ATI Wants Open Source Drivers
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.
Issue 158/2014
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Tag Cloud
News
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New Mint Minted
Version 16 of the popular Linux desktop reveals new tools, edge-snapping, and performance improvements.
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New Worm Attacks Linux Devices
Symantec says Linux-Darlioz burrows in through PHP.
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Project Sputnik Gets a Boost
Dell renews its quest for the ultimate developer machine.
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Sneaky New Linux Attack Discovered in the Wild
Innovative back door looks like normal SSH traffic.
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CeBIT Call for Papers
One of CeBITs most successful forums opens the new year with a new name. The popular Open Source Forum continues in 2014 under the name Special Conference: Open Source. This year, the forum will be bigger and offer a wider range of possibilities for sponsors.
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Linus Announces Linux Kernel 3.12
New release offers better graphics drivers and expands filesystem support.
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Dark Alliance Reinvents Email Security
New mail protocol will shut out the NSA and prevent snooping on metadata.
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DDos Attack Map Charts Denial of Service
A new web application helps users visualize distributed denial-of-service attacks.
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Saucy Salamander Gets Legs
Ubuntu 13.10 takes a step toward convergence, with lots of mobility, but Mir only partly here.
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Intel and Arduino Create Pi-Like System
Galileo board is targeted to embedded developers and educational institutions.