"We've talked all too often about AtomBIOS and there being two
different open-source drivers that support the same ATI Radeon
hardware with the key architectural difference between the two just
being the use of this video BIOS abstraction layer. From the
beginning, AMD was planning to have their Novell partners use
AtomBIOS when writing this new (at the time, R500/600) driver, but
the developers ultimately declined. These developers have expressed
their opinions on AtomBIOS, which range from it being an unbearable
mess to this design being nothing more than writing open-source
code to power someone else's closed-source work. However, under
pressure by AMD, the developers are now preparing to use AtomBIOS
to a much greater extent within the xf86-video-radeonhd driver. In
this article we'll tell you more about what's gone on and where you
can checkout this AtomBIOS-bearing RadeonHD driver..."
