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ATI Announces Open 2D/3D Linux Support

Posted by Hemos on from the onward-linux-soliders dept.

RareEYE was the first to point out the press release from ATI announcing their official support for Linux and endorsement of Open Source. As part of their support, they will be "...releasing 2D, 3D and multimedia programming specifications for its industry-leading RAGE graphics technology." ATI also mentions their current/past work with the XFree86 group, which they will be ramping up to an even higher level now.

3 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. The story so far... by SurfsUp · · Score: 3
    Let me see, I'm not the best person to write this, but I'll try to write a summary of the situation so far:

    3DFX: not open, suffering because of it

    Matrox: partly open, enjoyed a big boost in popularity

    S3: completely open, enjoying a resurgence in spite of underperformance on early chip sets

    RIVA: mostly open, sitting pretty

    Rendition: completely closed, no longer in existence (although their design lives on)

    ATI: opening up today, seeing the light

    Anyone have corrections/more to add for this list? It sure does seem at this point that there's a connection between openness and success for hardware makers.

    --
    Life's a bitch but somebody's gotta do it.
  2. Releasing specs? by ajs · · Score: 3

    I suppose this is a good thing, but I have to compare to people like S3. When I couldn't get my S3 Virge GX2-based card to work, I went to S3's site, filled out a form and 2 days later got a 3-inch-thick specification book in the mail. They didn't even ask if I was working on an Open Source project.

    Good to see another company smartening up, though. Eventually I look forward to the day they all write their own XFree86-4 module....

  3. Re:Vendors need to write their own Linux drivers by Caballero · · Score: 3
    You are on the right track, but I think you're you've missed the point a bit.

    Just handing out the specs and saying "Write something." isn't good support. You are correct there, but they don't have to do the drivers themselves. They just have to put the money behind the project to get them written well. In this case ATI is paying PI to do open source drivers. By paying us they assure the driver gets attention, quality control, and that bugs are handled. They also get to set certain standards for the product.

    There's nothing wrong with a board company paying someone else to write the driver. You are also right, that having the driver in the box in a big benefit. I don't know if ATI will do that, but if we right a good driver I don't see why they wouldn't!

    Of course, our company is working to write these drivers so we want vendors to out source their development. We have a concentration of expertise that allows us to do the work faster and better. We get to take our open source code base and write new drivers more quickly by reusing what we already have.

    - |Daryll