We're not getting orders very fast, so we desperately need to step up
our efforts. Perhaps this is putting too many eggs in one basket (and
we are working on other ideas), but I'm concerned we may see the
project languish with no source of funding or other resources. It's
been long-going to finish OGD1, but now that it's here, it's just not
getting the attention it needs. We had a nice spike of traffic from
slashdot, but only an order or two came out of it. We need at least
60 units ordered plus enough additional to make up for orders that
fall through. This is it. The wire. The buck that stops here. The
critical path. A watershed moment. A bottleneck.
Then there's the VGA project. A few people have helped, but leaving
it in the hands of a few over-worked people is asking for trouble. We
periodically get requests for it, but when they find out that it's not
finished, people lose interest. But more urgently, OGD1 needs to be
shipped with working logic. People who are less comfortable with FPGA
design are going to depend on there being a skeleton to start from,
and this is that skeleton.
Below is the press release (with minor edits from last time). I'm
holding up the works here, not sending it out to Stallman. I don't
feel it's quite adequate, so please give me your suggestions.
Obviously, we don't want it to be too LONG. We just need it to be
GOOD. Thanks.
OGD1 pre-order press release
The Open Graphics Project and Traversal Technology, LLC announce the
release of OGD1 for pre-order. OGD1 is a high-end FPGA prototyping
kit and hardware engineering platform, equipped with the peripherals
needed to develop and test computer graphics architectures.
OGD1 is a critical milestone for the Open Graphics Project (OGP).
First, OGD1 serves the Open Graphics Project as a platform for
developing a wide range of Free hardware designs. Second, hardware
development and fabrication are expensive, so sales of OGD1 serve to
raise essential funds to pay for further development.
Because of the generalized nature of its core, OGD1 is very versatile
and can be used for a wide variety of purposes requiring a large FPGA,
PCI, fast memory, and user I/O. It is designed to be used by students
learning FPGA programming, engineers needing a development platform or
product base, hobbyists that want to hack their own hardware designs,
users who want to the benefits of open hardware, and users who need
custom peripheral devices.
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. 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.
OGD1's features include:
• Xilinx(R) Spartan™-3 XC3S4000 FPGA
• Lattice(R) 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 for an available 100-pin IDC connector
• Video head 0: Dual-link DVI-D port (digital only)
• Video head 1: Dual-link DVI-I port (digital and analog)
• Digital up to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
• Analog up to [EMAIL PROTECTED] via 330MHz RGB/VGA triple DAC
• S-video port (analog TV-out, PAL, NTSC, SECAM)
OGD1 is priced competitively compared to other FPGA development kits,
to ensure that everyone can get a fair price, our pricing structure is
as follows:
- $1500 USD for commercial use (single unit)
- $1200 USD for personal and academic use
- $1000 USD for OGP contributors (via the Open Hardware Foundation)
- $700 USD for the most substantial OGP contributors (also via the OHF)
Volume discounts can be negotiated.
FAQ: http://www.traversaltech.com/ogd1p_faq2.phtm
Product page: http://www.traversaltech.com/products.phtml
Photo: http://www.traversaltech.com/images/ogd1_400x245.jpg
--
Timothy Normand Miller
http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~millerti
Open Graphics Project
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