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Kickstarter For Open Source GPU

morgaine

Well, this is a turn-up for the books:  a Kickstarter for "Open Source Graphics Processor (GPU)". !!!

 

There's a lot of "if's" involved, but it's certainly a very interesting idea, and worth exploring for multiple reasons, education and fun among others.

 

OSHW and FPGA enthusiasts having their own GPU would be fascinating! image

 

===

 

PS. I've been wondering whether the Parallella board wouldn't be a nice implementation platform for the programmable pipeline of a modern open-source GPU.  After all, the Epiphany device provides hardware parallelism with fast floating point for the core compute engines of 16 to 64 shaders without having to implement CPUs in Verilog.  The FPGA would then be left to do only the fastest parts of the overall task instead of implementing the programmable shaders that CPUs are best at.

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  • I don't understand why their first goal is so pricey for what it delivers, but then it seems to go the other way and twice the cost rewards with a lot more than twice the work (just guessing though :-( Maybe they have some agreements in place with some of the developers to pay for releasing some of the code as open source?

  • in reply to shabaz

    That's a very good question.  Since they already have the 2D functionality working and they claim that there is no risk for the first target, what's the $200K for?

  • in reply to morgaine

    I believe it would be for Manufacturing the Chip. image

     

    What they've done up to this point is mainly Software.

  • in reply to R_Phoenix

    R_Phoenix wrote:

     

    I believe it would be for Manufacturing the Chip. image

     

    What they've done up to this point is mainly Software.

    I see your wink, of course. image

     

    Just in case others miss it, $200k wouldn't come even close for a project involving delivering a physical device.  They explain clearly that the project entails delivering only Verilog code and related development materials:

    Silicon Spectrum writes:

     

    Our deliverables are Verilog source code and testbenches.

     

    So it's an interesting question where the money will be spent for the (already nearly finished?) initial goal.  The other interesting question is about their expectations regarding the number of backers, since the number of people for whom Verilog is a worthwhile personal acquisition is not really very large, at least not by the standards of most Kickstarters.

  • in reply to morgaine

    I hate to say it but this looks like an attempt to get $200k for some Verilog they can't sell any other way.

     

    They are incredibly vague (unless I missed something) about the size of FPGA and the performance that will be achieved.

     

    It's also not clear if there is any comitment to open sourcing the drivers for Linux or Windows.

     

    Any serious 3D graphics accelerator needs GB of RAM which will be off chip - it takes a lot more than the basic IP to turn that kind of technology into  a working board so I'm not at all sure who the later stages of the project are aimed at.

     

    MK

  • in reply to michaelkellett

    Unfortunately I have to agree with you.  Although I would like to advocate strongly on behalf of OSHW enthusiasts and encourage them to do a lot more to bring hardware under their control instead of just taking what they're given and having to like it, I don't see how this project achieves that.

     

    Equally importantly, on the Kickstarter front it doesn't deliver value for money, in that the number of backers for a Verilog deliverable is likely to be extremely low, and therefore the amount pledged per person would have to be extremely high to meet the target, which mades no sense on value for money grounds for an open HDL design.

     

    The days of paying a lot of money for code are long gone, and that applies to HDL just as much as to code for CPUs.  Some people just haven't noticed the sea change yet, and this is a particularly bad case of it.

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  • in reply to michaelkellett

    Unfortunately I have to agree with you.  Although I would like to advocate strongly on behalf of OSHW enthusiasts and encourage them to do a lot more to bring hardware under their control instead of just taking what they're given and having to like it, I don't see how this project achieves that.

     

    Equally importantly, on the Kickstarter front it doesn't deliver value for money, in that the number of backers for a Verilog deliverable is likely to be extremely low, and therefore the amount pledged per person would have to be extremely high to meet the target, which mades no sense on value for money grounds for an open HDL design.

     

    The days of paying a lot of money for code are long gone, and that applies to HDL just as much as to code for CPUs.  Some people just haven't noticed the sea change yet, and this is a particularly bad case of it.

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