Platoali <platoali <at> gmail.com> writes:
> Although all tests have been run on windows. It seems that Ati have > better hardware and it is also going to be more open source friendly > in near future. I'm planning to use this workstation for 3 or 4 years > or even more. So I'm thinking to risk a little and bet on AMD , and > hope that they deserve my hard earned money. but I'm not sure yet. I > need to do a little more search about AMD plans, and current > development status of ATI driver. One thing I'd like to point out, from what I've read. Many people think that AMD/ATI can just release sources. Most of the time, due to the fact that other companies license software and resell their(ati) hardware designs, so AMD/ATI is legally bound not to release those sources directly. So that is why they publish documentation (whenever possible) about the specifics of the graphics hardware. I for one, as a firmware engineer, believe that AMD/ATI have turned a "significant corner" in their attitude and subsequent plans to position their company to be very attractive to the open source community. I also believe that it make take some more months to see the fruit of these efforts and some years for this fruit to become widespread. (Things always take a while with technology and lawyers). But, these are my opinions, not, in any way actually connect to AMD/ATI. (over simplified VLSI perspective): There is something larger at work here, imho. That is that the GPU /cellprocessor /microprocessor are merging onto the same substrate, for a variety of reasons. The GPU/Cell is a wonderfully powerful processor for searching and sorting and parallel algorithms of all sorts. As such many technical efforts are underway to utilize the GPU/Cell processor as a companion to the CPU. At some point, all of the proprietary-ness of GPU/Cell processor will become obsolete, and Intel is at a particular "sweet spot" since they are the commander of the smallest (fastest) physics at this point in time. In a few years the entire territorial madness that surrounds GPU/Cell processors may just be a bad memory. Hard to predict, but, my money is on AMD/ATI. http://lwn.net/Articles/260676/ Here's an interesting link. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=fosdem_08_bridgman&num=1 -- gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
