AMD Details Strategic Open Source Graphics Driver Development Initiative

Story by Geo - Friday 07th September 2007, 08:08:00 AM

AMD Works with Novell to Accelerate Open Source Linux Driver Initiative Targeting Developers for ATI Radeon(TM) X1000 Series and ATI Radeon(TM) HD 2000 Series Graphics Processors

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AMD (NYSE: AMD - News ) today announced a major strategic initiative to support the Open Source development community for ATI Radeon(TM) graphics processors. The week of September 10th, AMD plans to provide an open source information and development package supporting the ATI Radeon(TM) HD 2000 series as well as ATI Radeon(TM) X1000 series of graphics processing units (GPU) on Linux desktops. To accelerate this initiative, AMD partnered with Novell's SuSE Linux engineering team. The initial release includes source code and hardware specifications to engage the Open Source community for collaboration on 2D graphics drivers. Over the following months, AMD will work with the community to enable 2D, 3D and video playback acceleration to provide the best possible experience on the Linux desktop. This strategy complements and enhances AMD's existing support of the Linux community through its regularly released high performance Catalyst driver.

"AMD has a proven track record of collaboration with the software eco-system to support the needs of the Open Source community," said Phil Hester, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at AMD. "With this announcement we're demonstrating our commitment to respond to the needs of the Open Source community and adopt a consistent approach across CPU and GPU technologies. By supporting open source drivers on our industry-leading ATI Radeon graphics processors we accelerate innovation across the entire AMD platform."

AMD and Novell have worked closely together for a number of years to bring breakthrough technology to the open source market. With this driver announcement, AMD and Novell continue their successful collaboration to deliver innovative solutions to the marketplace.

"The lack of open source drivers for graphics hardware has long been a major obstacle for Linux developers and Linux desktop users," said Nat Friedman, chief technology and strategy officer for Open Source at Novell. "Our ultimate goal is complete, high-quality open source drivers for all video hardware. Today's announcement brings us one major step closer. Novell is pleased to have extended our collaboration with AMD to deliver the initial drivers that will allow Open Source developers to make the Linux experience even better on desktops, laptops and workstations, and we look forward to contributing this initial code to X.Org."

As part of the process AMD consulted with leading members of the Open Source community and the X.Org Community to ensure that the driver addressed the needs of both Open Source developers and Linux users. Most importantly, the release of these specifications will allow the development community to partner with AMD to drive new innovations for the Linux desktop. AMD will provide on going support for this project with an in-house development team.

"AMD announced its intention to extend support of open source ATI drivers at Red Hat's Summit conference in May of this year, so we are delighted that the work necessary to achieve this has come to fruition," said Brian Stevens, Red Hat's Chief Technology Officer. "This action affirms AMD's commitment to Linux and the Open Source community and will greatly improve the "out-of-box" experience for users. AMD's decision has a strong supporting business case, demonstrating that Linux clients represent a significant market opportunity. It is a bold decision for AMD, and they deserve full credit."

"The combination of AMD's graphics hardware and open source innovation will accelerate the emergence of new desktop computing technologies", said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu. "AMD's timing is excellent, given the surge in Linux desktop adoption and the focus now in the Open Source community on next generation visualization and desktop interaction models."

About AMD

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD - News ) is a leading global provider of innovative processing solutions in the computing, graphics and consumer electronics markets. AMD is dedicated to driving open innovation, choice and industry growth by delivering superior customer-centric solutions that empower consumers and businesses worldwide. For more information, visit www.amd.com .

Cautionary Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements concerning, among other things, future and planned products, technologies, specifications, features, performance and introduction schedules, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are commonly identified by words such as "would," "may," "expects," "believes," "plans," "intends," "projects" and other terms with similar meaning. Investors are cautioned that the forward-looking statements in this release are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the date of this release and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. Risks include the possibility that Intel Corporation's pricing, marketing and rebating programs, product bundling, standard setting, new product introductions or other activities targeting AMD's business will prevent attainment of AMD's current plans; AMD will require additional funding and may not be able to raise funds on favorable terms or at all; customers stop buying AMD's products or materially reduce their operations or demand for its products; AMD will be unable to develop, launch and ramp new products and technologies in the volumes and mix required by the market and at mature yields on a timely basis; global business and economic conditions will worsen; AMD will be unable to transition to advanced manufacturing process technologies in a timely and effective way; and AMD will be unable to maintain the requisite level of investment in research and development and capacity. Investors are urged to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in AMD's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including but not limited to the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2007.

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