release(patents DRM etc etc) are no longer used. To me, that is good news. That statement has nowt to do with Intel or Nvidia.
    This is an ongoing process and will not happen overnight. Remember that Sun took a long time to open up the Solaris source code due to licensing issues. IMHO, this is just the same process.

    --
    I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
  2. Re:I remember a time... by AncientPC · · Score: 4, Informative

    From the Read More section: AMD Release 900+ pages of GPU Specs.

    There is a fairly stable closed source ATI driver from the AMD website that supports AIGLX (required for Compiz).

    As for ATI open source drivers refer to this list. Copy and pasted for convenience:

    Unsupported
    X1300 / R515 based cards.
    X1600 / R530 based cards.
    X1800 / R520 based cards.
    X1900 / R580 based cards.

    2D acceleration only
    Xpress 200M Northbridge integrated GPUs

    Good 3D acceleration support
    9500 / R300 based cards.
    9600 / rv350 or rv360 based cards.
    9700 / R300 based cards.
    9800 / R350 or R360 based cards.
    X300 / rv370 based cards.
    X600 / rv380 based cards.
    X700 / rv410 based cards.
    X800 / R420 or R423 or R430 or R480 based cards.
    X850 / R480 or R481 based cards.
    X1050 / rv370 based cards.

    Full 3D acceleration support
    7000 / rv100 based cards.
    7200 / R100 based cards.
    7500 / rv200 based cards.
    8X00 / R200 based cards.
    9000 / rv250 based cards.
    9100 / R200 based cards.
    9200 / rv280 based cards.