Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 09:52:53 +0100 From: Dieter <freebsd@sopwith.solgatos.com> To: Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@FreeBSD.org> Cc: freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-drivers@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Open Graphics Project is now taking pre-orders Message-ID: <200805231652.QAA05864@sopwith.solgatos.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 23 May 2008 08:39:37 PDT." <20080523153937.GA40374@eos.sc1.parodius.com>
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> I think what people (not just here, but folks on Slashdot as well) want > to know is: is the PCI-X choice *purely* for development reasons, e.g. > will the retail/non-development version (read: transistor-based, no > FPGA) of the card be PCIe? > > If the manufacturer plans on keeping everything PCI-X -- dev cards and > commercial/retail cards -- they are making a *huge* mistake. The plan, as I understand it, is: Develop GPU logic using OGD1 boards. Sell as many OGD1 boards as possible to raise money needed (estimated at US$2M) to fabricate ASIC. Probably do other FLOSS friendly hardware projects to raise money for ASIC. (Ideas welcome) Build OGC boards with ASIC, no FPGA. The ASICs are expected to sell in *much* larger quantities than the FPGA boards. I'm 99.9% sure that the ASIC based OGC boards will be available as PCIe. Possibly PCI or PCI-X and AGP as well, and the bare ASIC chips will be available for embedded applications (PDAs, kiosks, etc.). The big hurdle is raising the US$2M needed to fab the ASIC.
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