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Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

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Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#2
My first video card.

Getting it working in linux in ~1999 was really not easy, especially for a teenager with no linux experience.

My networking card wasn't working either, so I had to run to a friend's house for dial-up internet access, searching for help on Altavista.

Very cool project. Way above my head, still!

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#6
post #2

My first video card. Getting it working in linux in ~1999 was really not easy, especially for a teenager with no linux experience. My networking card wasn't working either, so I had to run to a friend's house for dial-up internet access, searching for help on Altavista. Very cool project. Way above my head, still!

I exhausted my teenage savings to buy the Voodoo 1 due to the Linux support. Granted, I was running Red Hat at the time so the installation consisted of installing what, two RPMs? Played a lot of Q3 and Unreal on that card.

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#8

I love the names and branding of that era. Technology today is far more advanced but it doesn’t have that same excitement for consumers.

The bar is a lot lower- it was practically implied that you were already an enthusiast if it was in your awareness at that time I think.

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#9
I find it odd the author adds all these extra semantics to their input registers, rather than keeping the FIFOs, "drain + FIFOs", "float to fixed point converting register", etc as separate components, separate from the task of being memory mapped registers. The central problem they were running into was one where they let the external controller asynchronously change state in the middle of the compute unit using it.

I'm noting down this conetrace for the future though, seems like a useful tool, and they seem to be doing a closed beta of sorts.

Re: Building an FPGA 3dfx Voodoo with Modern RTL Tools

#10
post #6
post #2

My first video card. Getting it working in linux in ~1999 was really not easy, especially for a teenager with no linux experience. My networking card wasn't working either, so I had to run to a friend's house for dial-up internet access, searching for help on Altavista. Very cool project. Way above my head, still!

I exhausted my teenage savings to buy the Voodoo 1 due to the Linux support. Granted, I was running Red Hat at the time so the installation consisted of installing what, two RPMs? Played a lot of Q3 and Unreal on that card.

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