You are right, and the bottom line is that if others don't help with the PCB stuff, Andy and Howard will eventually get it done. And if people don't help enough with the XP10 logic, the first version may be released without it.
One major concern is testing. Would you want to buy a board that had been soldered but not run through testing? Some logic needs to be run on each of those chips that tests the PCI connections, the interconnects between the chips, the PROM, the connections from the Xilinx to the memory and video, etc. The best answer would be to have the PCI and SPI logic done, along with some "sample" video and memory controller logic. The testing process would involve programming the XP10 externally, plugging it into a PC, and firing it up in some Linux box with a minimal driver. Then a software test program would program the SPI and test it, then get the Xilinx programmed and do things like memory tests and put up images on a monitor. One option is to sell a certain number (say, no more than 50) "at cost" (parts plus shipping) to developers. It would be their job to help us write code to test them, in exchange for getting a $200+ discount. But even in this case, if one or all end up with bad boards, the shipping costs to get them back and forth would be murder. Maybe these people will have to sign an agreement that verifies that they are capable with a soldering iron and can make fixes. Still, if the BGA isn't right, we can't know until it's way too late, and although we can get the board house to fix it, just getting the board to them would be costly. Perhaps some charitable people will buy boards for other people. Since we're not non-profit, we can't take donations, but we can sure sell you a product. It's just that the warranty will be weird. All early testers would be guaranteed only one exchange--when the bugs are ironed out, they can exchange their board for one from us that's passed their tests. I'm just brainstorming. On 10/4/05, Ray Heasman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tue, 2005-10-04 at 22:18 +0200, Martin Jeppesen wrote: > > > It probably got rejected because it wasn't inflammatory enough. :P > > > > It atleast brings their motto to a new level! =) > > > > Stof that matters? > > I think it is important to be a little more objective here. > > 1) Slashdot is a news site, not any particular group of people's PR > site. It has no obligation to publish anything. > 2) Slashdot prints news. That means something must have happened. This > will offend people, but the OG project hasn't really produced much since > it was last on Slashdot. Lots of talk and some organisation, but no > goodies. In the end, the world is filled with much more talk than > goodies. No goodies, no real news. Talk is cheap. > 3) Slashdot has been criticised in the past for being used as a > mouthpiece by astroturfing parties. I can hardly blame them for ignoring > any particular news submission that smacks of astroturfing. > > The OGP may be important to us, but it's just one of a million sources > of noise for the Slashdot moderators. It's important that we don't > expect to get lucky just because we did once or twice in the past. They > owe us nothing, and if I was one of them and read this thread in the > archives, I would never publish anything submitted about OGP again - we > obviously expect the world handed to us on a plate, and Slashdot is our > personal PR agency. > > Enough said, I hope. > > -Ray > > > _______________________________________________ > Open-graphics mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics > List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com) > _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
