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On Sunday 13 August 2006 11:49, Duncan wrote: |
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> "Hemmann, Volker Armin" <volker.armin.hemmann@××××××××××××.de> posted |
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> 200608130038.56469.volker.armin.hemmann@××××××××××××.de, excerpted below, |
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> |
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> on Sun, 13 Aug 2006 00:38:56 +0200: |
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> > On Sunday 13 August 2006 00:34, Antoine Martin wrote: |
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> >> I can't wait for ATI to open-source their crappy slaveryware drivers. |
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> > |
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> > you can wait for a long, long time. heise.de reported today, that ATI |
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> > will NOT opensource any drivers. They asked them and got a big fat NO as |
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> > an answer. |
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> |
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> Of course, it's all speculation at this point, but while they got no for |
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> an answer, some of the discussion I've seen has pointed out that's exactly |
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> what you'd expect folks from the ATI camp to say at this time -- before |
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> the deal is closed and in fact before the shareholders have even voted on |
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> it. Not saying it will happen, not saying it won't, but simply that in |
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> such a situation, spokespeople tend to keep saying the same thing until |
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> they are told to say something different, because that's exactly what they |
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> are getting paid to do. At this point, it's not unreasonable that the |
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> spokespeople simply don't know, in part because it's their job /not/ to |
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> know some things at this point. |
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> |
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> So I still have hope... |
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> |
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> Meanwhile, if AMD's intent is to be able to sell the whole solution, cpu |
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> and mobo chipset in some cases with integrated video, in ordered to better |
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> compete with Intel, they'll pretty much /have/ to open-spec it at least to |
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> a point, because Intel has. To /not/ do so will leave them in a |
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> competitive hole, with at least one segment of their market, and an often |
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> early adopter one at that (Linux rolled out AMD64 support well before MS |
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> did, and for some time, Linux was the primary market for it, something AMD |
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> is well aware of, I'm sure). |
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> |
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|
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AMD has no experience with the tangled mess, graphics IP is. So they might |
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have some dreams, ATI knows that are not possible. The last time ATI openend |
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up, they did not really opened the drivers, they paid a 3rd party, a |
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corporation, to write open drivers, so ATI did not have to release the specs. |
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|
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|
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> Fortunately for me, I'm not planning on a hardware platform upgrade for at |
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> least a couple more years (I'm dual Opteron 242 w/ 8 gig memory currently, |
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> in a $400 Tyan dual-dual-core capable board I bought a couple years ago, |
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> and will be upgrading to dual-core Opteron 270 or 272s later this year |
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> after the upgrades drop the prices on socket 940s), and my Radeon 9200 AGP |
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> driving dual 21" monitors with xorg's native drivers seems to work |
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> relatively well, all things considered. |
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|
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And the last ATI's don't even have 2d drivers, while David Airlie still waits |
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for the 'ok' from ATI to release the ones he has written. |
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|
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> |
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> By the time I'm looking for a platform upgrade in 2-4 years (I figure back |
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> to a single CPU again by then, but quad-core, maybe even octi-core), |
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> AMD/ATI should have open sourced if they are going to. If they haven't, I |
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> could well be buying Intel for the first time since my 486SX-25 w/ an |
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> incredible 4 MB of RAM! |
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|
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in 2-4 years, nouveau should have good working open drivers. Remember, they |
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have the old open source 3d enabled driver source from nvidia from the |
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Xfree86 3.X days. Before Nvidia was forced by unknon forces (some say MS and |
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Intel) to close the drivers. |
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|
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> However, given all I've read about AMD's goals |
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> and reasons for doing this merger, I still consider this the best chance |
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> we've yet seen for AMD/ATI to release at least enough specs to allow |
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> reasonable 3D, even if it they do reserve some of the best stuff as |
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> closed, so I really do expect I'll still have a choice, and it won't be |
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> Baked Intel or Fried Intel or Intel on bread or ... (xref Monty Python, |
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> SPAM). |
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|
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ATI does not even release 2d drivers at the moment .... |
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> |
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> Of course, by then, we should have a bit better data on whether the OGP |
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> (Open Graphics Project, google or wikipedia it if necessary) FPGA board |
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> got enough buyers to allow them to launch the regular chip version, and |
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> have at least some fix on how far off that might be if it did. Depending |
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> on how the timing all works out, it's just possible I'll be buying the |
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> mobo/cpu platform with an OGP card in mind. OTOH, if AMD opens their |
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> video specs/drivers as Intel has, it's just possible it could roll NVidia |
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> as well, and the OGP may end up not having a market, as everything else is |
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> open speced at least to /some/ degree anyway. |
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|
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2d is open - from nvidia... and you don't need more, if you just have some |
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servers running or only need basic desktop. ATI does not even has that. And |
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Intel.. I just don't trust them. It would be typical for them to open their |
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drivers and forbid the others to do the same, just to get some advantage in |
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the market place. About the ogp - as long as there is no hardware, I don't |
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even consider them. Even in very future plannings. |
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-- |
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