This is just a 64bit extention to a 32bit extention to a 16 bit architecture...
No, actually. It is a 64bit extention to a 32bit extention to a 16bit extention to a 8bit extention to a 4 bit architecture. The Intel 4004 was actually the first one of this family. I guess you are too young to know.
What's more, a 3000MHz (equivalent) P4/Athlon may actually be quite as fast as the old 500MHz Alpha when it comes to Seti@Home processing!! (Imagine that, wow that's really something!) Last time I checked, the performance of a 500MHz Alpha was 6 times higher than a 500MHz PIII (for Seti@Home, that is). Unfortunately, a 3000 MHz (equivalent) P4/Athlon won't be fully 6 times as fast as a 500MHz PIII.
It's a shame that the superior Alpha technology has been left behind by sheer market steamrolling. OTOH, from what I hear the Alpha folks are now working at AMD, so maybe we will see some Alpha performance from the Hammer?
ok, graphics geeks... factor 58,621. You get 31 x 31 x 61. Looks like 5-bits, 5-bits, and 6-bits, blended. I'm wondering how they came up with that number of colors! Any ideas?
By dithering (mixing) 4 pixels in a 2x2 pattern, 16 colors can be mixed into (16-1)*4+1 = 31 colors. By dithering 2x1 pixels, 16 colors can be mixed into (16-1)*2+1 = 15 colors. So, by using a 2x2 dither pattern for green, and a 2x1 dither pattern for red and blue, 31x31x61 colors can be produced.
I do believe this is the correct explanation, but it seems so contrived that I suspect some boss ordered his engineer to invent a reason to come up with a number close to 65536. In a program, it would be much easier to do a 2x2 dither pattern for all three components, yielding 226981 colors.
For interested readers, a transition from one color to another using a 2x2 dither pattern can be as follows.
00 10 10 11 11
00 00 01 01 11
As you see, two colors turns into (2-1)*4+1 color patterns.
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Seems to me they have just patented cookies. How can this not be obvious?
No, actually. It is a 64bit extention to a 32bit extention to a 16bit extention to a 8bit extention to a 4 bit architecture. The Intel 4004 was actually the first one of this family. I guess you are too young to know.
It's a shame that the superior Alpha technology has been left behind by sheer market steamrolling. OTOH, from what I hear the Alpha folks are now working at AMD, so maybe we will see some Alpha performance from the Hammer?
(16-1)*4+1 = 61
(16-1)*2+1 = 31
(2-1)*4+1 = 5
But you already figured that out, didn't you.
By dithering (mixing) 4 pixels in a 2x2 pattern, 16 colors can be mixed into (16-1)*4+1 = 31 colors. By dithering 2x1 pixels, 16 colors can be mixed into (16-1)*2+1 = 15 colors. So, by using a 2x2 dither pattern for green, and a 2x1 dither pattern for red and blue, 31x31x61 colors can be produced.
I do believe this is the correct explanation, but it seems so contrived that I suspect some boss ordered his engineer to invent a reason to come up with a number close to 65536. In a program, it would be much easier to do a 2x2 dither pattern for all three components, yielding 226981 colors.
For interested readers, a transition from one color to another using a 2x2 dither pattern can be as follows.
00 10 10 11 11
00 00 01 01 11
As you see, two colors turns into (2-1)*4+1 color patterns.