AMD/RTG Announces GPUOpen For Offering More Open-Source Code

[grndzro]

This is spectacular news. When AMD opens up the Vulkan bits it should allow pretty easy conversion from DX12>Vulkan. We could see an implementation of that fairly quickly.

[blubbaer]

Just read the article from ComputerBase. Very interesting is this "Direct to ISA" and the headless Linux driver. If I understood it right, then we get the possibility to write programs that are insanely optimized for GCN-Hardware.

[pal666]

I want to stop using the GPUs from the green assholes

then stop making excuses and stop it

[Guest]

Just read the article from ComputerBase. Very interesting is this "Direct to ISA" and the headless Linux driver. If I understood it right, then we get the possibility to write programs that are insanely optimized for GCN-Hardware.

That would be very good.

I do not know how/when the GCN GPU is going to be switching from one GPU program to another. Will it be preemptive multitasking like on the main CPU?

[boffo]

I like this openness. I wonder if AMD will launch a program for students&thesis, definitely a good opportunity for those people who would like to work in the gpu sector.

[eydee]

I will switch to AMD in a hearbeat if I see more commitment to the open source driver
I want to stop using the GPUs from the green assholes

Just be careful. You switch, then 2 years later your card becomes legacy... And even open source driver devs will concentrate on new hardware.

[castlefox]

Damn too bad he couldnt have been there for the event. Sad to see them drop the ball by not following up with him with post even info.

[bountykiller]

Just be careful. You switch, then 2 years later your card becomes legacy... And even open source driver devs will concentrate on new hardware.

What you say is strange. I buy a radeon 2 years and 8 month ago, and my card is neither legacy neither abandonned by open source devs...

[Guest]

Just be careful. You switch, then 2 years later your card becomes legacy... And even open source driver devs will concentrate on new hardware.

In my opinion, it is probable that GPU ISAs (instruction set architectures) will stabilize over time just like the x86 ISA and ARM ISA have. There are just two base x86 compiler targets (i386 and amd64). The precondition for a GPU ISA stabilization is for the ISA to contain a set of general-purpose instructions that make the development of a completely new GPU ISA not worth the investment, because the completely new GPU ISA would have roughly the same performance as the stabilized ISA. The concrete cause of GPU ISA stabilization may come from various sources, so it is hard to tell today what in particular will cause the GPU ISA stabilization. It is also possible that GPUs as we know them today will die because of major (>=10x) performance advancements in x86/arm CPU architectures - these advancements are certain to come to CPUs some day but it is impossible to predict when.

[blackiwid]

Just be careful. You switch, then 2 years later your card becomes legacy... And even open source driver devs will concentrate on new hardware.

yes the focus switches to supporting newer cards, thats often also because they have till then shitty support and need more love to be usable at all. but first your driver get portet to everything and 2nd all whats relativly easy to port gets ported eventualy.

the most extreme example I seen was that they ported vdpau support to x1250 or even the one before boards so they released that I belive end of 2014 for a Hardware that is from 2007, which makes it capable to be a perfekt fullhd htpc, thats a new feature for a then 7 year old Hardware.