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I wonder how much of this is "business as usual" for AMD's GPU team, and how much of it is in reaction to nVidia recently beginning to open up? My limited under
by benjamincburns 13y ago
I wonder how much of this is "business as usual" for AMD's GPU team, and how much of it is in reaction to nVidia recently beginning to open up? My limited understanding is that AMD/ATI has been far more more open than nVidia for much longer, but if they see nVidia starting to open up, maybe they're lengthening their stride on these efforts?
Either way, my inner optimist/FOSS fanboy is really hoping that there's a convergence of things happening right now (championed by Valve, I think) that will make GPUs become as open and well-documented as main processors. It's rare to see, but I get all excited any time openness is even a minor basis for competition.
- sho_hn 13y agoI'd assume "business as usual"; preparing a publication like this takes far, far longer than the time delta to nVidia's announcement allows for.
- benjamincburns 13y agoI think the lead-time issue depends on how they document internally. If they provide 'first-class' documentation for their partners to consume which has already been sanitized of NDA-restricted disclosures, maybe all they need to do is remove the 'CONFIDENTIAL' header. Though to be fair, I'd be shocked if this was the case. Most companies don't do the IP sanitization bit, which is why NDAs in those types of industries are viral in the same way as the GPL.
- kllrnohj 13y ago> If they provide 'first-class' documentation for their partners to consume which has already been sanitized of NDA-restricted disclosures, maybe all they need to do is remove the 'CONFIDENTIAL' header. What partners? The only ones writing AMD GPU drivers is AMD, and internal documentation tends to universally be crap.
- nitrogen 13y agoAMD also supplies GPUs to all major console manufacturers.
- eropple 13y ago> What partners? The only ones writing AMD GPU drivers is AMD, and internal documentation tends to universally be crap. Don't quote me on this, but it was my impression that vendors AMD's GPUs should have source access to the drivers.
- dman 13y agoHave you ever tried to get something released as OSS in a large company? Sun was a prime example - inspite of complete buy in from their CEO it took them eons to open source parts of Solaris. And I dont think till the very end they were able to get a completely bootstrapping release of solaris out.
- marcosdumay 13y agoIt may have happened for the same reason, but one can not be a reaction to the other. People are speculating if NVidia started oppening their specs by Valve's request. If so, AMD could have received the same request.
- diydsp 13y agoAt this time last year, AMD was preparing for a lay off in November (2012) in which they let a bunch of their open source GPU devs go. [1][2] [3] My projection is that this is an attempt to draw in the unpaid open source community. Both a smart and a dick move: they could have released this info while maintaining the paid positions, IMO. [1] "Did AMD shoot itself in the foot by laying off open-source talent? " http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/110712-amd-open-source-264062.html http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/110712-amd-open-source... [2] AMD shutters German Linux lab, gives devs the axe http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/07/amd_closes_german_osrc_lab/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/07/amd_closes_german_os... [3] AMD dismisses numerous open source developers http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/AMD-dismisses-numerous-open-source-developers-1745131.html http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/AMD-dismisses-numerou...