Re: HARDWARE: Open-Source-Friendly Graphics Cards -- Viable?

[Timothy Miller]

Helge Hafting wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 25, 2004 at 01:08:00PM -0400, Timothy Miller wrote:
>
> > Lars Roland wrote:
> >
> >
> > > For my own part I can tell you, that a dual head dvi card is high on
> > > my wish list (if it can run 1200*1600 on each head), if you can make
> > > one with Linux support, then I would be happy to pay 200-300$ for it,
> > > even if it did not have the best 3D support (just enough power for
> > > future xorg/enlightenment effect and I am happy).
> >
> > I expect that we will offer a multi-head model.
>
>
> Great!
>
> Will this be a card with two pci id's, and two
> fully independent graphichs accelerators?

Maybe.  Or maybe two independent graphics contexts in the same chip, or 
any number of other solutions.

This isn't a serious technical hurdle.  If nothing else, we can stick a 
bridge between two chips and the bus.

> That is necessary for two-user setups.  A single-user
> setup with xinerama use a single xserver process that
> can deal with hardware dependencies.  A two-user
> setup use two xserver processes that doesnïï't cooperate
> at all.  One basically doesnï't know that the other exists,
> so it cannot know what register the other process messes
> with and so on.  A dual processor machine might even
> mean that both servers runs simultaneosuly - so
> there cannot be dependencies.  Also, an xserver likes
> to reserve a pci ID for itself, so life gets much
> easier if the card has two pci ids - i.e. two
> graphichs cards on a single circuit board.
>
> Of course I am willing to pay twice the single-card
> price for such a card that has two of every chip
> (except for the shared bus interface circuits).

The economics are much more complex than that, although I don't really 
understand them well.  What you're asking for is a niche product and is 
subject to niche pricing.  It will sell for what the market will bear.

Products like this may have to have a higher profit margin, in order to 
make up for slimmer margins on more commodity products.  But don't quote 
me because I'm officially clueless on this topic.  :)

> I hope such a design won't be too much extra work,
> basically you design the single-card accelerator FPGA
> and other supporting chips
> and stuff two of everything on the same PCB.
>
> Note that this  "double" card improves performance for
> the more common case of one user with two screens too. :-)

Quite true.  :)

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