OSNews: http://www.osnews.com/story/19378/AMD_Releases_3D_Programming_Documentation Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2013, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Fri, 24 May 2013 16:59:43 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif OSNews.com http://www.osnews.com Sweet http://www.osnews.com/thread?302108 http://www.osnews.com/thread?302108 Been a bit longer in coming than I was comfortable with, but they delivered the goods. Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:40:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (spikeb) Comments RE: Sweet http://www.osnews.com/thread?302112 http://www.osnews.com/thread?302112 With the amount of programmers in the world willing to offer their bit of code to the entire mix, I'd be more than comfortable in saying that AMD/ATI will be a combination I'd spend more of my money on.

The gauntlet is officially down. Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:41:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (WarpKat) Comments RE: Sweet http://www.osnews.com/thread?302114 http://www.osnews.com/thread?302114 You don't know much about technical documentation, do you? Internal tech docs have trade secrets and document company policies that aren't for general consumption. They have to cleaned up then rewritten.

"Uncomfortable with", c'mon! Sun, 24 Feb 2008 01:30:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (zizban) Comments RE[2]: Sweet http://www.osnews.com/thread?302118 http://www.osnews.com/thread?302118 I'd be more than comfortable in saying that AMD/ATI will be a combination I'd spend more of my money on.

I hope this means that the open source community will embrace AMD/ATI more. It seems that AMD inparticular is falling behind Intel on the CPU front, and I don't want to see them go away. If nothing else, AMD/ATI give Intel and Nvidia a reason not to rest on their laurels.Edited 2008-02-24 02:29 UTC Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:27:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (WorknMan) Comments Well done AMD http://www.osnews.com/thread?302126 http://www.osnews.com/thread?302126 It's nice to see proof the oft argued notion that it is economically and legally impossible for graphic card vendors to support open source is indeed bunk.

While i'm sure that there will still be some challenges with regard to embedded DRM, another major step has been taken here. So a hearty thank you to AMD and everyone involved. At the very least, this should put to bed speculation that AMD isn't serious about their effort to support open source. Sun, 24 Feb 2008 06:11:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tux68) Comments RE: Well done AMD http://www.osnews.com/thread?302129 http://www.osnews.com/thread?302129
It's nice to see proof the oft argued notion that it is economically and legally impossible for graphic card vendors to support open source is indeed bunk.


The open question, it would seem, is how much has actually been documented. There may be aspects of the hardware that aren't documented in order to protect trade secrets, etc -- but which are present in the closed-source driver. I have a feeling that AMD doesn't mind releasing technical docs for ATI's older technology -- but not the latest hardware -- which is fine. There's more than enough power in the R600 generation of cards to do some useful stuff. Sun, 24 Feb 2008 07:02:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tomcat) Comments RE[2]: Well done AMD http://www.osnews.com/thread?302131 http://www.osnews.com/thread?302131
The open question, it would seem, is how much has actually been documented. There may be aspects of the hardware that aren't documented in order to protect trade secrets, etc -- but which are present in the closed-source driver.

Agreed. No doubt there are still many undocumented features and serious impediments to full disclosure, especially w.r.t DRM. But we don't live in a perfect world so personally i applaud AMD's efforts even though they fall short of a purists ideal.

I have a feeling that AMD doesn't mind releasing technical docs for ATI's older technology -- but not the latest hardware -- which is fine. There's more than enough power in the R600 generation of cards to do some useful stuff.

The r600 series of chips represent AMD's latest offerings (Radeon HD 2000/3000) and 3D documentation is said to be available very soon. In fact, ATI said it will be less inclined to release docs for older gear, presumably because there is less economic incentive to support product that is closer to end of life.Edited 2008-02-24 07:43 UTC Sun, 24 Feb 2008 07:28:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (tux68) Comments RE[3]: Well done AMD http://www.osnews.com/thread?302168 http://www.osnews.com/thread?302168 Well.. they plan on releasing r200 related specs.. ;)

And it seems that the current 3D docs include information about the r300/r400 chipsets as well. Sun, 24 Feb 2008 17:36:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (BSDfan) Comments