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Open-Source AMD Fusion Driver For Ontario Released

  Submitted by Michael AMD 6 Comments

“While we are still waiting on open-source support for the AMD Radeon HD 6000 series of graphics cards that were released last month, today AMD is releasing their initial open-source support for their Ontario hardware. AMD’s Ontario is their low-powered Fusion processor designed for use in netbooks and other such devices. This dual-core chip with integrated Radeon HD 6250 graphics is only starting to ship now, but the open-source support for this first AMD Fusion chip is now available to Linux users, complete with 3D support.”

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6 Comments

  1. 2010-11-24 12:01 am
    stabbyjones

    I’ve been waiting for this for ages. Open Drivers from the get go also means it’s a definite sale from me.

    I really hope this takes off for AMD.

  2. 2010-11-24 4:21 pm
    Thomas2005

    I do not see a need for a person to be able to walk into a store and buy a computer with linux pre-installed because it will most likely have a distro that is not wanted. What would be nice, though, is going into a store and purchasing a computer based on it having components you want or need, knowing they all have open-source drivers.

    • 2010-11-24 4:43 pm
      n.l.o

      I do not see a need for a person to be able to walk into a store and buy a computer with linux pre-installed because it will most likely have a distro that is not wanted. What would be nice, though, is going into a store and purchasing a computer based on it having components you want or need, knowing they all have open-source drivers.

      Indeed that would be great.

      Being able to buy said machine without an OS installed at a considerable discount would also be great. ;)

    • 2010-11-24 5:51 pm
      No it isnt

      That’s not going to happen. Hopefully, MeeGo will be a better and more suitable distro, because that’s probably what they’re going to use.

      • 2010-11-24 9:57 pm
        lemur2

        That’s not going to happen. Hopefully, MeeGo will be a better and more suitable distro, because that’s probably what they’re going to use.

        AMD will use Meego almost certainly.

        http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/News/AMD-joins-MeeGo

        http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/368079/amd_joins_intel_meego_…

        In an effort to expand software compatibility for its upcoming Fusion chips, Advanced Micro Devices on Monday joined rival Intel’s efforts to develop the open-source MeeGo OS.

        In fact, these open source drivers for the Ontario AMD Fusion APUs are probably a part of their contributions to Meego.

        I do not see a need for a person to be able to walk into a store and buy a computer with linux pre-installed because it will most likely have a distro that is not wanted.

        Definitely Meego.

        http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=meego

        http://meego.com/

        Meego claims to be targetted at: netbook, handset, in-vehicle, connected TV and media phone devices.

        It will be up to OEMs to ship product with AMD Fusion and Meego installed. On most of those devices it would be a no-brainer, as the consumer has no idea of the OS anyway. Microsoft were able to prevent Linux on netbooks being offered for sale after it started selling like hotcakes on the first netbooks, but I’m not sure that Microsoft will be able to continue to do so.

        After all, if an OEM ships a netbook-class machine with Windows, Microsoft will put constraints on the machine (so that it doesn’t undermine laptops). There will be no such restriction if Meego is the OS shipped.

        Edited 2010-11-24 22:02 UTC

        • 2010-11-24 10:44 pm
          lemur2

          Meego claims to be targetted at: netbook, handset, in-vehicle, connected TV and media phone devices. It will be up to OEMs to ship product with AMD Fusion and Meego installed. On most of those devices it would be a no-brainer, as the consumer has no idea of the OS anyway.

          For more on what Meego is, and the market at which it is aimed, here is a PDF file that explains it reasonably well, for those who may be interested:

          http://www.smart-developer.com/content/download/128/672/file/011-01…

          What is MeeGo?

          Let’s start with that it isn’t. MeeGo isn’t meant to be a direct competitor for the likes of the iPhone, Android devices, Windows Phone 7 Series, Palm’s webOS, and RIM’s BlackBerry platform. It’s aimed at a much broader range of platforms. The Linux-based MeeGo platform is intended to power multiple types of devices, including smartphones, netbooks, tablets, DVR, Internet-connected TV, and IVI. If it can have an interface and an operating system, MeeGo would like to be considered. Of course that’s true of the other operating systems, but each of them have found one or two niches. MeeGo designers would like it to be more universal. You can see this by its hardware support. Unlike other embedded operating systems, MeeGo is designed to run on both the Intel Atom and ARMv7 and v9 architectures. MeeGo is also being designed to look and work the same no matter what platform it’s on. Thus, once you know how to run your MeeGo tablet, you

          can run your MeeGo DVR or your car’s MeeGo IVI.

          This is a very large market, BTW. AMD apparently want to add AMD Fusion APUs to the choice of architectures for Meego, apart from Intel Atom and ARMv7 and v9.

          BTW, the “interface” part of Meego is suuplied by Qt, Qt Quick and QML.

          Edited 2010-11-24 22:46 UTC