So, this is my project! Was somewhat hoping to wait until there was a bit more content up on the site before it started doing the rounds, but here we are! :)

To answer what seems to be the most common question I get asked about this, 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 that need to be cleared (with respect to my job) and I need to decide the rest of the particulars (license, etc.) - this stuff is not what I do for a living, but it's tangentially-related enough that I need to cover my ass.

The first commit for this project was on August 22, 2021. It's been a bit over two and a half years I've been working on this, and while I didn't write anything up during that process, there are a fair number of videos in my YouTube FuryGpu playlist (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4FPA1MeZF440A9CFfMJ7...) that can kind of give you an idea of how things progressed.

The next set of blog posts that are in the works concern the PCIe interface. It'll probably be a multi-part series starting at the PCB schematic/layout and moving through the FPGA design and ending with the Windows drivers. No timeline on when that'll be done, though. After having written just that post on how the Texture Units work, I've got even more respect for those that can write up technical stuff like that with any sort of timing consistency.

I'll answer the remaining questions in the threads where they were asked.

Thanks for the interest!

It's incredible how influential Ben Eater's breadboard computer series has been in hobby electronics. I've been similarly inspired to try to design my own "retro" CPU.

I desperately want something as easy to plug into things as the 6502, but with jussst a little more capability - few more registers, hardware division, that sort of thing. It's a really daunting task.

I always end up coming back to just use an MCU and be done with it, and then I hit the How To Generate Graphics problem.

Cool! I found the hello blog here illuminating to understand the creators intentions: https://www.furygpu.com/blog/hello

As I read it, it's just a fun hobby project for them first and foremost and looks like they're intending to write a whole bunch more about how they built it.

It's certainly an impressive piece of work, in particular as they've got the full stack working, a windows driver implementing a custom graphics API and then quake running on top of that. A shame they've not got some DX/GL support but I can certainly understand why they went the custom API route.

I wonder if they'll open source the design?

This is my dream!

The last year I've been working on a 2d focused GPU for I/O constrained microcontrollers (https://github.com/KallDrexx/microgpu). I've been able to utilize this to get user interfaces on slow SPI machines to render on large displays, and it's been fascinating to work on.

But seeing the limitation of processor pipelines I've had the thought for a while that FPGAs could make this faster. I've recently gotten some low end FPGAs to start learning to try and turn my microgpu from an ESP32 based one to an FPGA one.

I don't know if I"ll ever get to this level due to kids and free time constraints, but man, I would love to get even a hundredth of this level.

Pipeline seems retro, but far better than nothing.

There's no open hardware GPU to speak of. Depending on license (can't find information?), this could be the first, and a starting point for more.