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ATI Introduces a Parallel Processing Video Card

Posted by Roblimo on from the toys-for-rich-children-of-all-ages dept.

bilestoad2 writes " ATI has announced the introduction of a new video card, The Rage Fury Maxx. It uses two RAGE 128 Pro Processors and 64 Megs of Ram. Follow this link for the complete story. I don't know about you, but I've got to have one of these..."

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  1. Where do I submit anti-patent commentary? by Effugas · · Score: 4

    Splitting full frame rendering among multiple processors...this is patent pending?

    Are you kidding?

    It's at least arguably unique to split even and odd lines among two cards(like Voodoo 2 SLI), or to split the image into horizontal strips(Metabyte's PGC), or to evenly split the texel reprocessing load among multiple texel processors(Voodoo 2 core design), but to attempt to patent the process of merely having one complete frame go to one processor while having the next complete frame go to the next processor?

    The general reason one doesn't want to use a full frame architecture is simple: Per frame times don't budge. Either you have to build a higher latency into your rendering chain, since the chipcluster has to know the next x frames you intend to render, or you get *no* speed boost.

    Don't even get me started on out of order frame rendering on a realtime rendering solution.

    Each of the previously mentioned solutions(SLI/PGC/Texel x 2), incidentally, lowers per-frame latency.

    Granted, there's probably some degree of multi-frame latency built into most drivers, particularly for games. But the concept of patenting the most basic parallelization solution strikes me as absolutely hilarious. It's very likely most 3D rendered movies use the technique ATI is trying to patent. "I'm done finishing this frame, send me a new one."

    It's very likely most WORKPLACES work the same way too. "I'm done with this job, assign me a new one."

    That being said, I'm looking forward to trying out ATI's new cards. Ever since I noticed their 128's were supported by Metabyte's excellent Eyescream system, I've been much more interested in them.

    Yours Truly,

    Dan Kaminsky
    DoxPara Research
    http://www.doxpara.com