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OpenSNAP geplant/OpenSNAP planned

Started by Saijin_Naib, 2008.04.09, 05:12:48

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RobertM

Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2009.12.17, 23:13:42
Why would the GRADD stuff have to be removed? Isn't it available in the DDK and other documentation?

It's just an uneducated guess. But as far as the law goes, it doesn't matter if it's obtainable via other means if the license SciTech was given indicated they could not release the source to it.


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rwklein

Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2009.12.17, 23:13:42
Why would the GRADD stuff have to be removed? Isn't it available in the DDK and other documentation?

Here is the exact thing! Not everything of GRADD is in de the DDK. I know from the guys at Scitech that they did not have access to the GRADD stuff other then in the DDK. For fixes to GRADD they have to count on IBM.
That is not to say it can't fixed/updated. GRADD.SYS for Panorama was partly updated by the eCS development team :-)

Roderick Klein
Mensys

mobybrick

AFAICR, the part of the code that would have to be removed wouldn't be GRADD (as I don't think it contains anything more than was available on the DDK) but... SciTech I believe had an NDA with ATI. I suspect that the ATI specific code would have to be removed... and as that is more than half of the supported chipsets, I'm afraid that renders most of the product far less useful.

MenSys, or whoever, would need to take on SNAP on a commercial basis - buy the IP - and ask ATI to be successors under the NDA. It would then need to remain closed-source.

So, IMHO, asking the new owners of SNAP to open-source it is counter-productive. Not only would it be expensive to get the code reworked to get the ATI stuff removed, it might actually be cheaper just to buy the rights to the code and IP - assuming MenSys would be intrested in doing so.

Moby.

magog

#33
Forget about GRADD that's not an issue. GRADD was IBMs attempt to get more video drivers by reducing the efford needed to get a working driver. It allows to implement hardware functionality in parts. Parts not covered are done in software (--> softdraw.dll).
Best example is GenGRADD which is doing everything in software using VESA functions. GRADD allows direct hardware access which SciTech used. I don't think IBM added special functions not available in the GRADD DDK.

As I said before I'm not sure Altrichmond has access to the source code of the closed source drivers as SciTech developed them in Partnership with ATI (plus some stuff under NDA with Matrox). If they (Altrichmond) have the full code, I'm sure at least ATI had to agree (most likely also Matrox).
If there are parts in the SNAP base that might be a problem but I'm not sure that's the case.
To get more information I strongly suggest to get in touch with Kendall Bennett (directly or over Steve Wendt).
Both should be able to clear the basic questions currently discussed here (are NDAs and code developed using NDAs part of the SNAP package Altrichmond got,...). After that you have to deal with Altrichmond directly.
Regards,
Juergen
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