Dear Open Graphics community, It looks like I am now subscribed to the list!
My name is Michael Dexter and I discovered the OGD1 at LinuxTag several years ago and asked, "so what's holding you up?" One thing led to another and... our batch of 25 OGD1's is shipping. Thank you all for your patience with this project. Some of the delays were technical but many were non-technical. The right people were busy at the wrong time and I had no idea I would need to configure a Windows XP system for use with XP-10 programming. I also didn't want to announce anything that could possibly be delayed. Last Thursday's announcement came only when I had test patters on screen and shipping boxes in hand. As of this afternoon, OGD1's have been shipped to the US, Canada, Germany and Switzerland. Most by FedEx (good discounts) and one by USPS. Inside the box you will find the card in a zip-lock anti-static bag, anti-static bubble wrap, a "preflight checklist" of the testing and ROM/FPGA versions plus a receipt as appropriate. The "popcorn" is the biodegradable type made of corn starch. The checklist includes the amount of burn-in time and I am aiming for about 24 or more hours per board. I am looking into a solution for PCI brackets/blanks and will send one to anyone who has a card once I have a solution. Does anyone have access to a laser cutter? Small tip: I found that a D-Link +5V 2A JTA302A power supply seems to be fine for powering the boards when outside of a system. (Needed for XP-10 programming) Another tip: If you're ever getting strange video results, try a cold reboot. Trivia: It proved very useful to share a machine with two OGD1's via ssh. The differences between the prototype and production boards were resolved this way. As the dust settles, I may be able make a machine available for specific testing. If only hardware could be moved around the globe as easily as pieces of code... All that said, I am testing two boards a day and have units ready to ship. I have receive a few applications from developers to receive boards under the grant program but would like to see more, especially from non-Linux developers given that the Linux support is quite good. As for SlashDot and other news venues, I prefer that the community continue whatever they've been doing to attract this type of coverage. I am only hear to catalyze this project but am happy to do more interviews and the like. Here and now, my top priority has been to deliver boards to the extremely-patient people who pre-ordered them. (Any previous payment information is considered obsolete.) The Wiki also needs help as there is much good information there that is a bit hard to find. I hope to add my testing and programming notes but am not quite sure where to put them. As for the future, I will optimistically say that we could produce more boards in 30 to 90 days if the demand and financing exist. What structure this takes place under remains to be seen. Brief conversations have taken place about if the next board should be PCIe, mini-PCI or something else entirely but that's entirely up to the community. This goes where you want to take it. I wish to humbly say that with the overall economic slow-down, there are some remarkable under-employed engineers out there and I hope this community can tap into this priceless resource. It has been a pleasure to work with the team and I hope that this relationship will continue past the delivery of the initial 25 boards. I'd like to thank the Open Graphics team for making this possible plus Lattice for donating an XP-10 programming cable, and Free Geek(.org) here in Portland for donating a system on which I can test the boards. It is a humble PIII but was joined by a P4 yesterday, both of which were donated as part of their technology recycling program. Thanks again for your help, donations and patience! Feel free to ask me any questions about the effort. I will do my best to follow the mailing list but can't guarantee a consistent presence. All the best, Michael Dexter Linux Fund Program Director http://www.linuxfund.org _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
