Making a roadmap may be a sensible idea, but we don't need slides. We just need a list somewhere. But let's keep it narrow. I think the roadmap should be:
1. Develop a simple GPU simulator. 2. Develop a more sophisticated GPU simulator. We'll leave the rest for later. On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 7:12 PM, Ma, Xiaohan <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > I totally agree with this big picture you proposed - as I described in my > previous email. > > Would you please make some slides to summarize your ideas (probably some > brief schedules and plans for the project you want to do in future - in > outline)? So then all the guys in this thread can easily discuss and request > modifications of your plan. The finalized slide deck will be the initial > roadmap for us later. > > Thanks, > Xiaohan > > 2012/5/27 Timothy Normand Miller <[email protected]> >> >> I'm not trying to start an argument as to whether or not "intellectual >> property" is real. Maybe I'll blog about that some time. :) I >> nevertheless need to point out that being an employee of a State >> University of New York binds be in certain ways. >> >> http://research.binghamton.edu/Innovation/IntellectualProperty.php >> >> The bottom line for me is that I need to stay far away from any >> cash-flow that might occur. And regarding the IP owned by Traversal, >> Traversal is defunct, and the IP ownership fell back to me, Howard, >> and Andy. We're ready to transfer that, and some responsible >> facilitator(s) need(s) to take ownership (literal or figurative) and >> see where the project can leverage it. I think that there needs to >> still be some centralized entity who can relicense the IP without >> having to ask permission from 1000 contributors. >> >> So, on to what the OGP can do... >> >> ARM has cornered the market on energy-efficient CPUs. And ARM is >> entirely fabless. Maybe the OGP can corner the market on >> energy-efficient GPUs. The design would be dual-licensed GPL and >> commercial, where for production purposes, all GPL viral-like >> characteristics can be stripped in exchange for money, with the >> understanding that breaking binary compatibility with the open design >> (thereby potentially creating a closed architecture) will cost a LOT >> more to license. Our chosen facilitator would handle the money and >> fund whatever seems useful to fund. Mostly prototype hardware, >> reference designs, donations to other projects, etc. Linux Fund took >> over the Open Hardware Foundation, so we can use that. >> >> Of course, most companies that set out, a priori, to be fabless and >> license IP for profit tend to fail disastrously. But we're not trying >> to sustain a company on this. Indeed, the profit margin would have to >> be painfully small in order to be the least bit competitive anyhow. >> Our objective is to put a completely open GPU design out on the >> market, and that isn't necessarily profitable. >> >> So just for fun and science, let's see what we can design. André >> Pouliot and Kenneth Østby spec'd out a GPU shader engine design called >> OGA2. Let's start there. The first thing to do is my favorite part, >> which is to argue about architectural design decisions. Then we make >> a C-based prototype to determine functional efficiency, then we code >> it in Verilog and synthesize it for gate-level synthesis so we can >> judge energy efficiency. >> >> Think about leveraging the brainpower of the FOSS community to design >> a GPU that outperforms and is more energy-efficient than PowerVR. A >> compelling-enough design would get market penetration. Eventually, it >> would make its way from embedded systems into desktop systems and >> supercomputers (GPGPU, etc.), and we would all benefit from having an >> open architecture dominate in graphics. >> >> -- >> 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) > > -- 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)
