AMD has released "the fundamental Linux code" needed to develop open-source 3D-acceleration drivers for its R600 and R700 ATI graphic-processors series.

This is good news not only for those wishing to create drivers for those potent GPU series - known to non-AMD watchers by their marketing names of ATI Radeon HD 2x00 (http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/AboutAMD/0,,51_52_1991~117414,00.html), HD 3x00 (http://ati.amd.com/products/hd3000seriesmob.html) (both R600), and Radeon HD 4x00 (http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonhd4800/index.html) (R700) - but also for the legions of non-coding Linux-lovers who are lusting for access to the R600/700's 3D powers.

According to a Phoronix (http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=amd_r600_oss_3d&num=1), the bulk of the credit goes to AMD engineers John Bridgman and Alex Deucher, who "sanitized" the code of all proprietary non-essentials, then shepherded its approval through the AMD honcho-gauntlet so that it could be released "without any NDAs or other string [sic] attached."

Coupled with AMD's announcement that it would support the recently released (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/09/opencl_1_released/) open-source OpenCL 1.0 (http://www.khronos.org/news/press/releases/the_khronos_group_releases_opencl_1.0_specification/) spec, which enables GPUs to be used for general-purpose computing (GPGPU (http://www.gpgpu.org/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi/index.html)), it appears that the GPUniverse is moving slowly but steadily towards an Open Source Software (OSS) model - although Nvidia, from all reports, is dragging its feet when it comes to open-sourcing its drivers.

The OSS future looks bright for GPUs: Intel is open with its drivers and AMD is catching - has caught? - up. Apple introduced OpenCL, and Intel, Nvidia, and AMD/ATI have announced their support. OSS development should proceed apace, both in 3D acceleration and GPGPU.

As one poster on Slashdot (http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/12/30/0337204) waxed enthusiastically, such power would be "useful for cracking WEP/WPA keys." ®

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