On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 02:27:45 -0500
Daniel Phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Seriously, I'd much prefer that the FPGA board is as much like the ASIC
> card as possible. OK, it doesn't have to be half-height any more, but
> if it can be, why not? We don't have to fret any more about not having
> a separate VGA on it. The AGP version can go away forever. The PCI-E
> version recedes into the future, since the PCI version is going to
> allow more developers on board sooner.
ACK. If the ASIC is going to do PCI-E/AGP in the future, then we
will not need anything else but PCI for the FPGA board.
Maybe the second/third/forth version of the board will use
PCI-E when PCI finaly died.
> The development card is going to be available way before the ASIC.
> There will be people buying it just to do multihead and things like
> that. In fact, all the things we originally planned. Perhaps not
> 10,000 but more than likely in the thousands. There's quite a lot of
> suppressed demand out there.
Don't only think about people asking for a graphics card, think
also about those who need an FPGA in their PC. I know at least
one company regularly using FPGAs in their PCs because the
computation power of the CPU is not enough. AFAIK they currently
use PCI prototype boards which are quite expensive. If we
could beat that price, we would another market for the card.
> Here is a summary of changes I'd like to see, which were all discussed
> in the thread:
>
> - Protect the PCI interface somehow so that no matter what happens the
> FPGA can still be reloaded via PCI. Actually, I would not mind at
> all if this requires attaching a button to the card and pushing it,
> or similar. Normally, the PCI logic isn't going to get messed up,
> even if everything else does.
That's absolutely necessary!
> - Support reprogram/reset entirely under software control.
ACK
> - Use the bigger FPGA if it's available and isn't outrageously
> expensive and doesn't melt the card.
ACK
> But above all:
>
> - Please keep it light and tight.
The normal unix KISS principle.
> It's the principle of the thing, if nothing else. I would be highly
> uninterested in seeing LED readouts and pushbuttons on the card, like
> the one somebody linked. It should still be first and foremost a
> usable graphics card, just one that happens to be reprogrammable.
Who cares about LEDs ? We have a monitor out there waiting for the
card! ;)
Attila Kinali
--
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