[Open-graphics] A really good immediate use for OGD1: PCI bus analyzer

[Timothy Miller]

As our own PCI controller matures, we're going to want to test it in
situ.  The trouble will be when it fails to work properly, and the
solution will be to use some device to watch the PCI bus activity and
let us observe them.  Such "PCI bus analyzer" devices to exist, but
they cost a fortune.  Then it occurred to me that perhaps another OGD1
board would be ideal for this.  It's got plenty of memory to store a
large window of bus activity, and with the user I/O pins, we could rig
up an RS232 port on it that we could use to communicate with the
device.  Moreover, it had occurred to me that we could make some money
selling such a product.  Of course, we couldn't sell it for the same
amount as competing products (because it's open source... you can just
buy and OGD1 board and download the FPGA code), but we could sell it
pre-installed with support at a premium.  The only thing about this
that's a major drawback is that the market is waning rapidly as PCI
Express takes over.

Thoughts?

-- 
Timothy Miller
http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~millerti