On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 8:10 AM, James Phillips <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello, > > I have been following the OGP for a while. I have/had fantasies of doing > cross-platform testing with my Oldworld Power Machintosh 7300/200. <Offtopic> > I am still using an old pentium because I can't install the new version of > Debian on the PPC without rolling my own boot floppy. The Old Version of > Debian has an awkward bug involving the SCSI controller </Offtopic> > > Reading the second FAQ I came across: > "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..." > http://www.traversaltech.com/ogd1p_faq2.phtml#Q13 > > Related: > "Hardware Specification: > * PCI/PCI-X (33/64-bit, 33-133MHz) card edge" > http://www.traversaltech.com/products.phtml > > Is that an over-simplification, or will strange things happen if I try > running the card at 25Mhz?
It SHOULD work fine. It's always possible that we could have a hold-time bug in there, although that would be the fault of the synthesis tools. > When I saw the picture on the product page, I immediately pulled a 32-bit > card for comparison. I initially thought the card would have to be installed > backwards to fit. Only After image manipulation did I realize the truth: The > extra notch is only to keep 25-40 Mhz cards out of the faster slots. (also > checked a picture of a 32-bit 66Mhz card) > It's a little more complex than that. There are both speed and voltage issues that the notches enforce. But there are universal cards and universal slots. OGD1 is supposed to be a universal card. > I also checked several computers for space: > 486 - Yes (Some SMT chips in the way) > Pentium - no (May clear chipset heatsink... other free PCI slot labeled; > "Media BUS 2.0" (so may even be 64 bit)) > Pentium II - Yes (Many slots to choose from) > Pentium III - Yes (Some SMT chips) > AMD Sempron - Yes (Some SMT chips) > Power Macintosh 7300/200 - Yes > > The Computer I *want* to get seems to have a PCI-X slot ;) > http://us.fixstars.com/products/powerstation/breakdown.shtml OGD1 is designed to be compatible with 133MHz (PCI-X), but we haven't gotten the PCI controller to go at that speed. It will need more work for that. > > I find the price-tag steep. If it is true that the FPGA software costs as as > much as the hardware, I will stick to hardware projects involving PLDs and > general-purpose microprocessors. That said, I may consider donating to help > someone more interested in FPGA programing than I am. > We're working on finding ways around the issue of Xilinx software cost. Thank you for thinking about donating. > I think this project has lots of potential. I think it would be interesting > to use the "Hirose" or "IDC" connector to drive signals suitable for EGA, CGA > or MDA monitors (making the digital graphics circle complete). You could also > try to drive VT100 or better terminals using a suitable (RS-232) Signal > converter, but you would probably need interrupts for that. > RS-232 (or the 5v version) would be easy to do in the hardware. OGD1 could do buffering, and it can also do interrupts. > I really liked the one Slashdot comment/thread about high-resolution text > modes (I missed those as well). Who knows what other "niche" markets are > ignored in the push for 3D rendering, Video playback, and Digital Rights > management/Watermarking? > > > Regards, > > James Phillips > > > > __________________________________________________________________ > Looking for the perfect gift? Give the gift of Flickr! > > http://www.flickr.com/gift/ > _______________________________________________ > Open-graphics mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics > List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com) > -- 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)
