AMD/ATI to make open source drivers

[DarkSpoon]

http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/weblog/?p=302

» To develop of a fully functional 2D and 3D driver that supports all of their newer radeon chipsets. This will be done in full collaboration with the open source community and will have the direct participation of hackers from companies like Red Hat and Novell.
» To release documentation that anyone can use to build and support drivers for their chips.

pure awesomeness!

[Spyder]

That's a step in the right direction

[KMS]

When AMD bought ATI, I thought this might happen. And then Dell said they needed a open-source vid driver from ATI. The Linux market is pretty good-size for AMD, cause they are smaller. AMD could prolly survive on the Linux market alone, if it could capture most of it.

This is pretty huge, if they follow thru.
nvidia won't be far behind.

It's all falling into place, piece-by-piece.

[KMS]

Also this:

"AMD has issued a press release announcing 'significant graphics performance and compatibility enhancements' on Linux. AMD will be delivering new ATI Linux drivers this year that offer ATI Radeon HD 2000 series support, AIGLX support (Beryl and Compiz), and major performance improvements. At Phoronix we have been testing these new drivers internally for the past few weeks and have a number of articles looking at this new driver. The ATI 8.41 Linux driver delivers Linux gaming improvements from the R300/400 series and the R500 series. The inaugural Radeon HD 2900XT series support also can be found in the new ATI Linux driver with 'the best price/performance ratio of any high-end graphics card under Linux.' While this new driver cannot be downloaded yet, in their press release AMD also alludes to accelerating efforts with the open-source community."


Also, here's a simple app that installs/removes nvidia & ATI drivers in Linux:
http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html

[DarkSpoon]

pretty cool. makes me wish i had a new card even more.

[m@nc0w]

It's all falling into place, piece-by-piece.

From DarkSpoons Link:

a new road for AMD and ATI

"Back at the Red Hat Summit, Henri Richard said that AMD (and the former ATI) were going to come up with a plan to better support open source."


Henri Richard (Chief Sales and Marketing Officer) quits AMD
(he left as of sept 8th)


Oddly enough this happens not to long after:


Dave Orton (executive vice president) quits AMD
(he left in july of this year)

Looks to me like its' more of things falling apart . . .

[KMS]

AMD may be going thru some changes. But I wasn't talking about AMD's bottom line, I was talking about how things are falling into place for Linux.

And the one guy leaving AMD is a former ATI officer. Less of ATI leadership, prolly the better for Linux, since they always had a poor relationship with Linux.

[m@nc0w]

AMD may be going thru some changes. But I wasn't talking about AMD's bottom line, I was talking about how things are falling into place for Linux.

Yeah I know, but if things dont' go good for AMD they dont' go good for Linux

[KMS]

hmmm, it's not like it's an exclusive deal or anything.

"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."

My next vid card may be an ATI. I almost feel a little naughty even saying that. lol

[DarkSpoon]

lol cbf kaiser's dirty fantasy including an ATI card and Linux.