Originally posted by emparq
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The Truth About AMD's Development Cycle
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Michael Larabel
https://www.michaellarabel.com/
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Originally posted by Michael View PostActually it was AMD that came to me initially. The delay has been in part due to the engineering manager that initially contacted me, having to go through all sorts of hurdles to get this information released -- since he isn't in their public relations department, he had to go through and get this information cleared with management, legal, VPs, etc...
That underscores my point though, that there's certainly room for improvement in whatever process is controlling their public relations- at least as it concerns their *nix-related development.
What I don't understand though, is why the secrets in the first place? Even if they don't have anything to show us just yet, why not let their developers or marketing people blog or interview about their near-term driver development goals or roadmap?
As you pointed out on Chris Blizzard's blog here, AMD/ATI Marketing guy Henri Richard said that they "committed to fixing the ATI problems with open source." That certainly sounds great, but what does that mean exactly? Better binary (fglrx) drivers? Opening up hardware documentation so that open-source developers can actually write truly open drivers?
This is exactly what I'm talking about. Why keep this type of information secret? Why not just tell us, what they're planning on doing, what they've done so far to get there, and when/how often we can expect to hear news or updates on the development process? That right there would already be a giant first step towards rebuilding their good-faith with the *nix community, even if they aren't delivering on their promises just yet.
But at any rate, I suppose that these slides are essentially just that- AMD/ATI trying to be more open about what they're doing and their near-term goals. I really hope so.
But I guess we'll (finally) find out soon.
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Originally posted by emparq View PostCool, I'm psyched to hear that (that AMD/ATI proactively approached you.. not so much the part about the engineering management having to go through so many hurdles).
That underscores my point though, that there's certainly room for improvement in whatever process is controlling their public relations- at least as it concerns their *nix-related development.
What I don't understand though, is why the secrets in the first place? Even if they don't have anything to show us just yet, why not let their developers or marketing people blog or interview about their near-term driver development goals or roadmap?
As you pointed out on Chris Blizzard's blog here, AMD/ATI Marketing guy Henri Richard said that they "committed to fixing the ATI problems with open source." That certainly sounds great, but what does that mean exactly? Better binary (fglrx) drivers? Opening up hardware documentation so that open-source developers can actually write truly open drivers?
This is exactly what I'm talking about. Why keep this type of information secret? Why not just tell us, what they're planning on doing, what they've done so far to get there, and when/how often we can expect to hear news or updates on the development process? That right there would already be a giant first step towards rebuilding their good-faith with the *nix community, even if they aren't delivering on their promises just yet.
But at any rate, I suppose that these slides are essentially just that- AMD/ATI trying to be more open about what they're doing and their near-term goals. I really hope so.
But I guess we'll (finally) find out soon.
And as for secrets for other things like new products, as Advanced Micro Devices is a publicly traded company they have regulations that they must conform with such as with press releases, etc.
As far as your other questions, they will hopefully be addressed in this upcoming article.Michael Larabel
https://www.michaellarabel.com/
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Originally posted by emparq View PostThat is good news. However, I think this also demonstrates a truth about AMD/ATI's management and their decision-making policies.
How long ago did you first contact AMD/ATI, Michael? I imagine that this was sometime back in February? And now, only in the middle of May (5/18), do they finally get the final sign-off?
I really hope that this delay period was just an extreme case of nondecision/bureaucracy within AMD/ATI's management structure.
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Originally posted by Michael View PostAMD needs to remain competitive and one of the ways they do that is by not showing all of their cards at once. By saying such a thing as they will be delivering a new OpenGL driver in August followed by providing the source code to their 2D components, that would give NVIDIA several months time to respond with a new driver feature or what have you (NOTE: the statements used in this sentence are for example purposes only).
And as for secrets for other things like new products, as Advanced Micro Devices is a publicly traded company they have regulations that they must conform with such as with press releases, etc.
As far as your other questions, they will hopefully be addressed in this upcoming article.
At any rate, I understand what you're saying, but I still disagree that they cannot/should not share more information with the public about their *nix-driver efforts.
If anything, their public image in the free/open-source community would improve, and people would badmouth ATI products less. This might lead to healthier future sales as their brand-value improves with a growing market for linux PC's (as demonstrated by Dell's recent announcement to start selling Ubuntu-based PC's).
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Originally posted by emparq View PostAt any rate, I understand what you're saying, but I still disagree that they cannot/should not share more information with the public about their *nix-driver efforts.
If anything, their public image in the free/open-source community would improve, and people would badmouth ATI products less. This might lead to healthier future sales as their brand-value improves with a growing market for linux PC's (as demonstrated by Dell's recent announcement to start selling Ubuntu-based PC's).
My next card will no doubt be an AMD/ATI card... in fact I may replace my current card once the drivers are released. I'll still have to take performance into account, so I'm looking forward to future benchmarks.
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Originally posted by joshuapurcell View PostI also think that this company has proved they are much more interested in the open source community than their competition due to their promise to provide open source drivers.
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Originally posted by Huenengrab View PostWell, I'm the first to get stuck in the roof for jumping around like an idiot, once these drivers have been released, but somehow, I kind of doubt that they'll open source their drivers. "Open graphics drivers" (e.g. what got announced at the RH-conference) could mean anything.
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The Truth About ATI/AMD & Linux is now finalized and is waiting a final review by AMD just to make sure I didn't expose their deeply inner secrets. Expect it to FINALLY go live this coming Friday!Michael Larabel
https://www.michaellarabel.com/
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