Intel releases graphics programming manuals [LWN.net]

Intel releases graphics programming manuals

Posted Feb 1, 2008 22:28 UTC (Fri) by arjan (subscriber, #36785)
In reply to: Intel releases graphics programming manuals by rahvin
Parent article: Intel releases graphics programming manuals

Yes this was the announcement...
... what they actually released was a 2D register dump without even 2D acceleration info..

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Intel releases graphics programming manuals

Posted Feb 1, 2008 22:55 UTC (Fri) by daniels (subscriber, #16193) [Link]

And it turned out to be a very useful set of PDFs, too.  (Bear in mind that they're not
secreting away documentation: the only stuff they have is what they've already released, and
what they're currently working through the legal department to release.)

I'm sure you appreciate that it's extremely difficult to release these things -- the Intel
release didn't exactly happen overnight -- so why not cut your competitor some slack?

Intel releases graphics programming manuals

Posted Feb 2, 2008 0:12 UTC (Sat) by scottt (subscriber, #5028) [Link]

I think Intel deserve some bragging rights after investing in and releasing such a set of
in-depth technical documentation. That they were willing to pay technical writers to write
these docs then release them to the community surely deserves praise over AMD?

Intel releases graphics programming manuals

Posted Feb 2, 2008 0:27 UTC (Sat) by daniels (subscriber, #16193) [Link]

Absolutely -- what they've done is fantastic and they deserve no end of praise.

Intel releases graphics programming manuals

Posted Feb 2, 2008 1:11 UTC (Sat) by rahvin (subscriber, #16953) [Link]

I agree, Intel deserves immense amounts of praise, had they not made their move to open up
their hardware many others would likely not have followed. ATI doesn't deserve any praise.
They never delivered on their promises. AMD on the other hand deserves a round of applause.
They're the ones that released the hardware information and they are the ones paying Novell to
flesh a driver out that hopefully the community can take over.

The only point I tried to make was that AMD did release their information, not in the best
form, but I got the impression is was a "hey we better get this stuff out there!" after they
completed the acquisition of ATI. Rather than doing what Intel did and package everything up
nice and pretty before putting it out there they didn't want to wait six months and have
everyone disappointed in them. That's why IMO they wanted everyone to know that the ATI lies
of the past were over, so they released what they had available and are paying to get a driver
written (I think the guys at Novell also have direct access to the ATI hardware guys to ask
questions). I think that's commendable.

Given that nVidia is the only major vendor without an OSS driver (or at least the only one
without one under construction) and with manufacturers like DELL beginning the process of
requiring that their vendors have OSS drivers we will hopefully see some intense pressure and
possibly OEM losses that will force them to open up their cards as well. That pressure
wouldn't be possible had AMD not released the ATI specs. With only Intel in the OSS camp
nVidia had no pressure on the high end to release OSS drivers, they do now.

Intel releases graphics programming manuals

Posted Feb 2, 2008 1:50 UTC (Sat) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

Ya AMD has always been very good about their stuff. Better then Intel in the past. 

But ATI has sucked very much in the recent history, unfortunately. (as a seperate entity) It
seems that there is people in ATI that want to do the right thing, but corporations being what
they are, don't have enough support in the company to get it out the door. 

I understand better now the sort of stuff that is going on, now that I work for a company that
does some hardware/software development. All the different fractions, pressures, and divisions
in a company.  It can be quite a mess.. 

Both ATI and AMD were large, mature companies. Combining them probably performed the
equivelent of dropping a nuclear bomb on their corporate structure. I bet lots of people
inside that company now have little idea on what who they need to talk to and how to get the
hardware openned.. Legal folks, software folks, corporate folks, customer folks, hardware
folks, all are going to have a stake in it and have their own massive concerns.

For example Microsoft could (in a very sneaky manner) design the API for DirectX 11 to favor
NVidia's innovations and API extensions rather then ATI's. Could cause a significant boost to
Nvidia's performance and stability were ATI's stuff is going to seem 'old generation' and may
even require licenses from Nvidia to be compatable. This sort of thing could realy nail ATI to
the wall.

Intel releases graphics programming manuals

Posted Feb 13, 2008 11:00 UTC (Wed) by daenzer (subscriber, #7050) [Link]

> ATI doesn't deserve any praise.

Right - providing documentation, financial and other support to the relevant people for
developing free drivers (that are still being maintained in the open and widely used), almost
ten years ago - what a horrible thing to do. Shame on them.

</sarcasm>

P.S. Congrats to Intel on this release.