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Open Source 3D Hardware
An anonymous submitter writes: "Open Source haven icculus.org has updated with a new project: Manticore. Different from most Open Source projects however, Manticore is hardware. It is a 3D graphics acceleration design, coded in VHDL. Although still fairly early in development, its goals are similar to those of other 3D cores, from companies like NVIDIA and ATI. The project includes an SDRAM controller for storage, and a VGA unit for display, in addition to the 3D rendering core. It is available under the Design Science License. Source, Documentation and other information available at the Manticore Homepage."
Why dont they put it on Open Cores?
Thats where all open hardware projects are.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
Than the bitboys!
:-)
Belief is the currency of delusion.
if they ditched the VGA it would be better
simply because you would not have to add all that redundant crap into the hardware
I dont care much for VGA other people do because they are lazy or cant modify their source code (-;
(even MS will be ditching VGA for longhorn)
regards
john jones
Bugger! Lets try again.
What they need is an XESS board
I used one when I made my MIPS clone and it was huge. I could fit an array of 14 full 32 bit processors on one Vertex chip all working at 100MHz. The cool thing is that they also have a VGA port and a DAC.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
...do they have to develop a 3D accellerator that is compatible with most software (OpenGL, DirectX, etc)? It seems to me that many of the design concepts in this arena are mired up in patents by giants like nVidia and ATI. For instance, doesn't nVidia have 'rights' to per-pixel vertex shader techniques?
Why bother.
All you need is for some one to design a card you can place in your AGP/PCI slot which has an FPGA.
These cards do exist and once open hardware becomes more popular you will be able to download your new graphics card compile it and stick it on your computer.
Or even recompile your card to work better with a perticlular game or video standard.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
Such cards do exist. They generally cost at least a few thousand dollars though.
Also don't expect a fpga based card do outperform a dedicated circuit. Youll need an order of magnitude (at least) more silicon area to make a circuit on an fpga than on an asic, and you can never hope to match the speed.
Furthermore you will need appropiate software to synthesize and run place and route on the fpga. These generally cost from around $10000 each, Though prices are negotiable. If you can manage with less you might be able to make do with the vendor provided synthesis software, but don't expect good results. Synplicity or leonardo spectrum (to be replaced with Precision Synthesis) are the good choices.
I've had 100Mhz designs running. If you pipeline them well then they they can go very fast. I'm currently running Delay Insesitive (DI) Asynchronous designs and they go really fast.
The software can be free from Xilinx but I would prefair an open source project to have a linux version.
The boards we make in the university cost £100 each with a spartan or £300 with a Virtex 300 (damn big I got 14 MIPS R3000 CPUs on one ).
As for the spartan you can still make some cool stuff with it. These are some of the things I made with it.
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
Q: I grabbed Manticore from CVS, but it won't compile on my x86 1.8 GHz P4.
A: Manticore is a hardware project. You must fabricate the chip using the VHDL files.
Q: Help, I can't get Manticore to fab.
A: Are you using an Applied Materials Silicon Etch DPS II Centura 300 etcher? This is the only machine we have access to, we can't support other models.
Q: I produced a wafer, what next?
A: Many people use a dremel tool to cut the chip to size and mount in a 432-pin test carrier.
Q: Do you have a PCB design for AGP4x?
A: Check the mailing lists, most of the PCB layout guys are quite active there.
Q: I finally have my Manticore graphics card. Where can I find the drivers?
A: We need software developers! See http://www.manticore.org/contribute.html for details