ATI and Apple Mac: An Interesting Read

[iwod]

While i was searching for CAD on Mac i found this. Just like to share with you all.

http://www.architosh.com/features/2007/chatside/ati/070128_ati-1.html

 

[Dave Baumann]

The X1900 XT has 16 of what might be called "extreme pipelines", with 3 parallel math execution units for every rendering unit for a total of 48 so-called "pixel shader processors ".

 

[Farid]

It's like normal pipelines, but they're skating and snowboarding

The X1900 XT has 16 of what might be called "extreme pipelines"

Everybody stay calm! If we all ignore it, it might go away.

three custom IBM processors remarkably similar to G5 chips inside Power Macs.

If by similar they meant different then, yeah, they're onto something.

 

[neliz]

This one got a smile on my face as well:

AFR: I see. So only the Mac 3D GPU group sees this early hardware?

CB: Yes. There are lots of firewalls here.

Q: Do you have any banana's

A: Yes, the Kitchenaid food processor really does do an amazing job.

 

[Geo]

Everybody stay calm! If we all ignore it, it might go away.

Thank you, friendly moderator! You prevented me from jumping up and down on it swinging an axe handle wildly, screaming "DIE, DIE, DIE!".

 

[Geo]

For example, at AMD we have an entire group dedicated to writing a really good compiler for vertex and pixel shaders. That same compiler that is used for the PC graphics card development is used for the Mac cards. We use the same code. When hardware became programmable we started being able to do this. It changed everything -- we could expose programming languages as the interface to the hardware. The driver then needed to contain a compiler.

I found that kind of interesting. Not surprising maybe, but I think its the first time I remember reading that there is a group that *that's all they do*, is work on tweaking the compiler for shader programs.

 

[Jawed]

Whereas I found the stuff about virtual memory the most interesting with regard to the "Pro" apps.

Now that Vista's here, I dare say it would be interesting to read a comparison of the "3D desktops" of both OSs.

Jawed

 

[Xmas]

This one got a smile on my face as well:

I don't see what's funny about that.

But it's interesting that he refers to the handheld market when answering "where is OpenGL big in gaming".
And where does the weird idea of embedding text as images in HTML come from?

 

[NocturnDragon]

I found that kind of interesting. Not surprising maybe, but I think its the first time I remember reading that there is a group that *that's all they do*, is work on tweaking the compiler for shader programs.

It seems like I cannot find any link about that, but I remember that years ago (at the time of the 8500 iirc) ATi acquired a software firm that made compilers (iirc for C and C++), it sounds like part of that group.

 

[DudeMiester]

This one got a smile on my face as well:

AFR: I see. So only the Mac 3D GPU group sees this early hardware?
CB: Yes. There are lots of firewalls here.

Q: Do you have any banana's

A: Yes, the Kitchenaid food processor really does do an amazing job.

Afaik, he is referring to a corporate/business firewall, in which information about products and such are confined to particular business groups. Likely, this is where the computer related use of the word "firewall" derived its meaning.

 

[neliz]

Afaik, he is referring to a corporate/business firewall, in which information about products and such are confined to particular business groups. Likely, this is where the computer related use of the word "firewall" derived its meaning.

I know.. .the article could use some editing though.. it feels like reading the inq on monday morning.