Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 9th Nov 2012 22:11 UTC
"The result of almost a year of development by NVIDIA, Valve and other game developers, the new GeForce R310 drivers are designed to give GeForce customers the best possible Linux-based PC gaming experience - and showcase the enormous potential of the world's biggest open-source operating system." Like I said: something is happening here. No, not all problems will be solved overnight - but something is happening here, and you have to start somewhere. The fact that several gaming companies and NVIDIA are working together on this is a very clear sign that commitments have been made.
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Member since:2010-06-01
Intel case showcase why aproach of AMD/Nvidia is a bit better.
Instead of X people working on Linux driver, they have 10 * X working on driver that is usable both on Win and Lin (OpenGL part, Video Decoding, etc.).
Intel have bigger team for Win, and thus they are able to make big leaps in Win driver (OGL 4.0, better perf), than Linux team.
On the other hand both AMD and Nvidia have separate efforts for SoCs drivers, and AMD choosed to pick up open source Linux drivers (but close it), instead of rewriting Catalys. It show that Bot catalyst and nvidia driver are COMPLEX.
And for sure MS FORCE closed source model for GPU drivers on Windows (Vista, 7, 8). With code SCRAMBLED and OBFUSCATED on purpose. All to "protect" its DRM subsystems.
That is also why Video engines on GPU are kept secret. Too much too loose on Win side of things.
Other area that is kept secret is Power Management, as it is area where competition is high, and innovation possible.
And 3rd highly competitive area is driver development itself. Good drivers make or break hardware. And writing those for GPU is hard.
So there are solid and sound reason for not releasing gpu driver as FLOSS.
Yes we loose a lot on that. (Eg. support for new kernels and X.orgs would come way faster for FLOSS Catalys)
But AMD/Nvdia have their reasons.
Intel is/was newcomer, so they did not care much (they had least advanced gpu hardware, and least advanced drivers), but even they keep their PM docs secret.
Member since:2009-09-03
AMD has people on the payroll to work on the open-source radeon driver, and these people do have access to internal docs.
You only have part of that correct. AMD had its own attorneys and programmers audit their documentation with regards to their existing license agreements, NDAs, etc. The documentation AMD eventually released to the public came after their diligent review. It is unclear that Nvidia will follow this approach. Anyways, as you hinted later with regards to radeon power management, this is why the open-source radeon drivers will never be equal to the performance of their closed fglrx drivers, as the latter still contains code that AMD cannot release to the public without incurring liability. Edited 2012-11-10 10:50 UTC
Member since:2006-02-15
PS. I know Intel somehow manages, their open driver has both hardware decoding and proper power management. However, one comany doing it does not mean it should be easy for others to do the same. Like you say, we have no idea how many contracts and NDAs Nvidia and AMD are bound by.
Intel joined the GPU-game quite late, at a stage where GPU-technology was already quite well developed and understood, so they aren't bound by contracts and obligations they signed ten+ years ago while still developing the tech we see today. In other words, Intel could start from a cleaner plate and they probably already had F/OSS - source code in mind when they did, so they could develop everything with that in mind. Back when 3DFX, NVIDIA, AMD, etc. were still getting used to things there was no such thing as the F/OSS - movement and therefore the companies never planned their development efforts with that in mind.
Once you're bound by a contract it's usually very, very expensive to get out of it.
Member since:2005-07-08
Member since:2005-07-06
Intel joined the GPU-game quite late [...]
Maybe not so... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel740#History - Intel GPUs trace their lineage from well before 3DFX era (curiously, with connection to... Lockheed Martin, of all companies)
I don't think it was the case of Intel planning for FOSS, more a side effect of their GFX chips being quite simple, not supporting many advanced (needing to be licensed) techniques.
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/13/13 14:35 UTC
The third and final WWDC product I want to talk about is - of course - OS X 10.9 Mavericks. While iOS 7 was clearly the focus of this year's WWDC, its venerable desktop counterpart certainly wasn't left behind. Apple announced OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the first OS X release not to carry the name of a big cat.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/11/13 17:07 UTC
We already talked about iOS 7 yesterday (after a night of sleep, it's only looking worse and worse - look at this, for Fiona's sake!), so now it's time to talk about the downright stunning and belly flutters-inducing new Mac Pro. As former owner and huge, huge, huge fan of the PowerMac G4 Cube - I haven't been this excited about an Apple product since, well, I would say the iMac G4. This is the Apple I used to love.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/10/13 23:13 UTC
Apple held its big keynote event thing at WWDC earlier this evening, but since I was away with friends I've had to read up on it later in the evening. The company announced iOS 7, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and they gave a preview of the new Mac Pro. Especially the Mac Pro impressed me, and while iOS 7's new Holo/Metro-inspired theme looks messy and garish to me, I do commend Apple for finally breaking the mold. This news item will focus on iOS 7 - I'll dive into the Mac Pro and OS X 10.9 tomorrow (it's late here now).
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/08/13 14:57 UTC
And yes, the PRISM scandal is far, far from over. More and more information keeps leaking out, and the more gets out, the worse it gets. The companies involved have sent out official statements - often by mouth of their CEOs - and what's interesting is that not only are these official statements eerily similar to each other, using the same terms clearly designed by lawyers, they also directly contradict new reports from The New York Times. So, who is lying?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/07/13 11:40 UTC
This story is getting bigger and bigger. Even though most Americans probably already knew, it is now official: the United States government, through its National Security Agency, is collecting the communications and data of all American citizens, and of non-Americans using American services, through a wide collaboration with the large companies in technology, like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and so on. Interestingly enough, the NSA itself, as well as the US government, have repeatedly and firmly denied this massive spying on Americans and non-Americans took place at all.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/04/13 12:45 UTC
Ah, patents - the never-ending scourge of the technology industry. Whether wielded by companies who don't actually make any products, or large corporations who abuse them because they can't compete in the market place or because they're simply jerks, they do the industry a huge disservice and are simply plain dangerous. According to The Wall Street Journal (circumvention link), president Obama is about to take several executive actions to address patent trolls - which may seem like a good idea, but I am very worried that all this will do is strengthen the positions of notorious patent system abusers such as Apple and Microsoft.
Linked by nfeske on 05/31/13 10:12 UTC
With version 13.05, the developers of the Genode OS Framework take measures to ensure that Genode continues to scale well with a growing number of users and the steadily broadening platform coverage. Further highlights are the improved SoC support for Exynos 5, OMAP4, Raspberry Pi, i.MX, and new components for realizing headless systems.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/29/13 16:59 UTC
At the D11 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook once again took the stage to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. While most of the interview can be replicated by picking and reading 10 random Apple fanblog stories - there were still a number of very interesting things that warrant some closer scrutiny.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 17:26 UTC
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!More Features »
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Member since:
2010-07-16
AMD has people on the payroll to work on the open-source radeon driver, and these people do have access to internal docs. However, even if Nvidia would do the same - pay people to work on nouveau - it wouldn't help regarding their proprietary driver and dma-buf. On the other hand, nouveau already can use dma-buf and as such support Optimus, Nvidia's involvement not necessary for that.
But basically I agree with you, people should get off their high horse regarding Nvidia. Getting involved in open-source is not as simple as they seem to think it is. Look at AMD, despite having an open-source strategy, they still have their proprietary driver. And despite people being paid by AMD to work on radeon, it isn't any better than nouveau. Both of these drivers lack hardware video decode, are quite far behind in performance, and the biggest one, both lack proper power management.
Why does radeon lack power management? Code was written, but it didn't pass legal review. So yeah, open-sourcing graphics stuff not as easy as those on the high horse want it to be.
PS. I know Intel somehow manages, their open driver has both hardware decoding and proper power management. However, one comany doing it does not mean it should be easy for others to do the same. Like you say, we have no idea how many contracts and NDAs Nvidia and AMD are bound by.
Edited 2012-11-10 06:55 UTC