One suggestion that was made recently was for AMD to supply packages containing only HW microcode images for AMD GPUs... you would still be using a non-free package but you would not have to enable the entire non-free Debian package that contains both real "firmware" and HW microcode for a number of different vendors.
Some people felt that would be a big help while others felt it would not make any difference - how do you feel about that ? >-----Original Message----- >From: Bridgman, John >Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 10:22 PM >To: Huang, Ray; Frederique >Cc: amd-gfx@lists.freedesktop.org >Subject: RE: AMD and free and open source software > >Right... the microcode is part of the HW design; some vendors build the >microcode images into the chip, while others have the BIOS or driver load >them at start-up. > >The industry is generally moving to driver-loaded microcode, but I don't >believe any vendor is planning to start opening up their hardware designs. > >Thanks, >John > >>-----Original Message----- >>From: amd-gfx [mailto:amd-gfx-boun...@lists.freedesktop.org] On Behalf >>Of Huang Rui >>Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2016 10:15 PM >>To: Frederique >>Cc: amd-gfx@lists.freedesktop.org >>Subject: Re: AMD and free and open source software >> >>We don't have the plan to open up firmware source. >> >>Thanks, >>Rui >> >>On Thu, Sep 01, 2016 at 04:16:59AM +0800, Frederique wrote: >>> Dear Huang Rui, >>> >>> I recently swapped my NVIDIA Geforce 980 Ti for an AMD R9 Fury >>> because of the devoted efforts that are being made towards a free and >>> open source software driver. >>> >>> I will be sticking with AMD for as long as this effort continues and >>> extends. >>> >>> I have one question however. I use Debian, and right now I am only >>> one non-free package away from being free, this is the AMD Graphics >>> Firmware package. Will AMD make an effort to open up the firmware >>> bits too? If not, is there any particular reason why this is being held >>> back? >>> >>> Thank you for your time. >>> >>> Sincerely yours, >>> Frederique >>_______________________________________________ >>amd-gfx mailing list >>amd-gfx@lists.freedesktop.org >>https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/amd-gfx _______________________________________________ amd-gfx mailing list amd-gfx@lists.freedesktop.org https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/amd-gfx
