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An amusing case and point:

From XGI's 'where to buy' section (apparantly, nobody is selling them!)
A market bottom-dog-pack-runt

Want to deliver the market's most competitive product to your customers? Want to stay ahead from the rest? Please contact us and we will provide you with the most outstanding graphics chipset solution from XGI.


if you don't know, they are a video card manufacturer. The reason I was even on their site, is I remembered they had OSS drivers that they released (apparantly only 2D), but I was looking for something that wasn't nVidia (no 64 bit drivers in BSD), or ATI (horrible experiences), and currently the X3100 chipset (or the X3000 with DVI) is not available from Intel yet...

But back on the topic, you are quite correct, even the bottom of the totem poll will do that kind of phallic waving to suggest they are the top.

From SGI's own OSS project page: "...and in order for OpenGL to continue as the only cross-platform 3D graphics standard, it must succeed on Linux as well as the many other platforms it already is available on. As the original creators and strongest supporters of OpenGL, we're putting substantial resources into making sure all this happens."

So, step up foo! SGI could be the defacto open platform hardware solution provider on linux. I'm a self professed Nvidia fanboi, but I'd gladly pay $200 for something comparable to just an FX5900.

Why can't a binary driver be accepted?

By whom? The X.org guys can't distribute the driver. For a start most driver EULAs forbid redistribution. X.org is also a cross platform windowing system; why should they distribute binary drivers that are only of any use to Linux-IA32 users?

If you want binary drivers for your XGI XGI do them.

Perhaps you mean the Volari series of GPUs produced by XGI?

Their site is at http://www.xgitech.com

Call me when they put two GPUs on one card...

Isn't XGI doing that with some of their cards?

Speaking of which, I wonder what happened to them... I don't see any of these cards in stores near me yet.

AFAICT, that's the best possible response to the issue of not having full ownership of your software technology.

Now all we need is enough XGI dealers around that I can actually buy one of the danged things, and we'll be away...

http://www20.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031107/ind ex.html

Of course a link is helpful.

http://www.xgitech.com/

Benchmarks look promising.


Conclusion

The Volari Duo V8 Ultra leaves us with a very mixed first impression. Despite the prototype status of our sample and its driver, the card was able to produce some very respectable results in some areas. These highlights are clouded by the problems with texture filtering and the stark performance drop-offs in some benchmarks and games.

XGI's driver team definitely has its work cut out for it. We can expect to see final boards with shipping status and WHQL drivers within the next one or two months, or so. That gives XGI's driver programmers a bit of time to iron out the kinks.

Should they be successful, XGI's cards may well become serious alternatives to ATi's and NVIDIA's offerings, especially considering their comparatively low prices. XGI is aiming for a street price of about $449 (plus tax), which is rather inexpensive. This makes XGI's top model a good $50 less expensive than the flagship models of NVIDIA or ATi. As far as the other versions of the cards are concerned, XGI has so far declined to comment.

More info on the Volari Duo straight from the XGI Homepage

More info on the Volari Duo straight from the XGI Homepage

I don't see any NVIDIA influence in XGI's logo, but would you deny that the XGI logo resembles the Cingular logo, except pixelized and painted green?

An excellent point,

why not email them ?

developer@xgitech.com

other contact details here.
XGI Contact Details

I just popped an email off! Anyone else care to join the vigil?

nick ..

An excellent point,

why not email them ?

developer@xgitech.com

other contact details here.
XGI Contact Details

I just popped an email off! Anyone else care to join the vigil?

nick ..

This page claims that they will support Linux for the Volari V3, and elsewhere they claim to have a "unified" driver, so I would think that means there will be Linux support, if not open source drivers.

XGI is the combination of Trident and SiS's (remember Xabre? Ick.) graphics group. They have just announced a series of DX9 cards coming out soon. Some have dual GPU's (think single-board Voodoo SLI).