ATI reps - Let's have an update on the HD5850 open sources status

[bridgman]

Everything except Video Decode / UVD should be covered by the initial code drop, along with some free bugs

[agd5f]

EXA and Xv on evergreen are already working (minus some occasional hangs I haven't solved yet). It's just waiting for IP review.

[linux5850]

I hope you guys are NOT using textrels. There are some in the closed source driver (using scanelf -lqtmyR to search for them).

[agd5f]

It's the same code as r6xx/r7xx just tweaked for the hw changes on evergreen.

[pingufunkybeat]

Regarding OpenGL 4, you should note that support for OpenGL3+ has to implemented in Mesa/Gallium3d first, before any HW driver can make use of it. At the moment, the infrastructure for OpenGL 3 and higher simply doesn't exist for any open source driver.

This is being worked on, though. When Mesa supports OpenGL 3 extensions, driver programmers can add the HW support for them.

[linux5850]

It's the same code as r6xx/r7xx just tweaked for the hw changes on evergreen.

It would also be great if you don't use executable stacks. They're a big security risk.

[bridgman]

And more importantly will we, the open source community...

I hope you guys are NOT using textrels. There are some in the closed source driver (using scanelf -lqtmyR to search for them).

It would also be great if you don't use executable stacks. They're a big security risk.

It's the same code as r6xx/r7xx just tweaked for the hw changes on evergreen.

As part of the open source community you are welcome to inspect the 6xx/7xx code and propose changes.

[trapxvi]

We had an internal discussion a few days ago and decided that we would try to support compute in open source drivers, resources permitting.

Wasn't the whole point of AMD funding open drivers for their platform to enable seamless support for the data-parallel engines in their upcoming APUs? I'd think supporting compute would be as big a priority as getting triangles on the screen.

If that wasn't the strategy, then why was AMD so intent on meeting the new APU platform with the FOSS drivers?

[Melcar]

Could be that they are just nice people.

[trapxvi]

Could be that they are just nice people.

I'm sure they are, but no amount of niceness gets you a budget at a corporation unless the bottom line is black.