AMD Releases Open-Source R600/700 3D Code

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD Releases Open-Source R600/700 3D Code

Since earlier this year we have been waiting for AMD to release documentation and/or code on the ATI R600 series concerning 3D acceleration so that the open-source Linux drivers can begin to support the newer ATI graphics processors. It has taken longer than expected for AMD to complete and release this information, but it's now available. AMD has released the fundamental Linux code needed to begin fostering the development of an open-source R600 3D driver. Furthermore, this code also concerns the latest R700 series of graphics processors! The microcode for the newest GPUs has also been released.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=13322

[pharm]

There's this small icon under each post:

Ah, it only appears if I'm logged in: obviously when I returned to the thread I didn't check to see if had reloaded & logged me in...

Ta.

[droste]

Spam spammity spam.

Is there a way to report spammers on the phoronix forums?

There's this small icon under each post:

[pharm]

Spam spammity spam.

Is there a way to report spammers on the phoronix forums?

[highlandsun]

How sad, neither of those companies has a good open source track record. (On a somewhat related note, I saw a friend playing Quake3 on his Android G1 phone. I see that Motorola will be releasing an Android phone soon; I'll be amazed if they ever release one on CDMA. Qualcomm seems to have all of that BREW environment locked up tight.)

[bridgman]

Yep, in addition to the main PC graphics division (Radeon etc..) we had two other consumer divisions. One made graphics devices for cell phones and PDAs, while the other made specialized display products for the digital TV and set top box markets.

The first of those consumer divisions was sold to Qualcomm, and the second was sold to Broadcom.

[smitty3268]

sorry, where can I find more details about that ? do you mean the AMD division which is working under videocards ?

Imageon is the cellphone division from ATI. It's actually a whole system-on-a-chip, but it sounds like AMD is just selling the graphics/multimedia IP and not some of the other stuff.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10145732-64.html

[Goga777]

as I mentioned before AMD have announced plans to sell the Imageon division.

sorry, where can I find more details about that ? do you mean the AMD division which is working under videocards ?

[RobbieAB]

and again, if you want to talk about "energy consumption" and being green, as usual the main stream press get it all wrong OC, people dont care about saving the planet as much as, people DO care about saving real cash on their electronic energy costs.

Power consumption concerns are less about being green and saving money long term, and more about thermal out put (high power consumption usually runs hot) and battery life.

You talk about the bigger picture, but you don't seem to appreciate who matters most regarding what succeeds. It's not going to be the people on the doom9 forums, it's not going to be the people buying the kit in stores. The most important customers are the big OEMs, like Dell. And guess what? For those people, one of the most important requirements is being able to score points in the marketing game, so a nice open API matters LESS than "8 hours battery life" or some other marketing gimmick.

If you want a demonstration of the significance, look at Bruce Changs recent postings to the openchrome mailing lists. He pretty much admits the Via open source initiative was a result of OEM pressure.

[BlackStar]

tell that "It was made 'unrippable'" to the people ripping them right now, as their only option is to transcode the HD AVC/AAC inside the BR transport streams into another container for playback on the devices they have.....

I don't get what you are trying to say... the reason for hd acceleration is watching / transcoding ripped movies?

Popper, I think we all agree that hd acceleration is important and should be implemented in the not-too-far future. However, right now there's much bigger fish to fry in the open drivers.

I really, really don't see a problem here: fglrx is set to gain hd decode acceleration in the (near?) future, so we'll have an option. R/RHD should focus on energyman's points first (esp. power management), wait for the hd dust to settle and then implement acceleration.

If it happens like this, the only people affected are:
1. amd users
2. who want to watch hd content
3. and don't want to use fglrx

Sorry, but I find it reasonable that you won't be able to have all 3 together in the near future. Agd5f explained the reason.