With the recent announcement of collaboration between Intel an IMG in graphics, I took to comparing Intels latest X3000 graphics accelerator (as found in the 965 chipset), with what is publicly available about SGX.
I'm not a graphics expert, however even though X3000 is not IMG technology, the headline feature sets, and wording of the underlying architecture is amazingly similar, suggesting that Intel are already using some of the same methodolgies and techniques that IMG also use in SGX.
The similarities I've seen are:
X3000
The Intel® GMA 3000 family graphics engine consists of a programmable array of symmetric execution units to process graphics and video data threads.
SGX
....These tasks are automatically broken down into processing packets which are then scheduled across a number of multi-threaded execution units in the USSE
X3000
The Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 architecture is programmable and fixed function technology balanced to achieve high flexibility and performance for graphics and video applications. The Intel® Graphics Media accelerator 3000 engine consists of programmable array
of symmetric processing components nows as execution units (EUs).
The Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 family is multi-functional and can easily switch between executing graphics-related tasks or video related tasks. The array of EUs can dynamically
switch to process either graphics threads (for both vertex and pixel processing) or video threads (decode and post-processing) depending on the application being processed.
SGX
The programmable architecture allows acceleration of other multimedia related tasks (e.g., image processing). This universal approach to processing uses a single programming model with one compiler, reducing hardware and software qualification time.
X3000
The Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 family engine has a massively threaded architecture. The whole array of symmetric execution units has been designed to process multiple threads of
graphic or video data simultaneously.
SGX
Universal Scalable Shader Engine (USSE) – uses a scalable multi-threaded processing engine that can efficiently carry out graphics, video, imaging and other mathematically-intensive tasks.
As far as I recall Intel has been using "ZONE Rendering" for quite a while, which I guess is the equivalent of tile based rendering. Both technolgies also mention dynamic load balancing.
Is all the above just generic speak, or does it indicate that Intel has already been going down the SGX path for quite a while (without using IMG technology per se).
Given the similarities above, one begins to wonder if SGX will (in the desktop segment) give Intel a significant performace advantage over what is widely seen as the very disappointing performance of the X3000.
I'm not a graphics expert, however even though X3000 is not IMG technology, the headline feature sets, and wording of the underlying architecture is amazingly similar, suggesting that Intel are already using some of the same methodolgies and techniques that IMG also use in SGX.
The similarities I've seen are:
X3000
The Intel® GMA 3000 family graphics engine consists of a programmable array of symmetric execution units to process graphics and video data threads.
SGX
....These tasks are automatically broken down into processing packets which are then scheduled across a number of multi-threaded execution units in the USSE
X3000
The Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 architecture is programmable and fixed function technology balanced to achieve high flexibility and performance for graphics and video applications. The Intel® Graphics Media accelerator 3000 engine consists of programmable array
of symmetric processing components nows as execution units (EUs).
The Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 family is multi-functional and can easily switch between executing graphics-related tasks or video related tasks. The array of EUs can dynamically
switch to process either graphics threads (for both vertex and pixel processing) or video threads (decode and post-processing) depending on the application being processed.
SGX
The programmable architecture allows acceleration of other multimedia related tasks (e.g., image processing). This universal approach to processing uses a single programming model with one compiler, reducing hardware and software qualification time.
X3000
The Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 family engine has a massively threaded architecture. The whole array of symmetric execution units has been designed to process multiple threads of
graphic or video data simultaneously.
SGX
Universal Scalable Shader Engine (USSE) – uses a scalable multi-threaded processing engine that can efficiently carry out graphics, video, imaging and other mathematically-intensive tasks.
As far as I recall Intel has been using "ZONE Rendering" for quite a while, which I guess is the equivalent of tile based rendering. Both technolgies also mention dynamic load balancing.
Is all the above just generic speak, or does it indicate that Intel has already been going down the SGX path for quite a while (without using IMG technology per se).
Given the similarities above, one begins to wonder if SGX will (in the desktop segment) give Intel a significant performace advantage over what is widely seen as the very disappointing performance of the X3000.
