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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."

8 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. I remember a time... by mangu · · Score: 4, Interesting
    ...when chip manufacturers gave away the full specifications. I even received by snail-mail thick books, 500 pages or so, with the specs from companies like Texas instruments and Motorola. Some manufacturers even sent free samples of the chips themselves.


    Where have they gone wrong?

    1. Re:I remember a time... by sqrt(2) · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't have mod points but I'll agree with you here. With one caveat. The "free market" (can't exist btw, it's just a idealized concept) IS working how it's supposed to. There isn't really a demand for an open platform GPU and thus the market doesn't provide one. If there were enough people wanting one that a company could make money selling them then you could buy it. Capitalism does tend to screw the little guys who have niche or obscure needs, unless you can pay to get things custom designed and produced.

      But it looks like AMD is finally going to start servicing that section of the market, I'm still skeptical but we'll see how things turn out.

      --
      If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
    2. Re:I remember a time... by Marcion · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think the problem is not too much capitalism, it is too little. Adam Smith's free markets have been replaced by an international neo-conservative monarchy and nobility.

      Among certain industries, free markets have been replaced by cartels. These cartels then send out waves of lobbyists and campaign contributions to get governments to further weight the system against the consumer.

      If you look at how the airplane developed, the market was hampered by cartels, patents and so on. However, in the two world wars, the war effort was considered more important than entrenched interests within the early aviation industry. All these cartels and patents were swept aside in favour of truly free markers, and they could finally build decent planes, and build them in quantity.

      Society is slowly but surely going to realise that computers are more important for the development of the economy and society as a whole than for the narrow interests of the technology industry, and then radically free markets will be introduced once again.

      Look at the Microsoft vs EU decision and the OLPC project, both of these in their different ways are interesting early signs.

      --
      My little Linux and tech blog
    3. Re:I remember a time... by MMC+Monster · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Capitalism is working, only slowly. Open APIs and open source drivers weren't a selling point, so they weren't available. Now with the slowly rising popularity of Linux, and the realization that Linux users are generally more influential in the purchase of hardware than the average buyer, the APIs and drivers will open up.

      It's important that we, as a community, reward the good guys (with more purchases) and to let the sales people know why we choose them over their competitors.

      That being said, I'm a little ambivalent about the whole AMD/ATI video mess. They've been talking this up for the last year, but have the 3d specs for the hardware been released? Is there a stable opensource driver for Linux even close to the performance of the WinXP/Vista drivers (I don't know).

      --
      Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
    4. 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.

  2. 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.
  3. Correction: Don't buy Vista. by n+dot+l · · Score: 5, Interesting

    DRM "functionality" in hardware? No thanks. You know, I remember an NVIDIA engineer complaining to me about how they'd had to do a bunch of really fucked up stuff to get the G80 GPUs to support HD playback on Vista. I'm pretty sure Intel's latest stuff has to deal with the same bullshit too. So really, the title of your post should read "Don't buy post-Vista GPUs". That kinda puts a damper on the whole 3D graphics thing, doesn't it?

    Better advice would be, "Don't run your new GPU on an OS that forces it to enable the stupid DRM logic that the engineers really didn't want to build into it in the first place." Yeah, that's much better.
  4. The End Times are Near by sykopomp · · Score: 5, Funny

    ..it's the only conclusion I can reach. ATi drivers are going to be Linux-friendly, the courts and colleges are actively pushing back against the RIAA and MPAA, both of which are starting to change their business model, and Duke Nukem Forever is actually going to be done at some point.

    Hold me, I'm scared.