Free and open-source graphics device driver: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:39, 7 June 2022

Revision as of 16:47, 7 June 2022

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*Radeonsi supports all [[Graphics Core Next]]-based GPUs: [[Radeon HD 7000 Series|HD 7000]], [[Radeon HD 8000 Series|HD 8000]] and [[AMD Radeon Rx 200 Series|Rx 200]] (Southern Islands, Sea Islands and Volcanic Islands).

An up-to-date feature matrix is available,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/RadeonFeature|title=Radeon Feature|access-date=15 November 2017}}</ref> and there is support for [[Video Coding Engine]]<ref name="VCE">{{cite web |url=http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/mesa-dev/2014-February/053203.html |title=initial VCE support in Linux kernel and in the Mesa driver}}</ref> and [[Unified Video Decoder]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2014-February/054159.html |title=drm-next-3.15 Feb 18}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2014-March/054999.html |title=drm-next-3.15 Mar 04}}</ref> The free and open-source Radeon graphics device drivers are not reverse-engineered, but are based on documentation released by AMD without the requirement to sign a [[non-disclosure agreement]] (NDA).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://developer.amd.com/resources/documentation-articles/developer-guides-manuals/ |title=AMD Developer Guides |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130716090237/http://developer.amd.com/resources/documentation-articles/developer-guides-manuals/ |archive-date=2013-07-16 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.x.org/docs/AMD/ |title=Documentation provided by AMD}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.botchco.com/agd5f/?p=58 |title=AMD 3D Documentation list |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/6KC0EClBX?url=http://www.botchco.com/agd5f/?p=58 |archive-date=2013-10-07 }}</ref> Documentation began to be gradually released in 2007.<ref>{{cite web |url = https://lwn.net/Articles/248227/ | title = AMD to open up graphics specs |publisher=[[LWN.net]] |date=2007-09-05 |access-date=2014-07-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NjA0Ng |title=AMD: GPU Specifications Without NDAs! |date=2007-09-10 |access-date=2014-07-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://airlied.livejournal.com/50613.html |title=AMD hand me specs on a CD |author=David Airlie |date=2007-09-13 |access-date=2014-07-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022064328/http://airlied.livejournal.com/50613.html |archive-date=2012-10-22 }}</ref> This is in contrast to AMD's main competitor in the graphics field, [[Nvidia]], which until recently has only had a proprietary driver similar to [[AMD Catalyst]] but provides no support to free-graphics initiatives, and as of 5/19/2022 only supports new cards and at "alpha quality" with its open source initiative.<ref name="NvidiaNouveau"/> <ref>{{cite web |url=https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-releases-open-source-gpu-kernel-modules/ |title=Documentation provided by Nvidia}}</ref>

In addition to providing the necessary documentation, AMD employees contribute code to support their hardware and features.<ref name="VCE" />