New Cell patents from IBM's Gschwind: the software side :).

[V3]

[0040] In another embodiment, the software substitutes at least one (power-saving) algorithm for another algorithm, the two algorithms differing in computational complexity (e.g., a different shading algorithm may be selected, the lower power shading algorithm offering less realistic shading of objects).

What do people think about substuting shaders, in cases of over heating ?

Its certainly better than system crash, but, I don't know about this kind of solution.

 

[London Geezer]

[0040] In another embodiment, the software substitutes at least one (power-saving) algorithm for another algorithm, the two algorithms differing in computational complexity (e.g., a different shading algorithm may be selected, the lower power shading algorithm offering less realistic shading of objects).

What do people think about substuting shaders, in cases of over heating ?

Its certainly better than system crash, but, I don't know about this kind of solution.

Sounds awfully complicated to me. Would we end up with 2 versions of the same shaders in one game, one full-on and the other to save power? Mmmm...

 

[nAo]

Its certainly better than system crash, but, I don't know about this kind of solution.

Which patent is it?

 

[V3]

http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z44116038

 

[Fafalada]

If both CPU and GPU in PS3 are cell-based, it's very likely the CPU will have a more powerful (programmable) flops rating.

In scenario Panajev suggested it would actually make sense to have more general purpose FPU aboard the GPU.
If not, the link between two chips would need to be fast enough for CPU to handle things like primitive setup (which could work as well I guess).

 

[Panajev2001a]

What if the idea they give in the patent of Pixel Pipelines, as far as that patent goes, is something like # of APUs ( depending on the configuration ) + the Pixel Engine ( which would be fast, but quite stream-lined )?
Visualizer's APUs might run Shaders and take care of the Geometry set-up process if needed.

So what you are proposing is some kind of "generalized" pipeline where there is no fixed primitive setup and the only thing that would really stay in fixed hw are texture fetches&filtering and maybe pixel tests&writes?
So that way you could write your own rasterization and no longer stay limited to just triangle primitives.

The question you should ask is whether it's really worth it. In this scenario you end up spending massive amounts of general purpose FPU power just in order to put things on screen, instead of using it to make the picture look better.
If the hardware will be so powerfull that the primitive setup and rasterization will only take a tiny % of total general computing resources then sure it would be great, but I don't really buy that just yet.

Yes, but if they provided saaaay... a REYES based renderer ( Panajev is a broken record ) in the dev kits, that developers could augment/enahnce/modify, they could help to keep some of the PlayStation 3 games quite exclusive ( let's say their renderer is faster than the available middle-ware and its learning curve is not too high ).

I do not plan developers having to write their own rasterizer that supports an arbitrary amount of primitives in the rasterization process without conversion.

I have a primitive that will be the one put through Shading and AA .

Can you guess its name ?

 

[London Geezer]

I have a primitive that will be the one put through Shading and AA .

Can you guess its name ?

Monica. As in Monica Bellucci. She's the ONLY woman i'd have sex with.

Sorry did i go off-topic there?

 

[Phil]

OT the hell or not - I agree ^^

ok, not the only woman - but one experience I certainly wouldn't forget.

What do people think about substuting shaders, in cases of over heating ?

Not very much actually... as long as I don't have to power my future console directly from the nearest powerstation, I would hope that it can be used to its full potential without having devs worry about power-saving techniques in their gamecode to save either electricity or save from overheating. I mean, that is the point of having a console isn't? Having a gaming-platform for 5 or more years that can be used to its full potential and have developers concentrate on exactly that piece of hardware.

I really don't see much point of this in PS3 - unless of course it's more general purpouse and applies especially to PSP products in which it might be thing worthy to consider... :?

 

[rabidrabbit]

Who's Monica Bellucci?

Edit: Ok, checked the google. Wasn't she on Matrix?

 

[London Geezer]

Who's Monica Bellucci?

Edit: Ok, checked the google. Wasn't she on Matrix?

Yep. She's in my opinion the most beautiful woman on the planet, italian but resident in France for the last 10 years or so (she's not really recognised in her home land for some reason).
She was also in The Passion of the Christ.

 

[fxtech]

Who's Monica Bellucci?

Edit: Ok, checked the google. Wasn't she on Matrix?

Yep. She's in my opinion the most beautiful woman on the planet, italian but resident in France for the last 10 years or so (she's not really recognised in her home land for some reason).
She was also in The Passion of the Christ.

because you dont hear how she act in italian , appear as stupid chicks that speak with a stone in the mouth.. better forget