thelinuxlink.net

First open-source graphics card available

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/05/23 ... vailable/1

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 23rd May 2008

The ODG1 open-source graphics card might be a bare development platform now, but holds promise for the future.

The ODG1 open-source graphics card might be a bare development platform now, but holds promise for the future.
If you're a Linux nut who'll only be happy when your entire computer is fully open-source, you'll be pleased to hear that you can take a step closer to your goal thanks to the Open Graphics Project.

The project, which began touting for expert engineers to help build a graphics card free from any proprietary limitations four years ago, has announced the availability of its OGD1 graphics card according to hacker news site Hack a Day.

The specs of the OGD1 aren't likely to have AMD or nVidia sweating just yet, but it does provide the basics of what you might need in a desktop graphics card: 256MB of DDR400 graphics memory, a pair of programmable FPGA processors to do the donkey work, a pair of DVI dual-link outputs as well as an analogue RGB output and an S-Video link for hooking up to older TVs, and a 330MHz 10-bit DAC – all hooked up to a PCI or PCI-X bus.

It's not quite ready for mainstream usage, however – the group is keen to point out to prospective purchasers that the cards are sold “blank” with no internal logic aside from a basic system of diagnostic checks. If you actually want to use your new open-source graphics card, you'll have to program the FPGAs yourself. In other words, it's a hacker's toy – not a serious contender to a retail card.

Not really a graphics card. Just a development paltform. You can buy one if you're a hardware developer and use it to help design a graphics card. You wouldn't want one in your PC.

It's the same story we've been hearing from the Open Graphics Project for at least a year. Prodution graphics cards are still a long way off.

Its in no way meant to be a challenge to ATI or NVIDIA its for geeks and nerds to play with. You get everything down to the designs for chips.
All AMD are offer is specs to write drivers to ATI cards, with this you get a whole lot more.

The ODG1 open-source graphics card might be a bare development platform now, but holds promise for the future.

Hear that, Troels? Maybe you'll have a fully functional graphics card in 2012.

Wally Balljacker wrote:

The ODG1 open-source graphics card might be a bare development platform now, but holds promise for the future.

Hear that, Troels? Maybe you'll have a fully functional graphics card in 2012.

Actually, I already have one. I'm using an old ATi Radeon 9200 SE card, it's lightyears from the fastest thing out there, but it accelerates a few things under X, and I can play Quake 3, and that is really all I care about.

Also, my definition of functional varies from yours. Because from my perspective, an NVIDIA graphics card with the "nv" driver is functional. Good luck watching a movie on a non-functional graphics card (One where a capacitor has been roasted), and that worked fine on my GeForce 4 Ti-4200 card.

With a little bit of black magic an ati card and the radeon driver does pretty well.

Snarkout wrote:With a little bit of black magic an ati card and the radeon driver does pretty well.

I had no need for black magic, I just powered down my machine, changed the card, booted up again, and volla, it worked perfectly. I didn't even have to change the driver in xorg.conf, it did that all by itself, automatically.

Tsuroerusu wrote:

Wally Balljacker wrote:

The ODG1 open-source graphics card might be a bare development platform now, but holds promise for the future.

Hear that, Troels? Maybe you'll have a fully functional graphics card in 2012.

Actually, I already have one. I'm using an old ATi Radeon 9200 SE card, it's lightyears from the fastest thing out there, but it accelerates a few things under X, and I can play Quake 3, and that is really all I care about.

Also, my definition of functional varies from yours. Because from my perspective, an NVIDIA graphics card with the "nv" driver is functional. Good luck watching a movie on a non-functional graphics card (One where a capacitor has been roasted), and that worked fine on my GeForce 4 Ti-4200 card.

Tell me, is that open source ATI driver even capable of running Compiz?

Wally Balljacker wrote:Tell me, is that open source ATI driver even capable of running Compiz?

Yes it is, in case you did not know, and it plays Quake III Arena really well.

I still think the Intel integrated chips perform better.

allix wrote:I still think the Intel integrated chips perform better.

Big freaking Yeah right!
Try putting an ATi Radeon X850 up against Intel IGP, I can guarantee you that the Radeon card will dessimate the IGP in performance numbers.

Tsuroerusu wrote:it plays Quake III Arena really well.

Woohoo! Talk about the state of the art of Linux gaming.

Let's see, we've got GNU Chess, Tux Racer, MAME, Quake III, and Frozen Bubble.

And people have the nerve to say Linux gaming sucks...

Wally Balljacker wrote:

Tsuroerusu wrote:it plays Quake III Arena really well.

Woohoo! Talk about the state of the art of Linux gaming.

Let's see, we've got GNU Chess, Tux Racer, MAME, Quake III, and Frozen Bubble.

And people have the nerve to say Linux gaming sucks...

I know what you're trying to say, but my point was that the driver works fine for 3D graphics. However my hardware is not adequate to test it with anything as demanding as Unreal Tournament 2004 (Don't know off the top of my head whether 2007 is ported to Linux).

Tsuroerusu wrote:

allix wrote:I still think the Intel integrated chips perform better.

Big freaking Yeah right!
Try putting an ATi Radeon X850 up against Intel IGP, I can guarantee you that the Radeon card will dessimate the IGP in performance numbers.

is ATi Radeon X850 supported with free drivers? Don't reply they are working on it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA# ... d_chipsets

The latest version supports quite a few stuff and we all know that drivers with 3D support will get into Xorg as soon as the GMA X4500 comes out.

I repeat again ATI free drivers for the latest cards are non-exist

allix wrote:

Tsuroerusu wrote:

allix wrote:I still think the Intel integrated chips perform better.

Big freaking Yeah right!
Try putting an ATi Radeon X850 up against Intel IGP, I can guarantee you that the Radeon card will dessimate the IGP in performance numbers.

is ATi Radeon X850 supported with free drivers? Don't reply they are working on it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA# ... d_chipsets

The latest version supports quite a few stuff and we all know that drivers with 3D support will get into Xorg as soon as the GMA X4500 comes out.

I repeat again ATI free drivers for the latest cards are non-exist

Excuse me, but you clearly have not done any bit of research whatsoever. The ATi Radeon X850 chip is an R300 chip, which is supported by the radeon driver. Next time you wanna play arrogant, please do your research, unless you want to embarrass yourself for the amusement of everybody else.