I figured that the OGD1 order form should link to an FAQ. Here are some ideas. Please critique and suggest more.
** What is OGD1? OGD1 is a high-end FPGA prototyping kit. It is intended to be used by students learning FPGA programming, engineers needing a development platform, and hobbyists that want to hack their own hardware designs. OGD1 is what we call "Open Hardware" or "Free-Design Hardware", meaning that the design schematics, FPGA logic, and other details are available under Free Software licensing. ** What is the motivation behind OGD1? We believe in the principles of Free Software. One of the major challenges for Free Software is finding compatible hardware. The Open Graphics Project (OGP) was started in response to poor support from graphics vendors. OGD1 was originally designed as a platform to develop new graphics hardware, but an Open Hardware community has rallied around it as a basis for the development of new hardware products developed primarily to support Free Software. Just as the GPL guarantees certain software freedoms to use, study, modify, and share software, we also believe that similar freedoms can be had to some degree for hardware. This is why OGD1's design details are openly published. For Traversal Technology, the Open Hardware Foundation, and the OGP, OGD1 also serves as a fund-raiser. To bootstrap our other open hardware efforts, we need a source of revenue. That revenue will be directly invested into more open hardware products. ** But what about ATI's recent release of documentation on their GPUs? With that available, what use is this? We applaud ATI for doing the right thing and making available their GPU documentation for use by Free Software developers. ATI may have an impact on our narrow focus on graphics (although there are still graphics niches where we fit in), but they in no way impact our broader goals of enabling hardware hacking and bringing open hardware to the people. ** What are the key features of OGD1? Xilinx(R) Spartian™-3 XC3S4000 FPGA Lattice™ XP10 FPGA 64-bit PCI-X (133MHz) card edge (compatible with 32-bit 33Mhz PCI) 256 MiB of DDR400 memory 66 user I/O signals on a 92-pin Hirose connector 68 user I/O signals on an optional 100-pin ICD connector Two pairs of DVI transmitters (dual link) 330MHz RGB/VGA triple DAC ** Who designed OGD1? The founder of the OGP, Timothy Miller, and his partners at Traversal, Andy Fong and Howard Parkin, have in excess of a combined 30 years of hardware (PCB, ASIC, FPGA) design experience. In particular, they have experience developing graphics hardware used in air traffic control and military installations. OGD1 was designed based on that experience, with high standards for reliability, signal integrity, and component selection. ** Why is OGD1 so expensive? OGD1 is actually very competitively priced compared to FPGA kits with similar capabilities and capacity. For very small FPGA projects, OGD1 may be over-kill. But for larger projects, OGD1 is a must and a bargain. ** Are discounts available? Yes. Please contact the Open Hardware Foundation (OHF) at "http://www.openhardwarefoundation.org"; to inquire. The OHF is responsible for all decisions regarding OGD1 discount offers. $1000 and $700 price points are available, offered primarily to those who have contributed or wish to contribute to the OGP. Additionally, bulk discounts are available. Contact us for more information if you are interested. ** What kind of warranty do you offer for OGD1? Traversal Technology offers a 1 year warranty with the full retail price. Discounts come with shortened warranty periods. Although modifications to OGD1 are generally encouraged, we do not take responsibility for damage caused by those modifications; we will selectively offer repair but not replacement services for modified boards. ** What's this about a pre-order? Why don't you have any in stock? Hardware fabrication is expensive and is especially expensive for small quantities. As such, we need to place a minimum order for 100 boards. When we have 100 pre-orders, we will be able to have the OGD1 boards built. Your credit card will not be charged until your OGD1 board is tested and shipped. Note that to combat fraudulent orders, we may find it necessary to place holds (not charges) on credit cards just before we place our order with the fabricator; this is to ensure that we have truly met the the minimum number of orders. OGD1 is the first real hardware to be designed and produced by the OGP, and the large up-front fabrication costs are being handled by a very small number of people. To offset our risk, we require that a minimum number of pre-orders be placed before we spend such a large amount of our own money. To encourage people to place pre-orders, we are offering a $100 discount and free accessories for the first 100 pre-orders. ** Can I get a demo/sample of OGD1 before I buy? Generally speaking, no, because we do not have a stock. However, for parties interested in bulk orders, we may be willing to lend you one of our one-off prototypes that we have used to verify the OGD1 design. ** If I buy an OGD1 board and plug it into my PC, will it work as a graphic card? Not yet, but we're close. For OGD1, the Open Graphics Project (OGP) has developed a library of controllers for PCI, memory, video, a number of minor components, and the logic to bolt them all together. These are available for free download. Most of these controllers have individually been tested, and we invite contributors to help finish the work of making them all work together. In the mean time, OGD1 makes a very powerful FPGA development kit. ** The specs say that the PCI connector is PCI-X 64-bit, 133MHz. Will that work in my regular PC? PCI-X is backward compatible with your 32-bit 33MHz PCI slots, and OGD1 has been tested with several PC motherboards. Note that some PC motherboards may position components so that they interfere with the "extended" part of the PCI card edge for some slots. ** Will you be producing a PCI Express version of OGD1? While most graphics cards now fit in PCI Express slots, PCI is more popular with users of FPGA kits. We have identified the parts necessary to support PCI Express, so if there is demand, we can build them. In the mean time, we need to sell the PCI version OGD1 to bootstrap our efforts. ** What software will I need to develop logic for OGD1? For simulation, we primarily use Icarus Verilog. Icarus is Free Software and is also available pre-packaged in Debian and RPM formats. Check it out at "http://www.icarus.com/eda/verilog/";. For the Xilinx FPGA, you need a version of ISE that supports the 3S4000 chip. The most recent versions do not. So you either need to get a commercial license, or you can add a service pack to the ISE Webpack version 6.3i. See "http://wiki.opengraphics.org/tiki-index.php?page=OGPN10#Programming_the_ODG1_graphics_development_board"; for details. ISE 6.3i can be run under WINE. For the Lattice XP10, ispLEVER is a "free" download. Start at "http://www.latticesemi.com/products/designsoftware/isplever/ispleverstarter/index.cfm";. ** How do I load logic into the FPGAs? For programming the XP10, you'll need a Lattice programming cable (provided free with the first 100 pre-orders). You'll also need programming software, which you can get from "http://www.latticesemi.com/products/designsoftware/ispvmsystem/index.cfm";. The XP10 is a flash-based device, so it remembers its programming across power cycles. For the 3S4000, there are three options. One is to program it directly while live. This can be done using the Lattice programming cable and the Lattice programming software via few tricks. The remaining two options require logic support in the XP10. Logic is available from the OGP that will read an SPI PROM and program the 3S4000 at power-up. Using that same logic along with our PCI controller, you can program the 3S4000 (or the PROM) directly over the PCI bus. This PCI controller and loader should be finished and pre-programmed into the XP10 at the time OGD1 ships. ** What kind of graphics performance can I expect from OGD1? There is currently no GPU available for OGD1, although we do have a specification for one. OGD1 is not actually intended for high-performance graphics applications, although having FPGAs, it is suitable for hardware implementations of the kinds of computations you might perform using GPGPU. We should also shortly have available logic for OGD1 that will allow it to behave as framebuffer graphics device with no acceleration. Shortly following that, we will support VGA emulation so that OGD1 can be used as the boot console in an x86 PC. -- Timothy Normand Miller http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~millerti Open Graphics Project _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
