VIA Releases 800 Pages of Documentation For Linux 131
billybob2 writes "VIA has published three programming guides that total 800 pages in length and cover their PadLock, CX700, and VX800/820 technologies. The VIA PadLock provides a random number generator, an advanced cryptography engine, and RSA algorithm computations. The VX800 chipset was VIA's first Integrated Graphics Processor, while the CX700 is a System Media Processor designed for the mobile market. This is another step in VIA's strategy to support the development of Free and Open Source drivers under Linux, which comes pre-installed on VIA products such as the Sylvania NetBook, HP Mini-Note, 15.4" gBook, gPC, CloudBook, Zonbu, and VIA OpenBook. Earlier this week, VIA hired Linux kernel developer and GPL-Violations.org founder Harald Welte to be VIA's liason to the Open Source community."
Anonymous Coward. (Score:1, Insightful)
Via (=Way) to go! :)
font? (Score:1, Insightful)
I hope they used a very tiny font!
I want to love Via, but they keep disappointing me.
Re:font? (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope they used a very tiny font!
I want to love Via, but they keep disappointing me.
ATI started off with 800 pages as well. They kept adding to it, to the point where ATI graphic chipsets are almost as well supported Intels, and even have budding 3D support in the free drivers. I have faith in VIA.
state of integrated graphics (Score:5, Insightful)
makes you wonder, what with intel and via and amd/ati opening their documentation etc, if it will get to the point in the near future where nvidia will be the only binary blob in regards to video drivers.
come to think of it, this trend is something similar to what happened with wifi a few years back. Everyone was using binary blobs, then atheros, ralink etc release specs and oss drivers. let us hope this pressures the remaining vendors to do the same.
Re:Via what method? (Score:0, Insightful)
Just about time - now for the other solutions (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm trying to run Ubunu on a VIA epia for some time now, but their graphics solution is as unstable as hell. There is either the binary driver from VIA itself, or the OS one, but both are not quite what you would expect. Now the question for me is: will it also affect the CN400 chipset (and especially the graphics driver)? Because 5 minutes of average uptime before the machine freezes is not workable. I do think the UniChrome Pro support packages are most important for VIA, the rest already seems to work pretty well.
It seems that each time that a company is on the ropes, they pledge OS support. It would be a good idea for companies to do something when they are not on the brink of extinction. VIA is in a tight spot. They're moving out of the chipset business, and since the eye of Intel is currently on the mobile CPU/chipset business, they can expect the Nazgul to come riding in pretty soon (I don't know too many old testament stories, which seem more appropriate for VIA).
...for *Linux* (Score:1, Insightful)
So, all other non-Linux:ish systems are out of luck?
How does one write hardware specs which are only usable to Linux?
I'm mighty confused.
Re:linux? (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't you know? All The World Is Linux. Even X. Let's be honest, only someone smart enough to work on Linux could possibly be smart enough to understand the documentation anyway. Us thickos who work on other OSes will just have to try not to get drool on the screen.
Confession is good for the soul.
Re:First Atheros and now this? (Score:5, Insightful)
(1) Companies lose control if they open source their drivers. Examples: Dell recently killed certain features from their sound drivers, and a ways back Creative was upset at someone who hacked up features into their Vista drivers which were purposefully absent (but present on their XP drivers). Both Dell and Creative "lost" here even with closed source drivers - they'd have never stood a chance to screw over their customers if the drivers were open.
(2) Many companies, which should focus on hardware, still worry others stealing their technology from open sourcing their drivers. nVidia is the biggest example here.
(3) Managment people are stupid and can't seem to comprehend how giving away this information can benefit them.
Slowly things are going the right direction, but it'll be quite a while yet. For the time being the F/OSS community will just have to remain in the weird flux of having some things work better than their closed source counterparts (rt2570 works sooo much better on Linux), while some things are worse (x264 acceleration).
Re:linux? (Score:3, Insightful)
FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonFly BSD, ReactOS, OpenSolaris, Haiku, Syllable, Plan9
Off the top of my head.
DirectFB, ReactOS, Haiku, Syllable, Plan9
Again, just off the top of my head.
It's O.K, we all know they're just wasting their time. Linux and X are perfect and there will never be anything better, so who else ever needs access to hardware documentation?
Re:state of integrated graphics (Score:3, Insightful)
How reliable is their random number generator? (Score:3, Insightful)
I see that one of the chips in question is for a random number generator. Despite providing documentation/specs on how this chip runs, to make it possible to write free drivers, it's not the same as having the actual source code for the chip. With any other type of chip this would be well and good, but with random number generators, you can't really test them, and will need to rely on examination of the source code to prove that it works. Even then, it would not be that easy --see the Underhanded C Contest of 2007 [xcott.com] in which people write encryption programs, and they work, and the source is open to inspection --and they STILL provide a back door to allow the encryption to be broken. (Man, that Underhanded C Contest is pretty scary.)
I hope the kernel developers and other programmers give us a choice whether to use random numbers from the Padlock chip or from some other source. Me, I'll just plug in my blinded webcam into my USB port [lavarnd.org] and multiply it into any random stream for good measure.
Re:800 pages in length (Score:5, Insightful)
>A single core on a 3Ghz Core2 can match the performance of Padlock.
Which of course, is pathetic, all things considered. It's like hammering in a screw. Yeah sure, with a big enough hammer it'll go in...
>There is nothing magical about this
Who mentioned magic? I sure as hell didn't.
>The fact that the Core2 can keep up says volumes about the poor implementation of the C7.
Yes, an Intel 3.0GHz Core2 CPU at 100% load keeping up with a ~12W fanless CPU. I can see how you'd consider that a loss for the VIA implementation, if you're on drugs.
I don't know what the hell the point of your comment was, I seems to be argumentative just for the sake of it. The facts are simple: If Intel and AMD worked together on a cryptographic instruction set, we'd get FANTASTICALLY BETTER performance in these scenarios. We're talking 10-20x the performance of just bruteforcing it, spending CPU time that could be used for something better.
If you want to argue against that, I suggest you visit the local bar. I believe its name is /dev/null
Re:font? (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I would say that hiring Harald Welte is a better indication of VIA's intentions than the release of documentation. Nobody in their right mind is going to hire the owner of GPL-Violations.org [gpl-violations.org] unless they are absolutely serious about Free Software.
Welte eats vendors for breakfast. Hiring him grants VIA instant credibility. If VIA drops the ball it is very likely to get crucified. Unless the executives at VIA have the intellect of fence posts this indicates a sea change for Free Software support from VIA.
Re:Unichrome Pro support (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:linux? (Score:3, Insightful)
don't feed the trolls