On 5/14/05, Hamie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
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> Timothy Miller wrote:
> 
> > On 5/13/05, Daniel Phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> >> On Thursday 12 May 2005 22:04, Hugh Fisher wrote:
> >>
> >>> At the recent LinuxConf in Australia Wayne Piekarski, augmented
> >>> VR guru, said that he uses nVidia because they work, and
> >>> that's the criteria that matters to a 3D developer. I don't
> >>> recall Keith Packard complaining about "closed hardware"
> >>> graphic cards either when he was talking about the future of X
> >>> Windows.
> >>
> >> Did you ask him? I did not ask Keith about this specifically,
> >> but I get the impression the only reason he does not complain is
> >> that he is resigned to the status quo. I will ask him about your
> >> specific point, if you like.
> >>
> >> Mike Harris on the other hand is quite vocal about the depressing
> >> situation of closed 3D hardware. I will ask him your specific
> >> question too, if you like.
> >
> >
> > Until the OGP, I had never, EVER, heard an open source developer
> > complain that they couldn't get RTL to the hardware they worked
> > with.
> >
> 
> Maybe it's simply necessary to understand WHY they now complain then.
> Personally I'd be disappointed. But why? Well I'm honest enough to say
> it's because something was originally promised that may now take a
> long time before I get my hands on it. (i.e. the RTL). 

The RTL was NEVER promised to anyone.  I made it painfully clear from
the very beginning that the RTL was not necessarily going to be
released.  My recent statements about opening it after a time are
improvements over the original statements.

> The original
> statements were everything open. Taking stuff away from people
> disappoints & annoys them. 

I haven't taken anything away.  I can't control what other people may
have lead you to believe, but I have careful to distinguish what would
be and what would not be released as open source.

> Then you get poeple who say 'damn.. that
> bit is slow... I could make it faster/better if I had access to the
> VHDL & re-wrote a bit' and they get annoyed because their initial
> thoughts were that they'd be able to do that, and now they can't.
> 
> However even if the whole chip was just a little black box and we only
> know what you put in it to get the results (i..e acompletely free &
> open spec with register details etc) that would be a far greater
> benefit than most other chipsets. BUT and it's a big BUT then you have
> no differentiation between the OGP and an established company that IS
> doing the same. e.g. Via. (see
> <http://www.via.com.tw/en/resources/pressroom/2005_archive/pr050412_driversource.jsp>
> and <http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2&Type=4>
> 
> Just remember also that people will complain about lots of things. We
> all doit. You'll never satisfy everyone. Trying to will jut drive you
> mad.

I'm told we have advantages over VIA.  For instance, our documentation
is better.

Keep this in mind:  The 'advantage' of having open source RTL is not
an advantage if VIA can produce a chip but we can't.

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