AMD Continues Updating Its R500 Documentation

[pingufunkybeat]

I'm not expecting much in terms of open support for the dedicated video decoding hardware on any major platform. Unfortunately the things are too DRM-infested.

If ATi keeps their promise and separates the DRM bits out in later hardware, then there is hope for the future, but the existing hardware will likely have to rely on shader-based solutions.

But the shader-based solutions should bring some relief for the CPUs, especially the weaker ones.

[deanjo]

I am just very excited about getting a free driver! Although I don't have an ATI card its very interesting to follow how this driver grows and how it picks up features and performance. Im dreaming one day I will have HTPC with hardware decoding and maybe even able to play some games (think fusion!) with free drivers

Oh one can dream!

It can be done right now. Get a Broadcom Crystal HD mini pci-e and a pci-e to mini pci-e adapter card if you want such a solution. It's probably going to be the only way to get hardware decoding using a "free" solution for quite a while.

[crispy]

I am just very excited about getting a free driver! Although I don't have an ATI card its very interesting to follow how this driver grows and how it picks up features and performance. Im dreaming one day I will have HTPC with hardware decoding and maybe even able to play some games (think fusion!) with free drivers

Oh one can dream!

[chaos386]

I may be an evergreen owner, but I'm glad to see that the older cards are still getting some love. It's nice to know I'll still have support when my card is past its prime.

[Smorg]

"Superb" performance? Superb would mean being on par with the binary blobs (or perhaps even a 1 pixel bar registering in a side-by-side PTS benchmark)... but thats details. Always good to hear about AMD's continued open source support. :3

[pingufunkybeat]

Thank you, AMD. You got at least this one user because of this.

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD Continues Updating Its R500 Documentation

It was over two years ago that AMD first released its R500 3D programming documentation to the general public without any NDAs, which was followed by the R600/700 3D documentation along with older R300-class documents as well. While we have yet to see proper 3D programming documentation for the ATI Radeon HD 5000 "Evergreen" GPUs that were released last year, the R500 3D documentation continues to be revised...

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