ATI Evergreen 3D Code May Soon Go Into Gallium3D

[V!NCENT]

Let's do a wargame:
1. Windows can't run on AMD anymore.
2. AMD stocks drop like hell.
3. nVidia folk will fly out of their chairs out of excitement.
4. Windows does not run on Fusion.
5. Windows still doesn't run.
6. Flying chairs in Redmond upon realising people are installing Ubuntu.
7. Microsoft will probably release an AMD version of Windows 7.
8. AMD hates this but sees the need to supply their now-Ubuntu users with more support.

9. RIAA/MPAA: FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuu-

[nanonyme]

My network died when I was attempting to reply.
Alternatively 4. Fusion doesn't work with Windows, Fusion flops

[nanonyme]

Not that this was about compatibility but that miraculously new Windows systems with AMD/ATi display cards getting almost a hundred euros more expensive.

[droidhacker]

I wasn't talking about that. I was talking of it damaging AMD/ATi's future sales on Windows platform. Considering that platform is the main platform for desktop systems, you really have to think twice before disrupting your sales there just because of ideology issues on some minor platform.

And that is exactly what I responded to... IT WOULDN'T HAVE ANY EFFECT since the DRM crap would be moved to software before all those users were dropped.

[droidhacker]

USERS would not perceive that the hardware was at fault (and they would be right) -- just that there's something wrong with wondoze (and they would be right). FOR THIS REASON, the DRM-crap would end up in software.

RIGHT NOW, as it stands, all the DRM-crap can be done in software anyway -- even HDCP!

DRM-crap-in --> Wondoze remove DRM, send DRM-free data to "signed" driver, "signed" driver sends back decoded and still DRM-free video back to Wondoze, wondoze add in HDCP --> dump out to HDMI. Is there really any particular reason the DRM has to be in the hardware to begin with?

[bridgman]

Is there really any particular reason the DRM has to be in the hardware to begin with?

Read up on PVP-UAB. It requires that any content sent over a PCIE bus (or any User-Accessible Bus) be encrypted. Since there is no driver code running on the card itself you need hardware on the card to decrypt the video content before decoding it.

The decrypted bitstream needs to stay on-chip, ie you can't use video memory as a buffer between a decrypt block and a decode block because that would make it too easy for an attacker to reach in and grab the bitstream.

[V!NCENT]

My network died when I was attempting to reply.
Alternatively 4. Fusion doesn't work with Windows, Fusion flops

5. Anti-trust lawsuit. Will be settled, because Microsoft doesn't like anti-trust, and Fusion will still be certified, but without DRM compatibility.

[bridgman]

It's not that simple either. There is a whole ecosystem built up around DRM. MS hardware/driver certification is basically saying "this level of functionality appears to exist", including DRM functionality such as PVP-UAB.

AACS licensees (eg player app developers), in turn, rely on that as a foundation for *their* commitments to content providers... and they would probably blacklist the hardware even if it *was* certified (since the certification would no longer mean what it did in the past).

[V!NCENT]

7. Playback app doesn't work on AMD systems.
8. Playback app company looses market size; business case isn't so bright anymore. Company goes out of business.
9. DRM cartel collapses on PC.
10. No need for hardware DRM.
11. Back to squire one.
12. Software DRM or new DRM schemes.

[nanonyme]

Dream on.