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Date:      Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:15:48 +0100 (CET)
From:      Oliver Fromme <olli@lurza.secnetix.de>
To:        freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG, volker@vwsoft.com
Subject:   Re: open source graphics card
Message-ID:  <200703161115.l2GBFmNm057117@lurza.secnetix.de>
In-Reply-To: <45FA6FC8.8090606@vwsoft.com>

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Note:  This is off-topic on the -stable list, so it should
better go to the -chat list.

Volker <volker@vwsoft.com> wrote:
 > I've followed the thread "don't buy ati products" not very closely
 > but one thing comes to mind:
 > 
 > Years ago we've had a lot of card / chip manufacturers on the
 > market. When thinking about this currently really just two chip
 > manufacturers are coming into my mind. This is bad.
 > 
 > It's probably a crazy idea but what about an open source graphics card?
 > 
 > There are similar projects already like OsCar so the idea of open
 > source hardware development is not really new but probably exciting.
 > Aren't there any hw devs reading and motivated?
 > 
 > Imagine a graphics chip with a BSD style license... ;)
 > 
 > Just dreaming?

Yes, just dreaming.

In today's graphics cards there are _huge_ amounts of
know-how, a considerable number of patents and a large
amount of research and development time.  Modern GPUs
contain several hundreds of millions of transistors and
require a 90nm (or less) fabrication process.

Another thing to keep in mind: In order to produce a
competitive graphics card today (at a competitive price!),
it must be at least on par with the "big ones", which
requires DirectX 9 and HDCP support, among other things.
Did I already mention patents?

Personally, I prefer intel graphics (i915, i945 etc.).
They have open-source drivers that work very well.  The
3D performance is not as good as the top-of-the-line ATI
or nVidia products, but it's good enough to play OpenGL
games such as ports/games/crack-attack or kobo-deluxe.
That's more than enough for me.

YMMV, of course.

Best regards
   Oliver

-- 
Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing b. M.
Handelsregister: Registergericht Muenchen, HRA 74606,  Geschäftsfuehrung:
secnetix Verwaltungsgesellsch. mbH, Handelsregister: Registergericht Mün-
chen, HRB 125758,  Geschäftsführer: Maik Bachmann, Olaf Erb, Ralf Gebhart

FreeBSD-Dienstleistungen, -Produkte und mehr:  http://www.secnetix.de/bsd

"To this day, many C programmers believe that 'strong typing'
just means pounding extra hard on the keyboard."
        -- Peter van der Linden



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