Driverheaven: We all know the current situation with both ATI and nVidia distributing their Linux drivers in a closed/proprietary form. Are there any changes (for ATI, of course) coming to this? After all, Linux is all about the community and enthusiasts would be able to help a lot more if at least a portion of the driver was open. What does ATI expect back from the community?

Matthew: There are no current plans for changing the proprietary nature of the drivers at this time. ATI is looking at community involvement in other areas which are strategically aligned with the direction that we are moving with the drivers.
Realistically, ATI does have active involvement for our ASICs outside of the current 3D chipsets. We have provided updates to the Open Source drivers for server, south bridge and 2d support for our current generation chips.

Driverheaven: What about complete OpenGL 2.0 support? Is it planned? If so, what is the (rough) estimate?

Matthew: Except for a few small extensions (non power-of-two textures), we have nearly complete support for GL 2.0. (Keep in mind that the Linux GL ABI spec (on SGI's web site) requires OpenGL 1.3 implemented statically, and other extensions presented via glxGetProcAddress) - hence, our client version string will still remain leading with 1.3 until the libGL changes to support versions beyond that.

Driverheaven: Is the performance gap between Linux and Windows caused by the fact that ATI is using DRI? If so, is ATI planning on finding/going with the alternative route?

Matthew: At this stage we are still focusing on using the DRI infrastructure for the drivers. The answer to question 1 is indicative of what we are doing.

Driverheaven: What is/will be the fate of ATI-Linux Bugzilla? How important is its part in the current driver development process?

Matthew: The ATI-Linux bugzilla is not related to ATI at all. It is a user community effort to improve on the level of clarity about problems that users are seeing and present possible workarounds.
We do look at bugzilla from time to time, and do know when certain issues will be fixed by a release.
I believe that the bugzilla was actually set up in reference to a forum post where it was asked if we tracked the issues thread. I responded that the thread was all nice, but didn't provide the granularity of information that is required to root cause and resolve an issue. Hence some active users created bugzilla.

Driverheaven: Is support for OverDrive in Linux planned?

Matthew: We are taking steps to include more of common code which is present in the Windows Drivers into Linux. As part of this, some of the feature sets that are available under Windows will eventually make it to Linux. OverDrive may be included in that if it makes technical sense.

Driverheaven: What is ATI's current stand on full ACPI support in Linux? Some users are having problems with ACPI functions, such as suspend.

Matthew: Although ACPI has been included in the kernel for quite some time, ACPI is only just becoming accepted as reliable. As such, we are planning, but have yet to begin supporting ACPI. With recent releases, on some mobile platforms APM suspend/resume should work.
There is pre-work that has been required before deploying ACPI support (updates to AGP and so on), this is progressing. I don't have any firm dates at this time on when this work will be completed.

Driverheaven: What is ATI's priority when developing Linux drivers for 3D hardware, games or more serious applications or maybe both?

Matthew: The Linux drivers are currently targeted at the Workstation market, with their higher requirements for stability and higher workloads. Gaming under Linux is a smaller market, but fortunately the changes and improvements that we make on the workstation will be generally applicable to the gaming market as well.
As OEM and AIB pressure for the consumer and gaming market under Linux grows, our focus will be responsive to that.
Occasionally as opportunity presents itself, we do fix some ongoing issues.

Driverheaven: What are plans in regards to the control panel? Will it take the shape and look of the CCC or will it remain a relatively plain control panel, which provides minimal functionality and remains more of an information applet than a control applet? Are there any plans for a unified (to the extent possible) installer? Or will the installer remain distro-specific?

Matthew: We are progressing on a distribution neutral installer. Our control panel will remain mostly the same for the short term, although we are working on a more formalized patch receipt process to allow us to pick up the improvements to the control panel that the user community has created.

Driverheaven: Support for All-In-Wonder/TV Wonder/HDTV Wonder cards, IGP motherboards, Mobility Radeon and now Radeon Xpress. What is the current status or at least a plan for it?

Matthew: Currently our drivers support the chips in the Workstation, AIW, Desktop, and Mobility segments. We are hoping to release a driver capable of supporting the RADEON XPRESS 200 chipsets in the near future.

Driverheaven: How many people are currently working on Linux drivers? Are there plans to increase the size of the development team?

Matthew: Current staffing is something that will not be presented publicly. As Terry has stated elsewhere, there has been considerable increases already with our staff (as evidenced by our accelerated development).

Driverheaven: Will there be a beta program similar to Windows beta program? I am sure something like this exists, but will it become more open?

Matthew: There is a beta program that we periodically update from the community. It is unlikely that we will have a broader beta program in the short term.

Driverheaven: And last, but not least. Is any official support scheme planned? DriverHeaven or Rage3D forums are a good start, and it seems that even the simplest form of official support would only convince users that ATI is truly serious about Linux.

Matthew: As with our Windows CATALYST drivers we find that forums such as the ones found on driverheaven are actually the best way for helping out our end users. It allows both ATI employees and other forum members to help out others almost instantaneously so it's the best of both worlds.

 

Special thanks to Jon Carvill, Terry Makedon, Chris Hook, Vitaly Pecharsky, Jr. and Panagiotis Vagiakos for their help with this interview