On 2/28/06, Attila Kinali <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tue, 28 Feb 2006 11:24:25 +0000 > Dieter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I assume the design will be using fine pitch surface mount parts, > > and thus a "kit" approach would not be feasible? > > Todays FPGAs come in BGA packaging, you cannot solder these > by hands (actually soldering them correctly on a board is > some kind of black magic). > Even a QFP (what FPGAs had about 10y ago) is something that > only very few hobbists can solder themselvs.
I've watched an experienced professional solder QFP's, and that was magic too. The guy would tack down corner pins to hold the chip in place and then swipe the iron and solder down each side, relying on surface tension to avoid shorts. I tried it and made a mess of shorts and opens. There's some trick to how hot the iron is, how fast you sweep down the side of pins, etc. > > > There are a number of FOSS companies selling software to businesses > > and allowing the home hobbyist to use it for free. Perhaps a similar > > dual pricing structure could work here? > > Yes and no. We cannot sell the board to anyone under price > unless he will help developing. And this means that we will > be already in the hundreds of dollars, which is already too > much for just someone who wants to have a graphics card. But no one should want to buy OGD1 to get a graphics card. They might get one if they want to help DESIGN a graphics card, however. > > > Have you considered a "Dutch auction"? > > > > Some FOSS organizations ask for and receive donations. > > - could have a web page with a list of donors > > - could have some sort of special recognition for "patrons" (say $1000) > > - $100,000 gets your name silk-screened on the board > > IMHO that's a good idea. The Blender project got their 100k USD > within half a year to buy out the source code. I guess we could > acchive a similar amount within the same time. It will still not > pay the mask set, but it would give us some headroom for stuff > like marketing. Absolutely. How do we get started on that. There has been some controversy over my desire to time-delay the GPL release of the RTL (for the engine core; the rest is much earlier). This is mostly done as a way to make potential partners feel like we've got something of value that's worth money to get. If we could get the community to totally pay for the chip development, there would be no need for that delay. The whole thing could be developed completely in the open from day negative infinity. _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
