Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 25 Oct 2004 23:55:58 -0400 | From | Jon Smirl <> | Subject | Re: HARDWARE: Open-Source-Friendly Graphics Cards -- Viable? |
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On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 12:36:52 +1000, Dave Airlie <airlied@gmail.com> wrote: > ATI and Nvidia not open-sourcing 3D stuff for one simple reason, IP > issues. It is also why Intel are not even giving out their later > chipsets docs to anyone by Tungsten, if anyone tells you differently > send them to me :-)
After talking to representatives of both companies, it seems that the patent system has completely perverted the IP situation between them. But are staying secret because of fear of being sued by the other for infringement. This is exactly the opposite of what full disclosure of patents was supposed to achieve.
I wish they could just get together and agree not to sue each other over stupid things like register designs and programming models. The designs are horrible on both cards due to accumulation of historical cruft. Save the lawsuits for the core of the engines if you really have to sue each other.
-- Jon Smirl jonsmirl@gmail.com - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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