The Truth About AMD's Development Cycle

[yoshi314]

so does the linux team have some deadlines for their drivers? i mean deadlines like e.g. 10th of may, instead of 1 release/month :]

hmm this release is a bit dissapointing. i suppose they're focusing on R600 support more than anything else now. if the documents shown are true, that is.

[Michael]

Originally Posted by yoshi314

so does the linux team have some deadlines for their drivers? i mean deadlines like e.g. 10th of may, instead of 1 release/month :]

hmm this release is a bit dissapointing. i suppose they're focusing on R600 support more than anything else now. if the documents shown are true, that is.

Interesting question... Well, if the higher-ups at AMD grant Phoronix permission, we will be telling the truth to their monthly driver development cycle.

[d2kx]

What truth? The driver is always older like the Windows' one is from the 2nd of february.

I'm wondering what the 1200 lines of code do...

[Michael]

Okay, here is the scoop. AMD has granted Phoronix permission to publish an article tentatively titled ATI/AMD's Development Method Exposed or The Truth About ATI/AMD's Development Cycle.

This article will tell what really goes into each driver release. With month's where there are not many end-user changes in the official change-log, there really are more changes than what you may actually see. Many users take for granted how much work actually goes into each driver release. In this article we will clear up all of these myths and misconceptions about the fglrx driver and their monthly release plans.

Since last year when AMD announced its intent to acquire ATI Technologies, there have been countless rumors about how this would affect the development of the drivers and what repercussions may be seen as a result. Well, in this article we will be telling you the straight facts about the changes being made. To keep you salivating until this article is published, AMD has made the strategic decision to make Linux part of their unified development cycle. But you'll have to wait for the article to see what this entails .

I am still in the process of receiving all of the information from AMD, but hopefully this article will be ready for your reading pleasure by early March.

Whether you are a Windows or Linux user, this should be a very interesting read.

[Svartalf]

Originally Posted by Michael

I am still in the process of receiving all of the information from AMD, but hopefully this article will be ready for your reading pleasure by early March.

Whether you are a Windows or Linux user, this should be a very interesting read.

Indeed. I'm looking forward to it.

[niniendowarrior]

Originally Posted by Michael

Okay, here is the scoop. AMD has granted Phoronix permission to publish an article tentatively titled ATI/AMD's Development Method Exposed or The Truth About ATI/AMD's Development Cycle.

This article will tell what really goes into each driver release. With month's where there are not many end-user changes in the official change-log, there really are more changes than what you may actually see. Many users take for granted how much work actually goes into each driver release. In this article we will clear up all of these myths and misconceptions about the fglrx driver and their monthly release plans.

Since last year when AMD announced its intent to acquire ATI Technologies, there have been countless rumors about how this would affect the development of the drivers and what repercussions may be seen as a result. Well, in this article we will be telling you the straight facts about the changes being made. To keep you salivating until this article is published, AMD has made the strategic decision to make Linux part of their unified development cycle. But you'll have to wait for the article to see what this entails .

I am still in the process of receiving all of the information from AMD, but hopefully this article will be ready for your reading pleasure by early March.

Whether you are a Windows or Linux user, this should be a very interesting read.

You know Michael. I'm very much looking forward to this if only to see how my perception of ATi matches with the article.

[d2kx]

This is going to be VERY interesting, good to hear that AMDs let you do such an article!

[Michael]

It's taking a bit longer than expected as they are preparing slides for Phoronix

Though hopefully the article will still be out in a week or two.

[drag]

[q]AMD has made the strategic decision to make Linux part of their unified development cycle. But you'll have to wait for the article to see what this entails[/q]

Hopefully it will entail supporting open source drivers along with kernel/X developers, because that is is the only thing that will ever get me to waste my time with ATI hardware.

As it stands right now buying a newer ATI hardware is one of the worst possible mistakes you can make when building a Linux PC and it's going to be like that as long as ATI is depending on closed source FLGLX.

Q. What is the easiest way to install drivers for a r500 series ATI card?
A. Sell it on ebay and buy a Nvidia card. Then install the nvidia drivers.

[ivanovic]

AMD opening the fglrx drivers will not happen anytime soon (http://www.phoronix.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1454). And I don't think they will release any specs either. The only real thing to wait for are the discrete intel cards, IMO AMD/ATI (graphics card wise) is dead!