Open Graphics Project founder Timothy Miller recently noted on the project's mailing list that they are set to announce that their first hardware, the OGD1, is ready for pre-order. "The OGD1 design has actually been finished for a couple of months now," he began, explaining that they've been setting up a way to process pre-orders for the first 100 boards. The board will retail at $1,500, with a $100 discount offered for the first 100 pre-orders. "These are pre-orders, not orders, Timothy continued, "that means the lead time is unpredictable. We don't have a stock. We will purchase a stock based on the number of pre-orders we get. Also, this means that if we never get a large enough number of pre-orders, we will be unable to fulfill them; all pre-orders would be canceled, and no one would be charged anything." He then explained that though the OGD1 could function as a graphics card, it is instead offered as a competitively priced FPGA development kit, "we need to make it clear what OGD1 is and why buying one is an important step for Free Software," adding:

"OGD1 is for hardware hackers. This isn't just about graphics. If all you wanted was a graphics card that worked with Free Software, we've had that for a long time with Matrox, for some time with Intel, and most recently and significantly with ATI. Where our graphics pipeline will be competitive is in embedded systems. As for long-term goals of this project, there are many different types of peripherals for which we do not have good Free Software support; for instance, wifi. But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. OGD1 is for hardware hackers. It's for the community of people who want to tinker with their own hardware ideas, students who want to learn, and professionals who need a prototyping platform. And of course full schematics and design details for OGD1 are offered under the GPL."

KernelTrap is actively seeking sponsorship for September and October of 2007.

In this article at Linux Journal, Julian Rose explains dsp_K, an "open-source, real-time kernel and library for digital signal processors (DSPs)". It covers both technical and historical ground, paying particular attention to the board support package (BSP) layer that is at the kernel's heart; and explains how dsp_K handles funcionality that is essential in any kernel, like context switching, and interrupt handling.

The BSP comprises the minimal services required to provide a functional software platform for an application to run, along with a minimal kernel personality, interrupts, context switching, scheduler sanity checker and task functions

Robert Love (far right, in a green shirt) at the 2002 Linux Kernel Summit with (clockwise from Robert) Ben Lahaise (the back of his head), Arjan van de Ven, Stephen Tweedie, Bill Irwin, Andrea Arcangeli, Marcelo Tosatti, and Rik van Riel [earlier interview].