ATI Wants Open Source Drivers

Sep 07, 2007

Jan Rähm

Following speculation about the graphics card vendor ATI and a free Linux driver, a company representative has now confirmed that ATI will be placing the specifications of the R500 under an NDA.

Initially, there were rumors that ATI was planning new, proprietary drivers that promised considerable speed advantages. Just a short time later, an AMD spokesperson confirmed that the R500 graphics chip specification and Open Source libraries were being released to kernel developers under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). ATI owners AMD are also revealing the basics of the driver. A working 2D driver should be available around the end of this year, although 3D support will take slightly longer.

Shortly after AMD acquired ATI for US$ 5.4 billion in October 2006 there were various rumors about an open driver for the graphics cards.

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