"Given their rapid acceptance in corporate environments, operating systems such as Linux and FreeBSD provide tremendous opportunities to extend NVIDIA's graphics leadership, from both a hardware and software perspective," said Lewis Wagman, director of software product marketing at NVIDIA. "We have built dedicated development teams to ensure that our products deliver the industry's best features and performance under Linux and we have taken special steps to deliver unmatched technical support and deployment assistance for OEMs and other companies interested in migrating to a PC platform utilising both Linux and an NVIDIA graphics or platform solutions."
All NVIDIA products, including the GeForceTM, GeForce Go, and NVIDIA Quadro® family of graphics solutions, as well as the NVIDIA nForceTM platform processors, have been fully optimised for the Linux operating system for all major PC platforms, including those based on the Intel® Pentium®, Intel Itanium®, and AMD AthlonTM CPUs. Today's software release also marks the first time a graphics manufacturer has publicly released Linux drivers for AMD's upcoming Hammer platform, providing developers and OEMs an early ability to take advantage of AMD's eagerly anticipated Athlon 64 processors before they are officially released to the market.
"We applaud NVIDIA for recognising the importance of delivering stable, high-performing software solutions and taking the initiative to deliver a solid graphics and multimedia platform for users of the Linux operating system," said Tim Sweeney of Epic Games, makers of the renowned Unreal Engine. "Together with NVIDIA, we look forward to giving consumers a chance to experience games built on Unreal Technology on a variety of operating systems and PC platforms-including those built around the upcoming AMD Athlon 64 processor technology."
With NVIDIA's latest software release, users of NVIDIA Quadro-based graphics solutions can look forward to performance improvements by up to 30%, compared to previous driver versions . Additionally, professional users will appreciate the performance parity on Linux versus traditional operating systems, support for multi-monitor configurations and certifications for Maya and Softimage|XSI, Shake, oil industry visual interpretive technologies and other applications used in today's post production, special effects houses and other professional markets.
"As the leading supplier of volume visualisation and interpretation technology for the upstream oil and gas industry, it is imperative that we carefully select the underlying graphics hardware technologies to deliver the power, performance and reliability required for accurate and detailed geologic analysis," said Yin Cheung, vice president and director of technology at Magic Earth. "NVIDIA's Quadro4 XGL professional graphics solutions deliver the performance, compatibility and feature set for our desktop/Linux offering that enables Magic Earth's GeoProbe to keep our customers at the leading edge in finding and producing oil and gas."
"Our major OEM partners, including Dell, IBM, and HP, turn to NVIDIA for a one-stop solution for hardware, software and dedicated support for Linux solutions," continued Wagman. "It is the success of our valued customers such as Magic Earth that propel us to continue to deliver unparalleled support and hardware for all platforms and operating systems, including Linux and we recognise what the importance of delivering this full turnkey solution means to our overall business success."
Other driver enhancements delivered by NVIDIA UDA include:
Full support for pixel and vertex shaders for NVIDIA desktop and workstation GPUs
Full support for OpenGL 1.4 with CineFX architecture and emulation mode for NVIDIA desktop and workstation GPUs
Multi-monitor support for NVIDIA desktop, workstation and mobile GPUs
Power management for hibernate and resume modes for NVIDIA mobile GPUs
Full hot key support for NVIDIA mobile GPUs
Full support for platform technologies provided by NVIDIA nForce platform processors, including FireWire®, audio, and networking capabilities
Additionally, end users who have technical support issues using NVIDIA processors under Linux can send e-mail directly to NVIDIA at: linux-bugs@nvidia.com, or receive assistance by visiting a public forum at: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=14.
"Since its debut in August 2002, our Linux support forum has been bustling with activity. In only four months, Linux forum members have posted close to 7,000 support messages," commented Mike Chambers, manager of nV News, a popular technology Web site. "The forum is a gold mine of information with many experienced members willing to lend a hand. In fact, the most popular threads are instructions on getting NVIDIA-based graphics cards optimised for various distributions of Linux, including Red Hat, Mandrake LinuxTM, and FreeBSD."
NVIDIA Linux drivers can be downloaded for free by visiting: www.nvidia.co.uk.