• @[email protected]
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    3169 months ago

    The article title is straight up misinformation at present. From the article itself:

    The FuryGPU is set to be open-sourced. “I am intending on open-sourcing the entire stack (PCB schematic/layout, all the HDL, Windows WDDM drivers, API runtime drivers, and Quake ported to use the API) at some point, but there are a number of legal issues,” Barrie wrote in a Hacker News post on Wednesday. Because he works in a tangentially related vocation, he wants to make sure none of this work would break his work contract or licensing etc.

    Nothing against OP who simply copied the title, nor the project author. This is impressive but it’s not yet open source and there may be legal hurdles preventing it from becoming so.

    • @MyNamesNotRobert
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      9 months ago

      If they never release the source, including all the fpga verilog files then this is pointless to the open source community.

      Edit: actually I just realized my comment is kind of pointless. Even if he released the fpga source code, a thing a lot of projects like these never do, it still wouldn’t be possible to reproduce one of these using only free and open source software. This is because the only fpgas that let you program them using open source software and not a locked-down windows-only bloatfuck program that needs an internet connection and licensing are the lattice ice40 fpgas. Tl;dr this can’t be fully “open source”.

      I wonder if it would be possible to make an ice 40 based video card that could still do opengl.

      • @[email protected]
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        19 months ago

        You could probably fab it onto an ASIC, which avoids the non-free software part (aside from the fab itself). So still way cool.

        • @MyNamesNotRobert
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          9 months ago

          Open source fpgas cost up to $10 per chip, $17 if you want the big chungus 256 pin one with lots of extra memory and logic blocks. You can get pcb printing services for like $7 per board but I think I paid less than that last time I built something.

          I’m pretty sure custom made ASICs cost orders of magnitude more than that.

          • @[email protected]
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            19 months ago

            For one, sure, but I’m guessing prices come down quite a bit once we’re talking larger numbers, like hundreds of thousands.

            But those are really good prices though.

    • @[email protected]
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      19 months ago

      I’d be willing to help fund a lawyer reviewing things to ensure it can be open sourced.

  • I Cast Fist
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    739 months ago

    Subsequently, the project got a boost by the debut of Xilinx Kria System-on-Modules (SoMs), which combine “insanely cheap Zynq UltraScale+ FPGAs with a ton of DSP units and a (comparatively) massive amount of LUTs and FFs, and of particular interest, a hardened PCIe core,” enthused Barrie.

    Yes, I understand, the bippity uses mumps in order for the many lutes to flips those zupps in their pacas.

    • @[email protected]
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      9 months ago

      FPGA

      Awww, I thought this was an ASIC. Slapping an FPGA on a PCIe card is decidedly less cool. Still, props for creating a usable GPU circuit description, that must have been a nightmare.

      • @[email protected]
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        49 months ago

        In situation where there are affordable (for this purpose) FPGAs - more cool, not less. ASICs you have to actually order somewhere somehow to be produced.

        And one can order ASICs from that description, no?

  • @MyNamesNotRobert
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    9 months ago

    Fuck yes. When normal modern video cards start costing too much for the common person to afford, at least we’ll still be able to play quake.

  • @[email protected]
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    129 months ago

    I’m confused, he made a homemade GPU that can’t be mass-produced, and it runs a 30 year old game at 44 fps, and it may (or may not) actually become open source, and I’m supposed to be excited about it?

    • @[email protected]OP
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      159 months ago

      You’re not supposed to be anything. It’s a pretty cool feat by one person though.

    • Richard
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      99 months ago

      You should be impressed. Integrated circuits are insanely complex, and any general purpose processing hardware since the 90s is way too complicated for the human mind to comprehend.

    • @[email protected]
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      89 months ago

      Open sourced physical technology is only in its infancy, you may be exited about this trend.

      Ive seen open sourced hacking tools, openassistant wireless connectors, complete keyboards.

      Its about time someone started on open sourced proper pc hardware, no matter of how small scale it starts.

      Imagine a future where you can 3d print a 2d printer and its refillable cartridges at home, with extensive manuals on diy repairs and maintenance and no costs beyond the raw resources and your time.

      Open source demonstrates humans cooperating with no profit insensitive. Exactly what capitalism calls impossible. When i first learned about linux it felt incredibly lacking compared to windows, nowadays its my main os, its surpassed windows in anything except good Nvidia drivers.

  • @[email protected]
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    89 months ago

    RISC-V plans to make ISA extensions that will enable it to work better in graphics applications. Look forward to truly open-source graphics