Open Graphics Project is now taking pre-orders

[Gary Palmer]

On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 08:39:37AM -0700, Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
> On Fri, May 23, 2008 at 08:15:53AM +0100, Dieter wrote:
> > > I'm just curious here, but why PCI-X, why not PCI-EXpress ?
> > > or is this obviously for development reasons.
> > 
> > According to the FAQ,
> > 
> > 	While most graphics cards now fit in PCI Express slots,
> > 	PCI is more popular with users of FPGA kits. We have
> > 	identified the parts necessary to support PCI Express,
> > 	so if there is demand, we can build them.  In the mean
> > 	time, we need to sell the PCI version OGD1 to bootstrap
> > 	our efforts.
> > 
> > 	PCI-X is backward compatible with your 32-bit 33MHz PCI slots,
> > 	and OGD1 has been tested with several PC motherboards. Note
> > 	that some PC motherboards may position components so that they
> > 	interfere with the "extended" part of the PCI card edge for
> > 	some slots.  OGD1 is 6.875in long and 4.2in wide
> > 	(17.46cm x 10.67cm).  Some small form-factor systems do not
> > 	provide enough room in one or both dimensions.
> > 
> > There is a development advantage to PCI.  PCI is a bus, so it is easy
> > to sniff the bus if things aren't working.  There has been some
> > discussion about writing software to turn the OGD1 into a PCI bus
> > sniffer, for developing other boards.
> > 
> > If you are interested in buying a PCIe version of OGD1, OGP needs to
> > hear about it.
> 
> I think what people (not just here, but folks on Slashdot as well) want
> to know is: is the PCI-X choice *purely* for development reasons, e.g.
> will the retail/non-development version (read: transistor-based, no
> FPGA) of the card be PCIe?
> 
> If the manufacturer plans on keeping everything PCI-X -- dev cards and
> commercial/retail cards -- they are making a *huge* mistake.

This is answered on their website.  The reason they chose PCI-X was
that they can slap a PCIe to PCI-X bridge on it without having to
choose new FPGAs and respin the boards (which would delay things even
more)

http://wiki.opengraphics.org/tiki-index.php?page=OGPN20#PCIe

(amongst many others)

http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awiki.opengraphics.org+pcie

Regards,

Gary

P.S. isn't this thread violating the crossposting rules?