Valve announce Linux based gaming OS for 2014

[tajoh111]

Where do you see AMD locked out of anything?
Nvidia is simply supplying their hardware for 300 prototypes...
There will still be many Steambox designs using AMD hardware.

I guess not locked out, but not being put into the prototype reference design seems odd considering they are sending these out for free and the higher cost associated with using Intel and sort of using Nvidia. Considering how buddy buddy Valve and Nvidia have been lately. I could see Nvidia at all costs, trying to get into the steam machine considering the shrinking desktop market and AMD getting the consoles. I could see Nvidia putting some serious cash down(an amount AMD couldn't afford) to ensure that Steam alliances are tied to them. Nvidia could write a cheque to valve for 100 million dollars and easily afford it. Nvidia said in a recent interview that Nvidia is collaborating with Intel and it seems like this would be it.

What would give Valve a reasonable reason outside of cash to do put Intel and Nvidia hardware is steam statistics. A larger majority of users that make up steam hardware survey are Intel and Nvidia users. It would make sense for Valve to use the brand more commonly found in their own stats.

In addition, these boxes are being used to beta and find bugs in the software and hardware. Considering AMD's reputation in regards to their linux drivers. I would think they are in need of testing most of all. So if I was valve and I was truly going to be hardware agnostic(and the low price of AMD hardware ), I would have sent AMD steamboxes along with the Intel/Nvidia ones.

In addition, I think at the very least, this rules out the idea that Mantle was going to be the defacto standard for the steambox.