On Sun, 25 Apr 2004, Ken Chang wrote:
> for me, I thought a more powerful ARM or SH CPU might be better for
> both Java and graphics. surprised GPU comes so early.
If you're doing 3D, a specialized GPU for it strikes me, in the naive
analysis, as well worth it. Texture mapping and suchlike is quite a lot
of work, and the GPU is likely to use less power to do a given amount
of it. And you may also make some savings in not having to put in a CPU
with FP. But as well, there are the bus speed issues that people have
pointed out. Texture data needs to be uploaded only once in a while,
and vertice data is far, far smaller than the actual images. If the
GPU can be rendering to frame buffer memory that is much more "local"
(ideally, on-chip), you can use cheaper busses elsewhere. Chuck in an LCD
controller as well, maybe.
Of course, there is the issue of the cost of all this VLSI.
cjs
--
Curt Sampson <cjs_at_cynic.net> +81 90 7737 2974 http://www.NetBSD.org
Don't you know, in this new Dark Age, we're all light. --XTC
Received on Tue Apr 27 03:01:41 2004