Note: This is off-topic on the -stable list, so it should better go to the -chat list.
Volker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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 _______________________________________________ freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
