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AMD

Submission + - AMD Releases Open-Source Fusion Driver (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: AMD has just released open-source Linux driver support for their Fusion APUs, primarily for the first Ontario processor. As detailed on Phoronix, this includes support for kernel mode-setting, 2D acceleration, and 3D acceleration via both Mesa and Gallium3D graphics drivers.
Sun Microsystems

Submission + - Running ZFS Natively On Linux Not As Fast As Btrfs (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It's been known that ZFS is coming to Linux in the form of a native kernel module done by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories and KQ Infotech. The ZFS module is still in closed testing on KQ infotech's side (but LLNL's ZFS code is publicly available), and now Phoronix has tried out the ZFS file-system on Linux along with carrying out some tests. ZFS on Linux via this native module is much faster than using ZFS-FUSE, but the Solaris file-system in most areas is not nearly as fast as EXT4, Btrfs, and XFS.
Linux

Submission + - 5 Years Of Linux Kernel Releases Benchmarked (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Phoronix has published benchmarks of the past five years worth of Linux kernel releases, from the Linux 2.6.12 through Linux 2.6.37 (dev) releases. The results from these benchmarks of 26 versions of the Linux kernel show that in fact for several areas the Linux kernel is not getting slower as more features are added, but rather it's improving with few exceptions.
Games

Submission + - More evidence for Steam games on Linux

Submitted by
SheeEttin
SheeEttin writes: "Back in November 2008, Phoronix reported that Linux libraries appeared in the Left 4 Dead demo (also on Slashdot), and then in March, Valve announced that Steam and the Source engine were coming to Mac OS X
Now, Phoronix reports that launcher scripts included with the (closed beta) Mac version of Steam include explicit support for launching a Linux version."
Power

Submission + - What Chernobyl Looks Like In 2010 (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The editor of Phoronix.com has toured Chernobyl's Zone of Alienation (the 30km zone surrounding the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant) to see what the area still looks like 24 years after the world's largest nuclear disaster. Many photographs from touring Chernobyl in 2010 have now been published and some related text, showing off the power plant and its RBMK reactors, the town of Pripyat, the town of Chernobyl, and the Red Forest. The 24th anniversary of this deadly nuclear disaster will be on April 26.
Debian

Submission + - Benchmarks of Debian GNU/kFreeBSD vs. GNU/Linux (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Debian Squeeze release is going to be accompanied by a first-rate kFreeBSD port and now early benchmarks of this port have started coming out using daily install images. The Debian GNU/kFreeBSD project is marrying the FreeBSD kernel with a GNU userland and glibc while making most of the Debian repository packages available for kfreebsd-i386 and kfreebsd-amd64. The first Debian GNU/kFreeBSD benchmarks compare the performance of it to Debian GNU/Linux with the 2.6.30 kernel while the rest of the packages are the same. Results are shown for both i386 and x86_64 flavors. Debian GNU/kFreeBSD may be running well, but it has a lot of catching up to do in terms of speed against Linux.
Graphics

Submission + - AMD's OverDrive & CrossFire Come To Linux (phoronix.com)

Submitted by twljagflba
twljagflba writes: Since last year AMD has made ATI increasingly Linux friendly by releasing 3D programming guides and helping out the open-source community. At the same time they have been continuing to develop their binary Catalyst driver for the Linux platform and most recently they delivered same-day support for their new graphics cards. Today though they have released the Catalyst 8.8 Linux driver that adds two very important features: CrossFire and OverDrive support for Linux. Linux users are now able to use CrossFire to split the rendering workload between multiple GPUs and they're also able to overclock their graphics cards now using the binary-only driver. Phoronix has a complete run-down on both features — including benchmarks — in their AMD OverDrive on Linux and ATI Radeon CrossFire On Linux articles. Other features were also introduced in this update such as Linux 2.6.26 kernel support, Adaptive Anti-Aliasing, and other fixes. What will they introduce next for the Linux consumer?
Graphics

Submission + - AMD Makes An Evolutionary Leap In Linux Support (phoronix.com) 1

Submitted by
Michael
Michael writes: "Back in September AMD had announced a new ATI Linux driver as well as opening up their GPU specifications, and today they have taken an additional step to better support the Linux OS. With the just-announced Radeon HD 4850 "RV770" they have provided same-day Linux support and the Linux driver is now shipping along side the Windows driver on their product CDs. In addition, they are also encouraging their AIB partners to showcase Tux on the product packaging as a sign of Linux support. Last but certainly not least, AMD is committed from top-to-bottom product support on Linux and they will be introducing high-end features in their Linux driver such as MultiGPU CrossFire technology. Phoronix has a run-down on AMD's evolutionary leap in Linux support along with information on the open-source support for the RV770 GPU."
X

Submission + - The Sorry State Of X.Org? (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Phoronix has up an article looking at the release of X Server 1.4.1. This maintenance release for X.Org, which the open-source operating systems depend upon for living in a graphically-rich world, is coming more than 200 days late and it doesn't even clear the BugZilla release blocker bug. Further showing signs of problems, the next major release of X.Org was scheduled to be released in February... and then May... and now it's missing with no sign of when a release will occur. There's still more than three dozen outstanding bugs. This forthcoming release (X.Org 7.4) will also ship with a slimmer set of features than what was initially planned. What can the Linux community do to improve this crucial part of the OS?
Hardware Hacking

Submission + - Phoronix Releases Linux Benchmarking Platform (phoronix-test-suite.com) 1

Submitted by KernelPie
KernelPie writes: The Linux hardware site Phoronix.com has announced the release of Phoronix Test Suite 1.0, a Linux-based testing platform designed for benchmarking software and hardware. This suite ships with 57 tests and 23 test suites, which contain everything from open-source games to file encryption to encoding software. In addition, they have a global database where users can submit benchmark results and more — with over 1,000 submissions already. From the press release: "The Phoronix Test Suite is an impressive, fast-developing general-purpose testing suite for both software and hardware on Linux...Its range and flexibility set it apart from the current batch of benchmarking tools," said Carla Schroder, author of The Linux Cookbook and The Linux Networking Cookbook. "It has an especially interesting and useful feature that I believe is unique: a public repository for sharing and comparing test results, and replicating tests performed by other users. This is a great tool for system tuning and understanding what your own test results really mean. I think this is going to become one of the most popular and useful Linux benchmarking suites." This testing software is licensed under the GPLv3 and can be downloaded here.
GUI

Submission + - Linux Gets Kernel-Based Modesetting (phoronix.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Next month when Fedora 9 is released it will be the first Linux distribution with support for kernel mode-setting, which is (surprisingly) a feature end-users should take note over. Kernel-based modesetting provides a flicker-free boot process, faster and more reliable VT switching, a Linux BSOD, and of most interest is much-improved suspend/resume support! The process isn't easy of moving the modesetting code from the X.Org video driver into the Linux kernel, but it should become official with the Linux 2.6.27 kernel and the Intel video driver can already use this technology. Phoronix has a preview of kernel-based modesetting covering more of this new Linux feature accompanied by videos showing the dramatic improvements in virtual terminal switching.
Graphics

Submission + - NVIDIA Performance On Linux, Windows, & Solari (phoronix.com)

Submitted by AtomBOB
AtomBOB writes: Phoronix has up an article comparing the performance of a Quadro graphics card on Windows Vista Ultimate, Solaris Express Developer, and Ubuntu Linux. The graphics card used was a NVIDIA Quadro FX 1700 mid-range workstation part. The cross-platform testing used was SPECViewPerf 9.0 from SPEC. This workstation OS graphics comparison comes a few months since they last carried out cross-platform consumer tests. From the article: "Using the Quadro FX1700 512MB and the latest display drivers, Windows Vista wasn't the decisive winner, but the loser...Ubuntu 8.04 Alpha 5 with the 169.12 driver had overall produced the fastest results within SPECViewPerf. In only three benchmarks had Solaris Express Developer 1/08 outpaced Ubuntu Linux, but with two of these tests the results were almost identical."
Programming

Submission + - AMD Releases 3D Programming Documentation (phoronix.com)

Submitted by
Michael Larabel
Michael Larabel writes: "With the Free Open Source Developers' European Meeting (FOSDEM) starting today, where John Bridgman of AMD will be addressing the X.Org developers, AMD has this morning released their 3D programming documentation. This information covers not only the recent R500 series, but goes back in detail to the R300/400 series. This is another one of AMD's open source documentation offerings, which they had started doing at the X Developer Summit 2007 with releasing 900 pages of basic documentation. Phoronix has a detailed analysis of what is being offered with today's information as well as information on sample code being released soon. This information will allow open source 3D/OpenGL work to get underway with ATI's newer graphics cards."

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