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40-453: AMD Software (formerly known as Radeon Software ) is a device driver and utility software package for AMD 's Radeon graphics cards and APUs . Its graphical user interface is built with Qt and is compatible with 64-bit Windows and Linux distributions . AMD Software includes the following feature set: Radeon Anti-Lag reduces input latency. It helps when the GPU is bottlenecking

80-618: A message-based protocol for communicating with their devices—as user-mode drivers. If such drivers malfunction, they do not cause system instability. The Kernel-Mode Driver Framework (KMDF) model continues to allow development of kernel-mode device drivers, but attempts to provide standard implementations of functions that are known to cause problems, including cancellation of I/O operations, power management, and plug and play device support. Apple has an open-source framework for developing drivers on macOS , called I/O Kit. In Linux environments, programmers can build device drivers as parts of

120-451: A device driver implementing these functions would communicate to the particular serial port controller installed on a user's computer. The commands needed to control a 16550 UART are much different from the commands needed to control an FTDI serial port converter, but each hardware-specific device driver abstracts these details into the same (or similar) software interface. Writing a device driver requires an in-depth understanding of how

160-439: A resolution in the one mode available. This feature is made possible through the addition of two new Eyefinity display modes, Fit and Expand, which join the traditional Fill mode. In both Fit and Expand modes, AMD is compensating for the mismatched resolutions by creating a virtual desktop that is of a different resolution from those of the monitors, and then either padding it out or cropping it as necessary. Before Eyefinity, there

200-437: A target for exploits . Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) uses signed, old drivers that contain flaws that allow hackers to insert malicious code into the kernel. Drivers that may be vulnerable include those for WiFi and Bluetooth, gaming/graphics drivers, and drivers for printers. There is a lack of effective kernel vulnerability detection tools, especially for closed-source OSes such as Microsoft Windows where

240-563: Is important that the hardware manufacturer provide information on how the device communicates. Although this information can instead be learned by reverse engineering , this is much more difficult with hardware than it is with software. Microsoft has attempted to reduce system instability due to poorly written device drivers by creating a new framework for driver development, called Windows Driver Frameworks (WDF). This includes User-Mode Driver Framework (UMDF) that encourages development of certain types of drivers—primarily those that implement

280-407: Is improved stability, since a poorly written user-mode device driver cannot crash the system by overwriting kernel memory. Because of the diversity of modern hardware and operating systems, drivers operate in many different environments. Drivers may interface with: Common levels of abstraction for device drivers include: So choosing and installing the correct device drivers for given hardware

320-472: Is often a key component of computer system configuration. Virtual device drivers represent a particular variant of device drivers. They are used to emulate a hardware device, particularly in virtualization environments, for example when a DOS program is run on a Microsoft Windows computer or when a guest operating system is run on, for example, a Xen host. Instead of enabling the guest operating system to dialog with hardware, virtual device drivers take

360-737: Is part of AMD Software. Under Microsoft Windows the support for AMD TrueAudio is codenamed "ACP" (for audio co-processor) and implemented via "ACP user service" (amdacpusrsvc.exe) , a background service that helps manage audio tasks in games. Under Linux, AMD TrueAudio is codenamed "acp" as well: some code regarding this can be found in the /drivers/gpu/drm/radeon directory of the Linux kernel sources. AMD Software includes support for AMD PowerPlay , AMD PowerTune and AMD ZeroCore Power , AMD's set of technologies to reduce energy consumption in their graphics products. The AMD Software device driver supports multiple rendering interfaces, all designed to give

400-505: Is possible for TeraScale 2 and 3 with Radeon Software Crimson Edition Beta (driver version 15.30 or higher like Crimson Beta 16.2.1). OpenCL support will be lost, but it can be recovered by copying the relevant files from a previous package like Radeon Software 15.11.1 Beta. Beta drivers do not support HDCP . OpenGL 4.5 is available for GCN with version 16.3 or higher. OpenGL 4.x compliance requires supporting FP64 shaders. These are implemented by emulation on some TeraScale GPUs. OpenGL 4.6

440-710: Is supported in AMD Adrenalin 18.4.1 Graphics Driver on Windows 7 SP1 , 10 version 1803 (April 2018 update) for AMD Radeon HD 7700+, HD 8500+ and newer. Released April 2018. Vulkan 1.0 is available with Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.3.2 or higher for GCN. Vulkan 1.1 with Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.3.3 or higher. Vulkan 1.2 with Adrenalin 20.1.2 or higher. Vulkan 1.3 with Adrenalin 22.1.2 or higher. The AMD Software device driver supports multiple interfaces, all designed to give user-space programs, such as GStreamer or HandBrake software, access to

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480-425: Is targeted to support all function blocks present on a GPU's or an APU's die . Besides instruction code targeted at rendering , this includes display controllers as well as their SIP blocks for video decoding ( Unified Video Decoder (UVD)) and video encoding ( Video Coding Engine (VCE)). The device driver also supports AMD TrueAudio , a SIP block to perform sound-related calculations. AMD Software supports

520-508: Is that they can be loaded only when necessary and then unloaded, thus saving kernel memory. Depending on the operating system, device drivers may be permitted to run at various different privilege levels . The choice of which level of privilege the drivers are in is largely decided by the type of kernel an operating system uses. An operating system which uses a monolithic kernel , such as the Linux kernel , will typically run device drivers with

560-413: Is to provide abstraction by acting as a translator between a hardware device and the applications or operating systems that use it. Programmers can write higher-level application code independently of whatever specific hardware the end-user is using. For example, a high-level application for interacting with a serial port may simply have two functions for "send data" and "receive data". At a lower level,

600-400: Is via protection rings . On many systems, such as those with x86 and ARM processors, switching between rings imposes a performance penalty, a factor that operating system developers and embedded software engineers consider when creating drivers for devices which are preferred to be run with low latency, such as network interface cards . The primary benefit of running a driver in user mode

640-612: The PCI bus or USB is identified by two IDs which consist of two bytes each. The vendor ID identifies the vendor of the device. The device ID identifies a specific device from that manufacturer/vendor. A PCI device has often an ID pair for the main chip of the device, and also a subsystem ID pair that identifies the vendor, which may be different from the chip manufacturer. Computers often have many diverse and customized device drivers running in their operating system (OS) kernel which often contain various bugs and vulnerabilities , making them

680-526: The computer bus or communications subsystem to which the hardware connects. When a calling program invokes a routine in the driver, the driver issues commands to the device (drives it). Once the device sends data back to the driver, the driver may invoke routines in the original calling program. Drivers are hardware dependent and operating-system-specific. They usually provide the interrupt handling required for any necessary asynchronous time-dependent hardware interface. The main purpose of device drivers

720-477: The kernel , separately as loadable modules , or as user-mode drivers (for certain types of devices where kernel interfaces exist, such as for USB devices). Makedev includes a list of the devices in Linux, including ttyS (terminal), lp ( parallel port ), hd (disk), loop, and sound (these include mixer , sequencer , dsp , and audio). Microsoft Windows .sys files and Linux .ko files can contain loadable device drivers. The advantage of loadable device drivers

760-693: The AMD drivers detect idle moments in games and can set frame rate caps. Smart Access Memory enables potential performance boosts on systems that use both AMD Ryzen CPUs and Radeon video cards. Radeon Enhanced Sync reduces screen tearing like v-sync, but it avoids capping frame rates at the monitor's refresh rate. This can reduce the input lag associated with v-sync. This is limited to DirectX 9, 10, and 12. AMD Link allows users to stream content to mobile devices, compatible Smart TVs , and other PCs with Radeon video cards, enabling them to use their PC and game on them remotely. It can be used both locally as well as over

800-561: The CPU and is supported in DirectX 9, 11, and 12. Radeon Super Resolution is image upscaling technology similar to FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), but it does not have to be customized for specific games. It works on thousands of games, but AMD recommends using FSR when available. Radeon Boost also uses image upscaling to increase performance, but unlike AMD's other technologies, it does this only at certain times, such as when rapidly moving

840-692: The Catalyst driver package included the ATI Catalyst Control Center, a new software application for manipulating many hardware functions, such as 3D settings, monitor controls and video options. It shows a small 3D preview and allows the user to see how changes to the graphics settings affect the quality of the rendered image. It also shows information about the card itself and the software data. This application requires Microsoft .NET Framework . Radeon Software 16.x and higher drops support for TeraScale -based GPU models. Vulkan 1.0 support

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880-632: The corresponding SIP blocks. ROCm 6.0 was released on February 14, 2024, and supports the RX 7900 XTX, 7900 XT and 7900 GRE, alongside Radeon Pro W7900 and W7800 graphics cards. Ubuntu 22.04 is natively supported. PyTorch and ONNX Runtime can be used on ROCm 6.0. With Catalyst 9.12 support of OpenCL 1.0 was available. In Catalyst 10.10 OpenCL 1.1 was available. Catalyst 12.4 Supports OpenCL 1.2. OpenCL 2.0 driver works since 14.41 for GCN-based Models. This also supports previous OpenCL versions. TeraScale 2 and 3 chips can use Level 1.2. Close to Metal

920-461: The design of a kernel is the support it provides for protection from faults ( fault tolerance ) and from malicious behaviours ( security ). These two aspects are usually not clearly distinguished, and the adoption of this distinction in the kernel design leads to the rejection of a hierarchical structure for protection . Appian Graphics Appian Graphics was a supplier of multi-monitor graphics accelerators founded in 1994. The company

960-500: The following AMD (and ATI-tradition) product lines targeted at rendering : The following product lines are probably not supported by AMD Software, but instead by some other software, which (for example) is OpenGL -certified: Starting in Catalyst 14.6 AMD has enabled mixed-resolution support, allowing for a single Eyefinity display group to be created where each monitor runs at a different resolution. The current version may, however, disable any additional display mode and change to

1000-412: The free Mesa software stack that is widely distributed and available by default on most Linux distributions . AMD strives at packaging its software for Linux on its own, not relying solely on Linux distributions. They do so by using the amdgpu and amdgpu-pro shell scripts , and provide package archives for e.g. apt and rpm . support Starting with version 4.9 (released on 4 September 2004)

1040-401: The hardware and the software works for a given platform function. Because drivers require low-level access to hardware functions in order to operate, drivers typically operate in a highly privileged environment and can cause system operational issues if something goes wrong. In contrast, most user-level software on modern operating systems can be stopped without greatly affecting the rest of

1080-584: The internet. The client requires a free app, which is available via Google Play , Apple App Store , and Amazon Appstore . Support for AMD Link has been axed in AMD Software releases from January 2024 onwards, citing the availability of alternatives and to focus driver development resources elsewhere. The software was previously known as AMD Radeon Software, AMD Catalyst, and ATI Catalyst. AMD ceased providing 32-bit versions in October 2018. AMD Software

1120-456: The mouse. This is interpreted as an action-heavy scene where image quality can temporarily be decreased without much noticeable effect. This only works in supported games. HYPR-RX enables Radeon Anti-Lag, Boost, and Super Resolution. In supported games, this is done automatically according to a user's AMD Software settings; otherwise, it requires some configuration in-game. HYPR-RX requires an RDNA3 GPU. Radeon Chill lowers performance when

1160-446: The opposite role and emulates a piece of hardware, so that the guest operating system and its drivers running inside a virtual machine can have the illusion of accessing real hardware. Attempts by the guest operating system to access the hardware are routed to the virtual device driver in the host operating system as e.g.,  function calls . The virtual device driver can also send simulated processor-level events like interrupts into

1200-509: The same privilege as all other kernel objects. By contrast, a system designed around microkernel , such as Minix , will place drivers as processes independent from the kernel but that use it for essential input-output functionalities and to pass messages between user programs and each other. On Windows NT , a system with a hybrid kernel , it is common for device drivers to run in either kernel-mode or user-mode . The most common mechanism for segregating memory into various privilege levels

1240-452: The source code of the device drivers is mostly not public (open source) and drivers often have many privileges. A group of security researchers considers the lack of isolation as one of the main factors undermining kernel security , and published an isolation framework to protect operating system kernels, primarily the monolithic Linux kernel whose drivers they say get ~80,000 commits per year. An important consideration in

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1280-441: The system. Even drivers executing in user mode can crash a system if the device is erroneously programmed . These factors make it more difficult and dangerous to diagnose problems. The task of writing drivers thus usually falls to software engineers or computer engineers who work for hardware-development companies. This is because they have better information than most outsiders about the design of their hardware. Moreover, it

1320-595: The user-space programs, such as video games or CAD software, access to the corresponding SIP blocks. Direct3D 12 is available for GCN with version 15.7.1 or higher. Only the Radeon Software releases targeting Microsoft Windows included support for Mantle . In 2019 starting with version 19.5.1 it was officially discontinued, in favor of DirectX 12 and Vulkan (built upon Mantle) raise in popularity. Windows users who still wish to use Mantle would have to use older version of drivers (prior to 19.5.1). OpenGL 4.5

1360-451: The virtual machine. Virtual devices may also operate in a non-virtualized environment. For example, a virtual network adapter is used with a virtual private network , while a virtual disk device is used with iSCSI . A good example for virtual device drivers can be Daemon Tools . There are several variants of virtual device drivers, such as VxDs , VLMs , and VDDs. Solaris descriptions of commonly used device drivers: A device on

1400-520: Was a low-level API by AMD which was abandoned in favor of OpenCL. AMD HD3D stereoscopic 3D API by AMD. With Catalyst 14.1 HSA is possible. AMD main Processor graphic Units and Radeon graphic Card Units work combined. The main AMD GPU software stacks are fully supported on Linux: GPUOpen for graphics, and ROCm for compute. GPUOpen is most often merely a supplement, for software utilities, to

1440-711: Was best known for its Jeronimo and Gemini product lines, and for the HydraVision display management software. The main competitor for Appian on the multi-monitor solutions market was STB Systems . The company was acquired in July 2001 by Colorgraphic Communications, Inc., which ceased business in 2007 or 2008. Appian Graphics originally developed HydraVision in the late 1990s for their multi-head display solutions. ATI Technologies acquired HydraVision in July 2001 along with Appian's HydraVision team to join its then-new dual-head Radeon 7500 and 8500 series. Appian Rotate

1480-399: Was developed in 1998 for hardware accelerated portrait display, it allowed off the shelf graphics components that supported 3D texture mapping for rotating the offscreen desktop screen correctly onto the display out buffer. It has become the default standard in the industry for portrait mode and is still used by display drivers to support portrait display. This corporation or company article

1520-403: Was introduced in Radeon Software 16.3.2. Radeon Software 17.7.1 is the final driver for Windows 8.1. Radeon Software 18.9.3 is the final driver for 32-bit Windows 7/10. AMD Software 22.6.1 is the final driver for Windows 7 (and Windows 8.1 unofficially); 22.6.1 is also the final driver for GCN 1, GCN 2 and GCN 3 based GPUs Device driver A driver communicates with the device through

1560-648: Was the Windows-only software "HydraVision" (originally acquired from Appian Graphics complete with its development team), a desktop/screen management software mostly providing multi-monitor and virtual-screen management. It has extensive hot-key support. Both of AMD's SIP cores for video acceleration, Video Coding Engine as well as Unified Video Decoder , are supported by AMD Software. Some AMD products contain SIP cores for audio acceleration branded AMD TrueAudio. Support for this audio acceleration DSP co-processor

1600-638: Was traditionally considered in the hardware manufacturer 's interest to guarantee that their clients can use their hardware in an optimal way. Typically, the Logical Device Driver (LDD) is written by the operating system vendor, while the Physical Device Driver (PDD) is implemented by the device vendor. However, in recent years, non-vendors have written numerous device drivers for proprietary devices, mainly for use with free and open source operating systems . In such cases, it

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