From: Angus Dorbie (dorbie++at++sgi.com)
Date: 07/20/2000 08:50:10
Well, some graphics drivers already use the 3DNow! and SSE instruction
sets (MMX is more doubtful for hardware since it's SIMD integer and that
was used for pixel fill only). I'm not entirely sure about driver
coverage for this kind of stuff on Linux.
AFAIK the gcc compiler currently doesn't use these instructions and
you'd have to hand code your own assembly in places where you think your
application would benefit.
The Performer libraries don't use these instructions to accelerate the
compiled library code, I suspect there would be few places where this
would be practical, maybe in the matrix math libraries. Overall it would
probably be of marginal benefit. Given that we only release binaries it
wouldn't be possible for you to use these instructions in the Performer
code, so that just leaves your application code.
The 3DNow! instructions and SSE only significantly benefit graphics
drivers which perform the transformation and lighting in software,
hardware accelerated openGL implementations are much faster than the CPU
for this stuff anyway. This means that just linking to the OpenGL
libraries is enough to get the benefits you need on a software T&L
implementation IF the drivers support the instructions, but if you have
an SGI Linux PC like the 230 it has fast hardware accelerated T&L
support implemented in OpenGL which beats software performance using any
instruction set on any processor.
So, buy an SGI 230 and forget about 3DNow! & SSE acceleration, (MMX was
just used for fill which is all hardware now).
Even on a software T&L system forget about this stuff anyway unless you
want to start doing OpenGL driver work. Just link to what you got and
hope someone has added support for the extensions.
If you have an application where SSE or 3DNow! might be useful you'll
have to inline hand coded assembly, there may be dev kits out there
which can help, but I'm not familiar enough to know the details.
Cheers,Angus.
Douglas Maxwell wrote:
>
> Has anyone done work with Performer Linux and 3DNow! or even MMX? I'd like
> to recompile a test Performer app, probably Perfly, using these instructions
> and compare the performance differences. If things go well, the ultimate
> goal is to port our Performer SGI apps to Linux and vice versa.
>
> Thanks
>
> Douglas Maxwell
> Advanced Information Technology Code 5580
> Naval Research Laboratory
> 4555 Overlook Ave. SW
> Washington, DC 20375-5337
> http://www.ait.nrl.navy.mil
> dmaxwell++at++ait.nrl.navy.mil
>
> Voice No. 202-767-3960
> Fax Phone No. 202-767-1122
>
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