SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Technology Stocks : 3DFX -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Patrick Grinsell who wrote (12911)5/22/1999 8:29:00 AM
From: FIFO_kid2  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 16960
 
When TDFX acquired STB it inherited a TV tuner card biz. Where is TDFX in relation to HAUP in its development of a digitized TV tuner card and how is it promoted. Does anyone know because I want 15 points in one day on TDFX.



To: Patrick Grinsell who wrote (12911)5/22/1999 9:29:00 AM
From: Plaz  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 16960
 

The bandwidth you stated is for AGP in general, not just AGP texturing. Why can't somebody come up with a solution (maybe even at the driver level) that's just as good as AGP texturing if it's necessary to move textures from main memory.

If I understand your question (which I may not; I'm sure you'll let me know :-) ), then the answer is no, they can't. The PCI bus is a 33 MHz bus that transfers 32 bits/clock: that is it's physical limitation. There's no driver trick they can do to get more out of it (in fact, the 132MB/sec is a theoretical limit; real world results are somewhat lower). The trick of transferring on both edges of the clock (ala AGP2x) is a hardware trick, not a software one. AGP is a different hardware specification that runs faster. They can't do AGP4x until Intel ships the Camino chipset this fall; the hardware doesn't support it until then. I've written some NT device drivers, and about the only choice at that level is whether to have the CPU do the transfers or the DMA (direct memory address) controller do them.

The solution to moving more textures across a fixed speed bus is texture compression.

Plaz