AMD First with Top-to-Bottom OpenGL(R) 4.0 and 3.3 Support on Windows(R) and Linux Platforms

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Apr 05, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- AMD (NYSE: AMD) today continued its proud tradition of driver firsts, announcing widespread support of the recently-published OpenGL(R) versions for Windows(R) 7, Windows(R) Vista, Windows(R) XP, and Linux(R) across select ATI Radeon(TM), ATI FirePro(TM) and ATI FireGL(TM) graphics cards. OpenGL(R) 4.0 is now supported on ATI Radeon(TM) HD 5900, HD 5800, HD 5700, HD 5600, HD 5500 and HD 5400 series graphics cards, and OpenGL(R) 3.3 is supported by all discrete graphics products from AMD - both consumer and professional graphics - released since the spring of 2007. The new functionality is made possible by a beta driver, available on the AMD website.

"AMD's ability to support OpenGL 4.0 and OpenGL 3.3 almost immediately after the release of their specifications is an incredible feat on the part of our OpenGL software team, and speaks volumes to the commitment and continued support for the many developers utilizing OpenGL," said Ben Bar-Haim, general manager, AMD Canada and corporate vice president, Software Engineering, AMD. "As a company that believes in and encourages open industry standards, maintaining OpenGL as a strong and viable graphics API is very important to AMD."

AMD's beta driver for OpenGL 4.0 and 3.3 includes:

• Full compatibility with the OpenGL 4.0 standard on AMD's most recent graphics products, the ATI Radeon(TM) HD 5900, HD 5800, HD 5700, HD 5600, HD 5500 and HD 5400 series:
  • Offloading of geometry tessellation from the CPU to the GPU, for a more flexible and productive workflow
  • On the ATI Radeon HD 5800 and HD 5900 series graphics cards, double precision processing, designed to enable more accurate modeling and higher quality rendering, applicable to both consumer and workstation uses1
  • Seamless interoperability between OpenGL and OpenCL(TM), or other external APIs
• Support for OpenGL 3.3 functionality across all of AMD's discrete graphics products - ATI Radeon(TM), ATI FirePro(TM) and ATI FireGL(TM) graphics cards - released since the spring of 2007

Supporting Resources

• AMD.com: ATI Catalyst(TM) OpenGL(R) 4.0 beta driver download
• AMD Developer Central blog: Ready, Willing and Able - AMD Supports OpenGL(R) 3.3 and OpenGL(R) 4.0
• Khronos Group press release: Khronos Unleashes Cutting-Edge, Cross-Platform Graphics Acceleration with OpenGL 4.0
• Twitter: Tweet out the news of AMD's OpenGL 4.0 and 3.3 support
• Twitter: Follow AMD graphics news on Twitter at @ATIGraphics
• Facebook: Become a fan of AMD technology on Facebook

About AMD

Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) is an innovative technology company dedicated to collaborating with customers and technology partners to ignite the next generation of computing and graphics solutions at work, home and play. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.

1. OpenGL 4.0 is fully supported on the ATI Radeon(TM) HD 5400, HD 5500, HD 5600 and HD 5700 series graphics cards, with the exception of double precision feature, a feature that will be enabled for those products at a later date.

AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, the ATI logo, FireGL, FirePro, Radeon, and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Other names are for informational purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE: AMD

AMD Public Relations
Dave Erskine, 905-882-2600 ext. 8477
dave.erskine@amd.com