RE: Is is possible to receive a cheep SubVendorID?

[Dave New <NewD@esi.com>]

Rolling your own Vendor ID would be very bad
karma, indeed.  Which 'unused' ID would you
propose to use?  How do you know that sometime
in the near future that one of your own company's
machines won't gain a newly minted 3rd party adapter
that was just assigned your supposedly 'private'
ID?  The whole idea of having a central registration
authority is to prevent exactly that situation.
And then there are those that will decide to
'productize' your private design, and sell it to
others (don't forget the marketing department 8-).

I've gone through having a supposedly 'never to
be shipped' prototype handed out to customers
as 'cardboard beta', and was very glad that we
didn't just roll our own numbers.

So, as I pointed out earlier, there is a third
way (besides paying the SIG membership fees or
rolling your own ID) -- that is, register a
device ID with the chipset or IP vendor that
you are using to interface your add-on circuitry
to the PCI bus.

I still don't know what Florian intends to build --
data acquisition, maybe?  Whatever it is, I
wouldn't believe that he is building the PCI
interface completely from scratch.  So, use the
resources of the chipset or IP vendor (if he
is building the interface within a programmable
part) and get them to reserve a Device ID for
you, under their registration program.  If they
don't have one, then find a vendor with a clue.

No one should be forced to ante up $2500 for
a Vendor ID, if they aren't building their
own PCI interface circuitry.  Chipset/IP
vendors realize this, and most are happy
to serve as a DeviceID registration authority.

Cheers,

-- DaveN

-----Original Message-----
From: Dimiter Popoff [mailto:tgi_earth@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2000 8:50 PM
To: pci-sig@znyx.com
Subject: Re: Is is possible to receive a cheep SubVendorID?


Florian,

>...This means the minimal tax we have to pay are about
>$2500 - not really acceptable for a product quantity of 50 cards per
>year.

I would not pay that. Like the fact that pci-sig , unlike other
standard bodies (like t10, t13 etc.), want you to be a member to
have access to their drafts, this fee is also meant just to make the life
of the big ones, who control pci, easier. A closer look at the
technology those protective big ones have will tell you why they 
are so keen to tie as many hands as they can.
I am pretty sure you can do the job for your 50-100 units/year
without getting your own vendor ID.
If they will run with your software, what's the problem?
I would just make something the office stuff running
on the (office) PCs will not recognize as its 
own and here you go...

Dimiter

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Dimiter Popoff
Transgalactic Instruments, Gourko Str. 25 b, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria
http://transgalactic.freeyellow.com
Email: tgi@bulnet.bg, tgi_earth@yahoo.com
Phone: 00359/2992/3340, 00359/2/9805997, Fax: 00359/2/9540384