VIA Announces Open Source Driver Initiative 134
Aron Schatz writes "VIA has announced that they will start a new site (http://linux.via.com.tw — doesn't exist yet) specifically for the development of open source drivers. From their press release: 'Over the following months, VIA will work with the community to enable 2D, 3D and video playback acceleration to ensure the best possible Open Source experience on VIA Processor Platforms. 'To further improve cooperation with the community, VIA will also adhere to a regular quarterly release schedule that is aligned with kernel changes and release of major Linux distributions. In addition, beta releases will be issued on the site as needed, and a bug report and tracking feature will also be integrated.' Nvidia should be next."
Already big in little markets (Score:4, Informative)
Year of the Linux.... portable? (Score:3, Informative)
I like VIA's strategy (Score:5, Informative)
VIA created the nanobook [via.com.tw] reference design for mini-laptops that use their low-cost, low-power chips. Already the CloudBook [wikipedia.org] has come out based on that design, and in other countries various similar laptops have been released from different distributors. Now they're stimulating essential linux development, which will continue to increase the value of their low-cost platform. This has "win" written all over it; we're all going to come out ahead thanks to their strategy.
Extend It To Crypto (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Year of the Linux.... portable? (Score:4, Informative)
It is the year of the rat:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_(zodiac) [wikipedia.org]
Learn your lunar calendars, Slashdot.
Re:Nvidia have already open sourced what they can (Score:5, Informative)
ATI hasn't just promised, they did:
http://ati.amd.com/developer/open_gpu_documentation.html [amd.com]
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=842&num=1 [phoronix.com]
Re:Nvidia have already open sourced what they can (Score:5, Informative)
Re:nVidia next? (Score:4, Informative)
2D specs for R300-R500, R600
3D specs for R300-R500
Not released:
3D specs for R600
TCore (graphics card simulation)
Might be released:
Low-end code from the fglrx driver
In short, they still haven't released the specs on their latest generation and R700 is expected sometime this year. Yes, it's a promising development but if you want the latest and greatest, it's closed source whether you go with ATI or nVidia...
Re:Nvidia have already open sourced what they can (Score:3, Informative)
Getting closer, but still no cigar:
I don't have time to help develop a driver, which means I'm willing to hold off another year or two on actually buying a new video card, but nVidia is still going to work better until this open driver is finished.
I mean, yes, it's awesome that we have specs, but apparently, they didn't deliver source code.
Re:Nvidia have already open sourced what they can (Score:2, Informative)
At the moment, it only lacks two things for me:
Compared to fglrx, I'm glad they delivered the specs (and AFAIK some consulting for the devs) and not their changing codebase. Fglrx had a moving year...
And the efforts at RadeonHD are pretty promising so far.
Re:Year of the Linux.... portable? (Score:4, Informative)
1: VIA chips, although they aren't known for stellar performance, are usually pretty low-power (but nowhere near ARM-based stuff)
2: VIA produced something called the Nanobook, a reference design for the subsub-notebooks. Two machines have been released under this design: the Everex Cloudbook and the Packard-Bell Easynote XS
Re:Nvidia have already open sourced what they can (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Nvidia have already open sourced what they can (Score:3, Informative)
DISABLED_MODULES="nvidia nvidia_legacy nvidia_new"
to
Re:Nvidia have already open sourced what they can (Score:3, Informative)
See:
http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers#head-6cb9442ef3215e7aa8e2e1a13c73a7819a9e9890
Way wrong (Score:2, Informative)
The problem is the lack of multithreading on h.264 more than the lack of GPU offloading, the GPU offload barely works in windows I would like to add.
h.264 on Linux is core2 today, here are som examples on playback hardware
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/HD_Playback_Reports [mythtv.org]
So please stop this myth about h.264 not being possible on linux.