Priest of the Order of the Butterfly
Posts: 750 from 2003/2/14
From: Earth
Hi Toto, it would be great if life and business were so simple. We have been in discussions at the level of Group Senior VP at ATI. They have promised support and enrolled us in the Developer Program, but we are just not important enough to them -- yet. Here is an example:
Quote:
From a software perspective, we are unable to provide direct assistance. We see that you have a bright future ahead, but it is simply a matter of resources. I'm willing to have one of my team take a look at providing other data, although I can't provide any guarantees.
Later, we responded...
Quote:
The closed source driver is only available for x86 so we can only use the open source Linux driver on our PowerPC based platform or am I missing something?
...and after ALL the discussion and statements of support they concluded with this:
Quote:
You are correct. Therefore the open-source driver is your best option. Please evaluate this performance.
Genesi/bplan is still a small, small player. We just re-initiated the conversations with ATI this past week, but it is not so easy.
In the meanwhile, we have had a customer request to support nVidia. This is a BIG customer and one that commands respect from nVidia, the Company. That is what we need to press ahead. We need access to an nVidia (or ATI) "blackbox" library and API specification, so that we can access the graphics card without documentation on the GPU specifics. This driver technology should be able to be shared between all OSs running on the platform. We will need the latest compiled lib/binary for PPC, so we can insert this into our framework. And, our course have the support available as needed moving ahead is always required as we introduce new CPU cards with the platform.
We are pushing at every angle, but getting the recognition we need in the market place takes more than just us knocking on the door of companies like ATI and nVidia. First, you have to demonstrate you have the capacity to stay in business, then you have to have a unique value proposition and finally you have to provide a market opportunity for THEM and THIER sales. In the case of Genesi/bplan we have something special, but it takes a long time to get that recognition and credibility. This requires many discussions, meetings and weeks/months of constant effort. We have no intention of slowing down, but try to keep that all in mind.
One thing that does help is the kind of user and developer support the platform has. MorphOS and even Linux for the Pegasos has a community of solid citizens who have demonstrated over the last two years what a valuable resource they are. The Resellers, the User Groups, individual developers and contributors (thanks again for the review Fulvio!) and small groups of people like the Image Installer Team (there would be no solid Linux support for the platform without them) is one of the characteristics that make the platform so attractive to big organizations. They can understand the opportunity more easily when they see this kind of activity and support. We have alot of people to thank.
We have tried to do this by keeping you (all) informed and keeping you (all or any many as we can) involved in the effort.
We are certainly making serious progress. We shipped a large amount of Open Desktop Workstations this week. We know lots of people are waiting for boards. They are coming as is MorphOS 1.5. We still have a few things to clear up, but we are getting there.
Have a nice weekend!
Raquel and Bill
