ATI to open up graphics specs

[Nite_Hawk]

At the Linux Kernel Summit ATI just pledged to open up the specs for all of their R500 and later series cards. They'll have a skeleton driver available and are interested in supporting the development of opensource drivers for their hardware. This could be a pretty interesting development and have a lot of ramifications not only for linux but for other OSes as well. It sounds like the current drivers will not be opened, but ATI will help create new drivers from scratch and provide the specifications.

It should be interesting to see the specifications opened up. Hopefully that will spur the development not only of drivers, but of other applications that require a deeper understanding of the hardware architecture.

http://lwn.net/Articles/248227/

Nite_Hawk

 

[swaaye]

they should open up Rx2x0 cuz the Linux folk like those cards for their systems and ATI dropped support for it in their binaries. Though the 'radeon' driver works ok with it.

 

[purpledog]

I'm wondering whether that is CTM or something completely different...
http://ati.amd.com/companyinfo/researcher/documents.html

Btw I cannot find any link to the CTM SDK, is it part of the ATI SDK?

 

[ChrisK]

(edit: )Phoronix.com says AMD will provide specifications under NDA to X.Org developers, resulting in an open source driver. This seems to be a more likely scenario than them opening it up to the general public.

 

[Npl]

they should open up Rx2x0 cuz the Linux folk like those cards for their systems and ATI dropped support for it in their binaries. Though the 'radeon' driver works ok with it.

Linux folks like those Cards because of the OS 'radeon' driver. And AFAIK ATI provided info on R100 and R200 chips long ago, but ceased to do it with the following chips.

 

[Rufus]

(edit: )Phoronix.com says AMD will provide specifications under NDA to X.Org developers, resulting in an open source driver. This seems to be a more likely scenario than them opening it up to the general public.

How they're saying no NDA will be needed.

 

[Farhan]

http://www.x.org/docs/AMD/

Looks like some register specs are already available.

 

[Rufus]

http://www.x.org/docs/AMD/

Looks like some register specs are already available.

Already slashdotted.

Anyone get a copy?

 

[Tim Murray]

Direct download links are fast:

http://www.x.org/docs/AMD/42589_rv630_rrg_1.01o.pdf
http://www.x.org/docs/AMD/RRG-216M56-03oOEM.pdf

 

[cho]

it seems like that the RAMDAC is not true 10bit DAC (10bit buffer input->10bit LUT->10bit output).

 

[Davros]

"So the reason AMD started an open source GPU strategy was purely due to 2 things:

1.) Lost CPU sales due to lack of open source GPU support at an OEM level.
2.) Future CPU/GPU combination projects would require opening info on the GPU portion to allow uptake."

theres an article about it here:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=838&num=1

 

[gallego16]

Ctm Link

Hi,

Where can I download CTM SDK I could not find any link on the open source webpage:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=189539

or on the ati's webpage:

http://ati.amd.com/companyinfo/researcher/

Thanks.

 

[Sound_Card]

Try this...

http://ati.amd.com/companyinfo/researcher/Documents.html

 

[gallego16]

unfortunately, that link is only for documentation
I have sent an mail to researcher@ati.com but they have not answered.
does it exists another way to get the CTM?
Thanks.

 

[MfA]

They have commented out the links to the researcher resource/registration pages at the moment, I guess the only way to get access if at all is via email at the moment.

PS. AFAICS real specs for ATI's chips are not forthcoming (last we heard 3D specs were still going to be under NDA) so I wouldn't be too hopeful for an open CTM SDK. I wouldn't be surprised if all the driver hackers even have clauses in their NDA to prevent them from exposing more of the chip than necessary for OpenGL drivers ...