Precision Insight to Develop 3D Linux Drivers for Matrox

Graphics card manufacturer Matrox, Inc. announced today that Precision Insight Inc. will develop the Martrox G400 xFree86 4.0 Direct Rendering Infrastructure driver to bring 3D support and performance to Linux.

Direct Rendering Infrastructure was developed by Precision Insight, Inc. to solve the problem of bringing 3D rendering to PCs that was previously only available on costly workstations. To read more about DRI and to view sketches of data control and flow, visit Precision Insight's Web site.

The driver will be released with two versions. Version 1.0 for the G400 chip only will feature all support in the non-DRI driver as well as multi-texturing capabilities. It will also allow multiple 2D and 3D environments to be open as the hardware renders each direct-rendering capable environment individually. Version 2.0 for both the G400 and G200 chip will feature everything in the v1.0 driver and also add support for the G200 chip and the G400 DualHead Display.

As part of the deal, Precision Insight will post the source code for the drivers on its Web site to promote further development in the Linux community.

This is good news for the Linux community as Matrox brings fantastic 3D capabilities to the plates of hungry Linux gamers everywhere.

This is not the first time Matrox has shown its support for the Linux community. In Mid-December, Matrox announced that due to the inclusion of the OpenGL GLX driver, which was developed by the open source Linux community, gamers could play Quake III Arena using the G400 graphics card.

For more information visit Matrox.com.