Here is a draft of the things that need to be filled in on the
application form. The only people that will see this are the
committee that judges who gets to speak, so this needs to be direct
and informative, but not stuffy or formal. I've spoken with the
committee chair, and he believes that this is something they'd
definitely like to have at the show, but we should avoid any kind of
sales pitch for OGD1. Talking about the fact that we've formed
Traversal and that OGD1 exists (and its purpose) is fine, but overtly
selling it in the speech is a no-no. Before I submit it, I'd like to
get criticism from people on the mailing list, because (among other
things), I want to make sure it's not too corporate. This speech
should be all about the OGP, Traversal is simply there to serve a
necessary purpose, and OGD1 is an enabler for this libre hardware
project. If you were on that committee, is there anything in here
that would bother you or that you would like more detail on?
Note: The bulleted items have hard tabs in them for indentation, but
you may not see them. There are actually multiple levels of indent.
Note to Hugh and others that made suggestions: In the real speech,
I'll cover more of what you suggested, but I had a 500-word limit in
the "long" description here.
Short Biography
I am a graphics chip designer with experience in graphical
applications, X11 and Windows graphics driver development, and chip
design (FPGAs and ASICs). I also have a strong math background. I've
actually been interested in graphics since I was a child, when I
developed a terminal program for Atari ST computers called ANSITerm,
overcoming the 4-color limitation of all other terminal programs and
exceeding their performance by a significant margin. My first
graphics chip was a high-performance 2D engine designed for
military-grade applications, air traffic control, and medical imaging.
I have a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of South
Florida. I'm currently working on my Ph.D. at Ohio State, majoring in
Artificial Intelligence, minoring in Linguistics, Human-Computer
Interaction, and Cognitive Science. Right now, I support myself
mostly by doing chip design work.
Title of Presentation
The Open Graphics Project: A Revolution in Open Hardware
Short Description
History, goals, progress, and results of the Open Graphics Project.
Impact of Open Hardware on the tech industry.
Long Description
I started the Open Graphics Project in 2004 after being frustrated by
the lack of documentation and support by graphics card vendors for
Free Software. In the 1990's there were many graphics chip vendors,
and some of them were willing to supply Free Software developers
instructions and specifications they would need to write drivers.
Today, there are only a handful of remaining graphics card vendors,
and for various reasons, they have chosen to close up more and more of
their documentation, making it difficult or impossible to develop Free
Software drivers. While their closed-source drivers have matured to a
point where many users find them to work very well, some users still
experience stability problems that are impossible to debug with a
tainted kernel. For a large population of Linux users, the primary
problem is an ideological one: Many Free Software enthusiasts find it
unacceptable to run any sort of non-Free software on their computers,
especially inside of the Linux kernel. With many older, supported
cards reaching end-of-life, it is becoming increasingly difficult to
graphics cards supported by Free Software.
I haven't worked out everything I want to say, but below is an
overview of some of the topics I'd like to cover in a talk. Please
feel free to make suggestions and ask for changes.
o The problem and the need
o Why open source drivers are important
o Why closed-source drivers are bad
o Limitations of many open source drivers
o Ideology
o Debugging
o Stability
o Kernel upgrades
o IP issues (distro packaging)
o OGP, our goals, and our ideals
o Who we are and our skills
o Fully-documented hardware
o Open Source drivers (GPL, BSD, MIT)
o Open Source hardware! (GPL, in most cases)
o Full support for all graphics engine features
o Support for any OS, architecture, or platform (MorphOS,
PPC, Alpha, *BSD, etc...)
o IP licensing
o Our strategy
o Design graphics hardware for Linux *desktop* (not games)
o Minimalist hardware design
o OGA (graphics engine spec)
o OGD1 (FPGA-based graphics card development platform)
o Formation of Traversal Technology, LLC to handle business
and expenses
o Viability of development model
o Costs of hardware production
o Basic Feature Set
o Quick intro to graphics system architecture
o Rasterization layer of OpenGL 1.3
o Transparency, compositing, texturing, image warping, 2D
primitives, etc.
o OGA specification based on community consensus
o No programmable shaders, T&L done in software
o Justifications for feature set elements
o Our needs
o Volunteers to help design hardware and write software
o Legal counsel
o Open Graphics Foundation (non-profit, handles donations,
community votes, etc.)
o Future
o Get the basics done and become self-sustaining, then...
o Start adding more modern 3D engine features like programmable shaders
o Other open hardware, like high-end audio, networking, RAID, etc.
What Attendees Will Learn
About the efforts currently underway to develop hardware specifically
with Free Software in mind. Our goals are to develop fully-documented
and open source hardware. We have made significant progress since we
first started and have met our first major milestone with the release
of the OGD1 graphics card prototyping platform. I would like to cover
topics that include graphics theory, graphics hardware, chip design in
general, the community-developed specification for future Linux
graphics needs (OGA), Free Software device drivers, features of OGD1,
and intended features of graphics cards that will come afterward. The
OGP has turned into a learning experience for many people who now see
the OGP as an opportunity to learn hardware design, as well as help
with the effort to take control of our fate with the formation of a
hardware manufacturer who has Free Software as the number one
priority.
Desired Introduction
Timothy Miller is a graphics chip designer with experience in computer
graphics, X11 driver development, and FPGA and ASIC chip design. He
has been a Free Software enthusiast since the mid 1990's. Wanting to
give something back, Tim started the Open Graphics Project to correct
the problem we have with very limited graphics vendor support for Free
Software, which he'll be telling you about today.
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