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To: Jeremy Chadwick <koitsu@FreeBSD.org>
In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 23 May 2008 08:39:37 PDT."
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Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 09:52:53 +0100
From: Dieter <freebsd@sopwith.solgatos.com>
Cc: freebsd-multimedia@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-drivers@FreeBSD.org,
	freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: Open Graphics Project is now taking pre-orders 
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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.