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AMD Releases Open-Source R600/700 3D Code
Michael writes "AMD has just released code that will allow for open-source 3D acceleration on their ATI R600 and R700 graphics cards, including all of their newest Radeon HD 4xxx products. This code consists of a demo program that feeds the commands to the hardware, updates to their RadeonHD driver, and a Direct Rendering Manager update. With this code comes working 2D EXA acceleration support for these newer ATI graphics processors as well as basic X-Video support. AMD will be releasing sanitized documentation for these new ATI GPUs in the coming weeks. Phoronix has an article detailing what's all encompassed by today's code drop as well as the activities that led to this open-source code coming about for release."
At last, the deghettoization of Linux computers with ATI chips!
If you aren't angry, you aren't paying attention.
Don't forget to pay your $699 licensing fee, you cock-smoking teabaggers!
Or you know, it could be doing what they've been planning to do for several months now.
Or just good economical sense.
"Hey Bob, these kids on the Internet want to write Linux drivers for our cards."
"Oh really? Have we had any customer requests for Linux drivers lately?"
"Yeah, a couple."
"Send 'em that dev code we did last week, see what they come up with."
"Ok."
Shocking!
How we know is more important than what we know.
I had almost forgotten to pay my $699 licensing fee. Makes me feel like such a cock-smoking teabagger!
This seems to confirm what people have been predicting all along, that OSS philosophy is driving competition between vendors to cater to their customers' needs. Nvidia, Intel, and now ATI all providing increasing levels of documentation and code support in competitive volleys. I for one welcome our new 3d accelerated overlords.
-*The above statement is printed entirely on recycled electrons*-
AMD doing nice shit just makes it all the more heartbreaking when Intel releases better chips. I hope they get their shit together soon, I feel dirty with a Core 2 Duo.
Or it could be a new direction spurred on by new bosses (read: AMD).
The scenario you describe has one issue: last week's dev code is copyrighted by the company, not the developers. They probably needed to have some long conversations with the lawyers and accountants to get this done.
accountants? I don't think they do what you think they do.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Every single 3D accelerator I have ever owned has been an NVidia, up until now. Not because I am an NVidia fan-boy, but because that's what I started with (TNT!) and (since I switched over to Linux) because NVidia has always been the best choice for Linux support. I have never considered ATI since their Linux drivers have been craptastic. But in between what I've heard of ATI drivers having improved lately, and now with these drivers being open source, I will definitely be giving ATI a look when I build my next PC in a few months. Thanks ATI!
I chose ATI over Nvidia in my most recent graphics card purchase because of ATI's policy.
Thanks ATI; it's the right thing, and it will help your revenue.
I am looking forward to see what this means for Linux, OpenCL and other GP-GPU goodies. With OpenCL working along side OpenGL, a tightly integrated kernel ATI driver that handles the GP-GPU/OpenCL stuff we will really see some interesting stuff come our way. To my understanding OpenCL allows someone who is writing an algorithm to implement it in OpenCL and let OpenCL take care of diving up the work load between GPU's and CPU cores. Damn I am really excited to see the OSS community tie all this stuff together and release the computing power of the GPU to more general yet compute intense applications.
A system with a quad core CPU and four ATI cards would be a force to be reckoned with! Fast trans-coding/cracking of Blu-ray, rapid key sniffing for air crack, even networked applications could be sped up like IPsec and SSH. We could have fast rendering in blender and ray tracing can be done with high precision as well as speed (maybe even real time!). Gimp plug-ins can be given a boost in speed and video editing a breeze. Even a laptop with a slower dual core could benefit from its on board GPU's number crunching power. Useful for cracking WEP/WPA keys.
And AMD/ATI arent the only ones getting on board the OpenCL bandwagon, Apple developed it, and Intel along with Nvidia are also going to support it. So OpenCL will allow us to run our apps on the hardware of our choice.
What you say is correct. This is why they have been having a series of conversations with lawyers and accountants. This plan has been in the works for some time now.
Now we need some to make mac os x drivers for the 3xxx and 4xxx cards that work with all 3xxx and 4xxx cards and ones with bios roms.
I think they know how to write off such a contribution as charity.
Finally! Congratulations, AMD, I always preferred your CPUs and GPUs due to their sane price/performance ratio and great features, but now I think you won me for life. I hope that more and more vendors will follow AMD's steps and start releasing code and documentation.
There are people that believe the "Gates Foundation" is more of a marketing move than a moral standpoint. When you give that much money under the name of a company founder, you don't need advertisement... Viral marketing kicks in and it's spread by word of mouth. They can spend money on things they want to do and get free advertisement "credit" for the company.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
This is fantastic news, I applaude the ATI management for realizing this is a good thing to do. I stopped buying ATI in about 2000 because of the issues in getting driver support for Linux. Now that ATI is stepping up to the plate, I am adding ATI products that use this driver to my buy list!
Based on what's been on IRC in the past few hours.
Q: Wait, what?
A: Code for radeonhd and the kernel providing acceleration for Radeon HD 2400 and newer. Kernel parts are already pretty much integrated; radeonhd is integrated as well, although stuff still needs to be copied to radeon.
Q: So what does this mean for the user?
A: EXA means faster GUI responsiveness. Xv means fast video. Kernel DRM is the basis for all acceleration unification (OpenGL, etc.)
Q: Speaking of OpenGL...
A: Lawl, no. Not for another few months. Most of the code we're gonna write will target Gallium, so--
Q: Gallium?
A: Gallium is the next generation of GPU acceleration. Once we get drivers ready, it'll be awesome. Linky to TG: http://www.tungstengraphics.com/wiki/index.php/Gallium3D
Q: So this is just docs and some basic code?
A: Nope, no docs. AMD couldn't agree on docs before their vacation time, so I guess we'll see those in a month or so. On the other hand, we've got enough here to do a lot of stuff. It'd be nice if we had more devs, though. :3
Q: So why is there only code for radeonhd? Will radeon support this too? Why two separate drivers?
A: The reason for two separate drivers is a very long and largely silly story. I don't feel like repeating it, and I probably couldn't tell it fairly anyway.
I'll get radeonhd code ported over to radeon once my vacation's over, assuming nobody does it sooner. I can't do the HDMI audio setup without testing hardware, though; does anybody want to donate an HDMI audio-enabled monitor? :3
~ C.
~ C.
Why can't it be both? I'd say the Gates Foundation has been far more successful at promoting Microsoft than some of their more direct efforts.
We all joke about his billions of dollars, but to see them put to use attempting to vaccinate an entire continent, I gotta tell ya that is a pretty damned impressive thing to do.
Don't get me wrong, donations of time and money to Open Source projects are also good and noble things, and they provide infinitely-copyable and long-lasting amounts of good. But if someone asked me "who did more good, the guy who saved x-hundred-thousand kids or the guy who donated an improved scheduler algorithm to the Linux core?" there's only one way a human being could answer that question. There is a different question in there, and that is "who donated more overall effort?" Gates' money made him rich enough that he may not even feel the pinch of spending $37 billion, but the coder likely sweated over his efforts for months, sacrificing evenings and dinners with his S.O., etc. And I suspect its part of the job of the foundation to ensure the first form of the question is asked on camera, and not the second.
John
Desperate people are always the most dangerous.
Why does it have to be either?
AMD has some great cards out right now, especially in the mid and low range markets. They're not desperate by any means.
Why can't this simply be a good business decision? Hasn't the populace of Slashdot been asking for open source graphics card code for a long time?
Actually, i heard about a rider that would have allowed open source development work to be tax deductible. If that went through an accountant might be key to getting management to say yes.
Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite (TM)
It's been about 8 years since I last immersed myself in the world of video cards and of course everything has changed since then. (Except that nVidia and AMD (was: ATI) are still on top.) Since then, whenever I've needed a video card, I've just gone to newegg and bought whichever nVidia card was priced around $50.
But pretend for a moment that I want to congratulate AMD on their open source stance and buy one of their cards. I don't need eye-blistering speed, but I want something that's going to be able to acceptably play a game released a year to six months ago. And obviously it has to work well on Linux. Would be nice if it was under $100 and dual-head, but I'll take any suggestions I can get. Is there such a card? If so, which drivers does it use?
There are people that believe the "Gates Foundation" is more of a marketing move than a moral standpoint. When you give that much money under the name of a company founder, you don't need advertisement... Viral marketing kicks in and it's spread by word of mouth. They can spend money on things they want to do and get free advertisement "credit" for the company.
It's not a marketing move, and it's not a moral standpoint. People are denied access to drugs that are cheap to manufacture because they are encumbered with intellectual property. Nations were prepared to do away with intellectual property law and supply their population with the medicine they needed. That's why Gates is doing this. He doesn't give them money because he wants to help them, he gives them money because he wants to maintain the laws that prevent them from helping themselves, because his fortune depends on the exploitation of people using those laws as a mechanism. If the Gates foundation did not exist, more people would have medicine.
This sort of behavior would be totally illegal if it wasn't disguised as charitable work. That's what the Gates foundation is for, to allow them to circumvent laws, manipulate and subvert government programs and engage in even more anti-social behavior than they are already known for.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Yeah... is there a catch?
No. You can be forgiven for asking the question, given history, but... no.
TFA:
The microcode for the newest GPUs has also been released.
This is the real deal. Actual specifications about how the hardware interfaces actually work in a format that can't be encumbered by copyrights or patents. NVidia and Intel will follow with their own release announcements within weeks, or watch their proprietary crap die. This is "a race to the bottom" where the "bottom" is "fully open". The funny thing is that the "bottom" is a door to a whole new world of opportunity.
To be fair Intel has been fairly open, and Nvidia has been opening up. Windows only video drivers are soon to be a legacy best forgotten. Please hold a moment of silence for the brave chairs that are about to lose their integrity in Redmond.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
I've always liked AMD ever since I started building computers. I'm not really a fan boy I guess I'm just their target consumer. I prefer a low cost processor that I can squeeze every dollar worth out of than an expensive one that is really fast but will be worth one hundred or two hundred less in a year when Intel pushes out their next bleeding fast processors. I've always bought Nvidia though I just have better experience getting them to work in Linux and they seem to run games better in windows at the time as well. Well about 2 months ago I gave my friend my existing Nvidia 8800gts as a birthday gift and got myself a 4850 Raedon card. I'd been meaning to buy an ATI card ever since AMD bought them but I was apprehensive. Bringing it home though I notice a huge difference in games especially my source engine games. The only issues I've had with it was some minor flickering in Linux (thanks to compiz and the drivers) and some issues with older games which were easy to work out. I honestly don't see myself buying Nvidia after this. The fact I have CrossfireX makes the deal even sweeter. This is a slam dunk for AMD.
-the consumer forced it; reality: if i manufacture a netbook containing Ubuntu and everything on it is open source my software distribution and update infractructure/legal costs are: 0. In a time when hardware gets cheaper and cheaper, and support get more expensive in comparison it is a good thing to collaborate on that.
-The hard core gamers define the market. No. It's about netbooks, mobile phones and other devices. Given the exponential rise in computational power/dollar in a few years real time raytracing will take over. Bringing your own hardware interfaces/distribution infrastructure to the component market now give companies a better starting point to deliver a reliable platform. In the best case you promis the HW developer that he never has to touch the software (ok, may submit the pci id to the generic linux driver).
-Linux wins; maybe, but its more general: In the market of set-top boxes, GPS devices, mobile phones, media players etc. Widowns lost. If its linux or something else has to be seen (although the best news for linux in the recent reas was that Windriver is interested in it). Microsoft has no power to punish anybody any more.
When your company has an 80% margin and you donate stuff that costs you nothing, like "the right to use your software" and record the gift at retail price, you net a greater tax benefit than it costs you to make the gift. That's net profit for giving, which is not generous -- it's just good accounting. If, from your profits for giving stuff that costs you nothing, you also give "medicine" that's generous because it's not required. Still, if you net a profit from giving, your giving can't be considered anything more than an accounting trick because some good no matter how unlikely, might have been served by paying the tax - some tax money is spent generously or well and wisely after all.
It's not really philanthropy unless you give more than you got. This is charity. Here's my money. Give it away in the best way you can. That's also trust. They say trust is earned. Let's hope BillG deserved Warren Buffet's trust because the ill that can be done with that much gelt is serious.
Nearly all of the African continent is inflamed with horrors beyond imagining. Terror rules more of the modern world than it has for a very long time. The fate of South America is uncertain. Maybe the best use of the Gates Foundation would be to husband their resources well until such a time as they might have some hope to turn the tide. Now is not it. This groundbreaking of the $500M Gates Foundation Campus is definitely not it. You can do a lot of philanthropy for half a billion dollars.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
A: Lawl, no.
Seriously, Lawl?
... and then they built the supercollider.
That was true --- in the past. If anything, I find that the opposite to be true these days: installing linux on a machine tends to make it just work. Installing windows, on the other hand, is a nightmare... occasionally, I find that my network card is unsupported without drivers, which is a real hassle by the time you get windows or some app to tell you what chip's involved, download drivers on some other machine and transfer them etc. Then you have printers, mice, graphics cards, etc. which are often unsupported by the standard drivers, or have limited features. Instead, they come with something that installs services, tray icons, etc., all with horrible UIs and advertising, together with scary warnings about the driver being unsigned. Granted, HP printers on Linux are just as regarding their use of using a non-standard UI, but most Linux stuff works much more nicely, with much less hassle, and bugs actually get fixed, keeping up with the rest of the OS.
Well, Nvidia could afford not to follow Intel open-source drivers, since they share just a small part of the market, but it is doubtfull if they can ignore ATI open-sourcing their drivers.
The race here is exactly for the future of graphic cards, both Intel and ATI/AMD want to get rid of it, replacing them by some SIMD massively multi-core general processors (forget about those physics engines you heard about recently, it is going to be replaced by your general porpouse GPU). They think that this configuration is what the consumers want, and they may be right, but Nvidia has no route to get there. Now, Nvidia face a harsh future, both because of this change and because they have being losing quality/competitiveness/reputation recently. I really don't know how they can survive, but open-sourcing the drivers look like a good help, even if it canibilizes some product lines.
By the way, I'm delaying buying a video card since AMD brought ATI, because I trusted them to release open source drivers for their line. Before that, I'd buy Nvidia (I did buy a Nvidia card just before that), now I'll go get an ATI.
Rethinking email
We all joke about his billions of dollars, but to see them put to use attempting to vaccinate an entire continent, I gotta tell ya that is a pretty damned impressive thing to do.
Sounds good on the face of it doesn't it? But look a little closer. The entire vaccination program is about intellectual property - countries have to forgo local pharma factories that produce medicine without paying royalties - despite it being perfectly legal to do so since most of those countries do not recognize foreign patents anyway.
But if someone asked me "who did more good, the guy who saved x-hundred-thousand kids or the guy who donated an improved scheduler algorithm to the Linux core?" there's only one way a human being could answer that question.
If you are going to cherry pick the question, then of course the outcome is predetermined. But what about taking into account the source of all that money in the first place? How much of the world's GDP has microsoft skimmed off the top? Money that would have been re-invested into the domestic economies all around the world, resulting in improved economic and living conditions without having to go through all the fat-cat middlemen, each taking their cut of that money before it eventually comes back around in the form of a "charity?"
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
Nvidia has been opening up. Windows oly video drivers are soon to be a legacy best forgotten.
If this is true, then in all seriousity it is a joyous occasion, and hence a time of celebration. Anybody care to post a link confirming this? Since I switched from XP to Ubuntu the proprietary drivers for my Nvidia 8600 GT have been drilling a hole in my sanity, and I fear that soon my hair may turn prematurely grey.
This post was made in complete sincere seriousity; as such any attempts to derive humour are doomed to instant failure.
"AMD will be releasing sanitized documentation for these new ATI GPUs in the coming weeks."
And as we know sanitized documentation generally tends to lead to under-developed code, thus rendering this somewhat useless for some things.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Hate to tear you away from your fanboyism but you can indeed install just the drivers, and instead of using the catalyst control center (the part that requires .NET). You can use the ATI tray tools to do the same.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
Also Nvidia's ahead in stream computing. As well as being easier to work with.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
But.. but... that's the idea behind all of it. Making them dependent. And making us dependent (trough loans).
I read, that if the world bank did not actively keep Africa poor, they would boom, because of all their subterranean resources.
Also I'm pretty sure, that the Internet makes it possible to gain knowledge and use that to make money, even in the poorest, most remote five-hut town, as long as they have cheap Internet access.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Then it wouldn't be a "movie".
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
True or not, they're still giving the Linux community exactly what they've been asking for: documentation to write good drivers for their devices. It's win-win for everyone.
I get the impression that the most vocal group asks for "Linux drivers", even less ask for "open source Linux drivers". Just a few ask for documentation. I'm glad they released the documentation. There are more OS's than Linux and maintaining an undocumented driver will probably be a hell.
This should not be modded troll - it's a very clear description of the Foundation's activities.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
They think that this configuration is what the consumers want, and they may be right, but Nvidia has no route to get there.
Nvidia always has the option to sell out to Intel. They probably will if they feel the market slipping away.
What's the best way to become involved? IRC? Website? Where? What?
Over-the-top Response Guy! Giving "Over-the-Top Responses" since 1970.
...because they've only been in severe financial trouble for less than 90 days...
.there is enough of everything for everyone.
I am a Linux user who also likes to play 3D games, so it's been nvidia only for me for a long time. Now that we will hopefully start seeing some good open source 3D drivers coming out for ATI, I am definitely switching! I just hope nvidia realizes this and follows. So many times after a system software or kernel upgrade, poof, the closed nvidia driver stops working... causing me to have to CTRL-ALT-F1 to a root shell and modify xorg.conf just so I can get into X11 again to be able to fetch the newest driver. What a pain. Having open source 3D drivers for both would be awesome and a complete win for the Linux community.
What if this improved scheduler algorithm indirectly saved x-hundred-thousand kids?
So you're saying there are several hundred thousand poorly scheduled children out there? Interesting.
.there is enough of everything for everyone.
After having built a Nehalem system with HD4870 last week, all I can do is extend my joy and gratitude.
The moral of the story is; It pays to support those who support free software.
Huh? "The entire vaccination program is about intellectual property - countries have to forgo local pharma factories"?
Can you post a link about this?
Until OpenGL support is included in the driver, no enterprise linux graphics application will support ATI cards. I'm talking about the $30,000/seat graphics programs for linux that *only* support nvidia Quadro cards with nvidia drivers, because they conform to the OpenGL standard. OpenGL is still in use in a lot of places, and its not free or open-source.
Ignoring todays news, what's the state of support for the 4850 right now? Does it work flawlessly? I have some 3 year old ATI hardware and some older stuff. None of it quite works right with X. Running games is really hit or miss. Is the 4850 sort of semi-there on the Linux drivers, or is it working almost perfectly?
[...] taking into account the source of all that money in the first place? How much of the world's GDP has microsoft skimmed [...]
Also worth remembering that that legality of exactly how (at least a portion of) the skimming took place has been called into question on more than one continent.
Whatever their motivations happen to be, they are doing exactly what the kernel developers have been asking them to do.
If it saves ATI/AMD money, even better. Maybe other companies will see the light and follow suit.
*sigh* back to work...
Proprietary IP is a very important Asset to VC's and such. The accountants will definitely need to account for "giving it away" (I prefer the term investing in the open source community... natch ;-)
Well. The few who ask for documentation want to write open source drives which will provide drivers to the first group.
You present the last group as a fringe group of fanatics... It is quite understandable that very few people will want documentation on graphic cards, for there are in fact very few people in the world who can understand it. And youseem to imply that because they are few, they are mostly negligible: that's a pretty absurd position.
There have been closed source drivers for a couple years already.
I assume the OpenGL/DRI code doesn't conflict with ACPI power management, i.e. you are still able to suspend/hibernate/resume?
You're not kidding, and it's true in more ways than one. This decision must be seen in light of current economic conditions.
1) Economy is tanking, and probably won't recover fully until 2010. It's the perfect time to put pressure on your competitors, especially pressures that require them to expend more resources.
2) As the economy tanks, more labor talent becomes available that you can't hire due to limited resources. It's a perfect time to utilize open source developers because a) they're available, and b) they're motivated.
3) As a result, when the economy recovers you have a better talent pool to hire from, and a more vibrant open source community.
Some may see item 2 as exploititive, but it's a two way street: AMD is giving up intellectual property and the open source developer gives up time and effort. The result of those two losses is a net gain for everyone.
My mistake.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Make sure you let them know why you chose to purchase their product. If they get lots of feedback saying that the decision to opensource their stuff made a difference, they'll be more likely to make similar decisions in the future.
*sigh* back to work...
Okay I use Linux and I really do like FOSS but are you nuts?
"NVidia and Intel will follow with their own release announcements within weeks, or watch their proprietary crap die."
To be honest 99.99% of the people that use computers don't care if the driver is FOSS or not. The majority of these card are used on Windows boxes so FOSS doesn't matter to them.
Then you have the majority of Linux users that just want drivers to work. All they will care about is if there cards work out of the box. Which will be a good thing but as long as they can click and install a driver that works they will also not care that much.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
They also have the option of selling out to AMD, VIA, or IBM.
AMD probably won't be interested, since they've already bought ATI, but VIA or IBM might be.
VIA would probably drool over the idea to pair with their x86 chip (and independent video card upgrades, if they can keep people buying them), IBM might want it to pair with their chip offerings for the next generation of Console, after all, every console THIS generation has an IBM CPU inside of it, why should every console NEXT generation have an IBM CPU and GPU inside of it?
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
I'm not as crazy as you think. It'll take a while, but yeah that's what's going to happen. It's not because people care about the FLOSS. It's about the secondary effects - code quality, clever applications, creative leverage on having a real view of the underlying architecture. That, and more eyes on the problem.
No, I'm not crazy enough to think the vast majority of people care about this for the inevitable fully functional GPL video drivers that will come of it. Some do, but in the grand scale not enough to shift the market faster than the technologies go obsolete.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
My current card is an ATI 3850, which I bought because of promising open-source 3D but I just upgraded to KDE 4.1 and I got tired of waiting for open source 3D drivers (since the fglrx drivers suck, they crash my system) so I just ordered an nvidia 9600GT card since their closed source drivers were pretty good.
My next card will probably be an ATI again, assuming I can get open source hardware acceleration by then.
Since 1995 I have bought:
1 S3
1 Tseng Labs
3 Matrox
~8 Nvidia
1 ATI
That's nice. But what I need is something like CUDA (form NVIDIA).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUDA
Main difference between the BSD license and the GPL license: one is from California and the other is from Massachusetts
Somehow, I don't see the connection. For example nVidia supports OpenGL, there's no reason to believe they won't support OpenCL. In fact, "Nvidia announced on December 9, 2008 to add full support for the OpenCL 1.0 specification to its GPU Computing Toolkit."
The big question mark on the horizon for nVidia is the future of the discrete graphics processor, open or closed source have next to no impact there. I'm not even sure it's a technical question but rather a political one as AMD and Intel each want to push their own graphics solutions.
Right now, I'm most excited by AMD but closest to buying a nVidia card to use in a HTPC. Don't forget that AMD has not released all documentation even if they released the 3D specs and it's still unclear when or even if it'll ever reach feature parity with the blobs. Among the big missing pieces are video acceleration and HDMI (particularly audio) support.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Contraception doesn't work. The people we are talking about are primarily subsistence farmers. Another child to help tend the fields means a better chance of surviving the off-season. Birth 12 so you still have 2 to support you in your old age after childhood diseases, war, and accidents kill off the rest. Contraception is antagonistic to their lifestyle. Changing the realities they face takes a lot more than some extra food and the availability of medicine, but it is a start. A better start would be cheap sustainable water purification, access to seed developed to thrive in their climates, and fertilizer. Continue that with a means of making an income (something to export, cottage industry style) and a lot of things become possible without external intervention.
The issues driving the Gates foundation and others to contribute to the third world are complex and far from altruistic. There is a similar if somewhat less sinister complexity behind the release of previously proprietary code and/or specs. There are dozens of reasons why AMD would be making their developments available to the public. The fact that they have means they have decided that it will offer their competitors no advantage in the Windows world at the very least. Certainly there are other negatives that had to be overcome or offset by the positives stemming from an open-sourcing of their spec. I'm in no position to elucidate on the subject, so I'm going back into my hole now.
-1 raving lunatic; +6 subGenius... Things even out...
Well, one can say that AMD is still paying debt to F/LOSS for spurring adoption of AMD64, especially in server space where before AMD wasn't present at all and now a major player.
Or probably they learned how to use F/LOSS community to their own advantage. After all for AMD it is another way to outsource driver development.
Frankly, given current proportion of nVidia vs. ATI install base, seeing that traffic in ATI related Linux forums outpaces similar nVidia forums by magnitude of 10 (and no, the messages are not all complains) I see that AMD/ATI gained quite publicity. If one build Linux box now, temptation to include ATI card - even for nVidia fan - is very real. Two years ago there were no question at all: nVidia was Linux standard.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
IBM? I doubt that. And VIA does not have the "dough".
Intel is the best realistic option, but will they want to diversify so much?
I could see VIA and nVidia getting very closer together in the very near future.
It's not like nVidia and Intel are nothing but sour grapes either. nVidia wants the GeForce chipset with the Atom; hardly Intel being the bitch it could be (and it's very strange considering they didn't want to "canabalise celeron sales").
nVidia definately has a future for a fair lenght of time. If ever AMD and Intel move to turn the GPU into a CPU component like the math co-processor, at worst nVidia will be working on PMPs, cellphones, consoles, etc, where it's all ARM+GeForce. At best they'll be doing that and have nicely done miniITX deals with VIA (Nano+GeForce anyone? what about in the HP2133?) and the console makers.
And that's more than enough to keep them alive.
Ahh... take a look at some of the political situations in Africa and I think you may come to the conclusion that it is not all the world bank's fault.
Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...
While they revel in open-sourcing drivers for Linux, they still take away on the other hand any form of support for their Imageon processors.
Imageon GPUs are implemented in many phone and pda based embedded devices, and supposedly offer hardware 3D acceleration for such devices.
However, AMD/ATI has completely refused to give out any non-NDA documentation to let 3rd-party developers write apps against their ATI Handheld Interface (AHI), or to support the specific ATI extensions in the available OpenGL ES drivers.
3rd-party developers can't even create alternative 3D drivers to get past Qualcomm's current inept implementation
AMD/ATI is not as nice as you think they are.
To be honest 99.99% of the people that use computers don't care if the driver is FOSS or not. The majority of these card are used on Windows boxes so FOSS doesn't matter to them.
Still, you can't get "the Year of the Linux Desktop" when your PC is headless.
:: There is no light at the end of a tunnel. There is a tunnel after a tunnel : Thom Y.
I'll give the guy some recognition for spending his own money to do good. It's not like I have a billion dollars to spend eradicating malaria. Good on him.
But when his company uses sham "donations" of software licenses to reduce their tax liability, I have a problem with that. That means I have to pay some of their share. And when they do it to try to get a lock on the software market in the third world I have a problem with that too because now they're taking my money and spending it to harm people. That's the opposite of philanthropy.
If they care so much about Vista Licensee counts, sure, ship 8 million Vista licenses to people in Zimbabwe who have neither computers nor electricity but put each license in a box with a case of MREs and a few water purification tablets (or at least an edible box) so they actually get something useful out of it, ok? Is that so much to ask?
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Maybe more people would understand it, if it were available. I know I didn't understand the virge manual when I first received it, but after extensive study it made more sense. Now it all seems pretty obvious when I pick it up. Frankly, I find the hardware register documentation to often be the most concise method of understanding a piece of hardware....
I agree. I'm buying four ATI in the next few months personally, and I'll be influencing technology purchasers for many thousands of units a year. NVidia can come open or go home now for all of me. I don't even care that the vast majority of those PCs will run Windows. I can't in good conscience help people choose a lock-in. I can't do it.
I've been favoring nv for their early proprietary Linux driver support for a long time. I really thought they would have been first with this.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
How much of the world's GDP has microsoft skimmed off the top? Money that would have been re-invested into the domestic economies all around the world, resulting in improved economic and living conditions without having to go through all the fat-cat middlemen, each taking their cut of that money before it eventually comes back around in the form of a "charity?"
The actual cash that gates has comes from people who want to buy his shares - they are quite happy to buy them. The increase in the share price is caused by the ability Microsoft has got to make $25 billion a year (0.03% of world GDP) selling windows and office - open source alternatives exist for both of these, so what I'm wondering is, if people need this investment for valuable investment, why don't they choose a free alternative?
The fat cat middlemen that you speak of are the people that buy microsoft products - and most of them give far less to charity than Gates does - so why do you prefer that they keep the money (and what right do you have to comment on how they spend it anyway?)
Interesting stats - Gates Foundation's spending accounts for 2.6% of global development aid ($2.6bn / $100bn) , compared to Microsoft total revenues which are 0.06% of global GDP ($60bn / $100trn). Don't you think it seems like you get a lot of charity bang for your windows buck?
Doubtful. VIA is already in cahoots with S3, who fit heir target market much better.
I know tobacco is bad for you, so I smoke weed with crack.
As I said: I wrote the post to catch other who think like I do, in order to gain up-to-date infos on the subject.
I succeeded thanks to KovaaK.
The only one who has the shame on him, is you, for attacking me for it. ;)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Not everything on slashdot is tagged "story" dickwad. There is idle and people's journals, hence why stories are tagged story to separate them from other people's crap.
All they will care about is if their cards work out of the box. Which will be a good thing but as long as they can click and install a driver that works they will also not care that much.
The people who recommend stuff will care. They'll care whether or not their recommendation leads their client to lock-in, especially in the current environment where lock-in always leads to an unpleasant trap. Some of them care because they're doing the right thing, and some of them care because it's embarrassing to get caught with your pants down. Some of them care because leading your clients into a trap is not a goot path to retirement. Whatever. If you're an MCSE now is a good time to get your linux certs, your Security +, your Citrix certs so you can choose with understanding.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Is there some kind of website where I can use paypal?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"