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Open-Source Graphics Processor

kickstarter.com

21–30 of 78 posts

Re: Open-Source Graphics Processor

#21
post #16

OK I'm missing this completely. What problem is this solving ? I can't believe they have never seen a smartphone recently, so they know what cheapo hardware is capable of pushing nowadays. Yet this exists. So what is it that is exiting here but fly high over my head ?

The demand from a comparitively small number of people for the hardware to be open.

Re: Open-Source Graphics Processor

#23
post #17

How will this be different than http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Graphics_Project which had some promise and then faded into the sunset?

Well, rather than showing "promise" I'd say it just shows massive willful ignorance to the situation.

Re: Open-Source Graphics Processor

#24
As someone with a chip design background:

- prices seem reasonable for doing this as a commercial project

- badly written intro that assumes far too much

- seems to be based on 2000-era technology

- not actually delivering hardware, so very limited practical use

- the community that demands open hardware on principle is a lot smaller than they think, so this probably won't get funded

But we're not used to kickstarting software projects at normal rates, we're more used to founders working for free to prototype something and using kickstarter to push it into production. This misses that last (even more expensive) stage.

Re: Open-Source Graphics Processor

#25
post #17

How will this be different than http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Graphics_Project which had some promise and then faded into the sunset?

The Open Graphics Project only did 3D and VGA, this one also does 2D which is probably more useful for embedded applications.

It was also a more complicated architecture than it needed to be IMHO due to splitting functions between two FPGAs, one for the graphics bit and the other for the bus interface.

Re: Open-Source Graphics Processor

#26
post #24

As someone with a chip design background: - prices seem reasonable for doing this as a commercial project - badly written intro that assumes far too much - seems to be based on 2000-era technology - not actually delivering hardware, so very limited practical use - the community that demands open hardware on principle is a lot smaller than they think, so this probably won't get funded But we're not used to kickstartin…

>- seems to be based on 2000-era technology

Could you elaborate?

Re: Open-Source Graphics Processor

#28
post #26
post #24

As someone with a chip design background: - prices seem reasonable for doing this as a commercial project - badly written intro that assumes far too much - seems to be based on 2000-era technology - not actually delivering hardware, so very limited practical use - the community that demands open hardware on principle is a lot smaller than they think, so this probably won't get funded But we're not used to kickstartin…

>- seems to be based on 2000-era technology Could you elaborate?

I guess he meant that until the latest goal, it's a fixed rendering pipeline gpu.

ps: instead of parallel compute units for vertex/pixel shader.

ps2: I'd like to see an open hardware RISC movement for GPU. I wish for a 'simple' parallel array of visual oriented floating point primitives, very small and regular, but very open so that people can write compilers and drivers with ease. As opposed to very potent but obscure gpu followed with crippled drivers. Just enough to get fast yet low power css/dom like systems (with little bonus like path rendering) to help lift the visual work away from RPI-class SoCs.

Re: Open-Source Graphics Processor

#30
post #7

Is there a reason why the demo video looks like the cutting edge in 1993? Maybe I'm missing something...

Because they are demoing it with a benchmark suite from 1999/2000 (you see WinBench 99 and WinBench 2000 in some segments). Presumably because the hardware can't handle more modern stuff. Heck, it seems to be struggling with demos they are showing.
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