(R300/350) Dual core pixel shader?

[Luminescent]

Beginning here, I read the following:

I would guess myself that the R300 is internally organized as two 4-pipeline cores working more or less independently of each other (possibly enabling it to render 2 polygons per clock in short bursts), especially considering how easy it was for ATI to just turn off 4 pipelines in the 9500np.

I do have a recollection that an ATI employee mentioned specifically that it was 2 4 pixel sets (EDIT: and, in my recollection, I have the impression of each being 2x2), I didn't find that post and can't recall for sure if shader operations were specified in that discussion.

Someone could say that R300/R350 is already dual cored. Two cores that share some things and don't share others. For example the frontend seems 'shared' (up to rasterization) and the backend (pixel pipes) seems separated as they work as two 2x2 pixel blocks.

Anyone have a confirmation or a source regarding the accuracy of this information? How did these statements come to be? If they are true, does it mean R3* can work on 2 separate fragment instructions simultaneously; one for each core?

 

[Xmas]

At least the mipmap selection works per 2x2 pixel block. I think it is very likely that there are two separate blocks for performance reasons.

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

You don't expect them to release a Rampage+ card do you?

Much too expensive.

 

[rwolf]

Straight from ATI....

http://mirror.ati.com/vortal/r300/educational/main.html

Edit: Note "each with its own independent texture and pixelshader engine".

 

[Luminescent]

Edit: I see what you are hinting at: the two cores may essentially be discrete pixel shader and texturing cores?

Thing is that 4 pixel pipelines can activated and deactivated to enable proper scaling, which seems there is a set of 2 independent pipelines.