This design is very similar (if not the same) as the NEC's PowerVR and PowerVR2 chipsets.
Here's how it works:
Instead of using regular SDR or DDR RAM for a Z-buffer of the entire screen, it uses a very high-speed on-chip "tile" Z-buffer, usually 32x32 pixels or so.
To render a frame, the system breaks the frame up into "tiles" of 32x32.
Each "tile" is rendered using its own clipping volume and camera matrix, etc.
Anyway, because the system uses ZERO memory bandwidth for Z-buffer calculations, the system is far more efficient, even though it is essentially
traversing the scene dozens of times for each frame.
This is why the Sega Dreamcast is often able to have better performance than the Playstation 2.
The book is terrible. It's bad, even for Crichton, who's work is famous for its mediocrity.
I was given a copy as a gift, so I felt somewhat obligated to read it. If you're 12 or 13 and you want to read a book that reads like a bad movie, then you might like it. Otherwise, stay away.
By far the biggest problem with this
system is its cache memory. The L2
cache available to this system is a
scant 256kB. While this may be fine for
an externally CISC machine like the
Pentium 3 or Pentium 4, it is NOT fine
for a RISC machine like the SPARC. If
you look at other machines in Sun's
lineup, you see that they all have
between 2 and 4 megabytes of cache per
processor. The only other machine that
has less than that is the other $995
machine, the Netra X1.
This is by far the crippling factor for
this machine. Such a small cache makes handling many processes simultaneously (like you would on a server) inefficient. Of course, this machine is not designed as a server. It is designed as an inexpensive SPARC workstation for software developers, probably.
Maybe the UltraSPARC IIe core also has a smaller L1 cache than other processors in the UltraSPARC line. I don't know. I couldn't easily find any more information.
Sometimes you work on a workstation, but you need to use some stupid DOS utility to upload code to an external device via the parallel port.
A good example of this is when developing code that runs on a microcontroller. You use your cross-compilers and cross-assemblers on a Unix or Linux machine, but you need to use an ancient DOS utility to program the device. So you have to ftp or Samba your code to a Windows machine to use the programmer utility.
And DOSEMU doesn't work well enough sometimes.:-(
Hooking up the device programmer to the parallel port of the SunPCi card would allow you to run the programmer and have it read its data files from the hard drive where your compiler places its output.
Convenience is the real reason for this.:-)
Also the new ones (The Sun PCi II's) are Celeron-600's and can have up to 512MB of memory (independant from the system's memory).
Actually, it's not really the core of Mac OS X. It's a parallel project to the Mac OS X kernel. Every now and then, Apple releases a new version of Darwin. Also, outside groups are allowed to modify Darwin and make changes, as long as they give those changes back to Apple. So Apple can integrate the changes it wants into the Mac OS X kernel. Apple is of course, allowed to make changes to their official kernel and not release those changes to the public if they don't choose to.
Not that this is really all that bad. I can see something happening where Apple needs to integrate some secret code into the OS X kernel that they can't release into Darwin. It will enable some feature that everyone will want or some people in the industry will demand (e.g., a digital rights management module that can't be tampered with).
Of course, anyone who's running the Darwin open-source kernel will be out of luck.
Now, you could say "they could release it as a binary loadable kernel module that would work with Darwin". But they wouldn't, probably, since if it ran in the open source Darwin kernel, then someone could write a module that could intercept and override the DRM module.
Actually, it is relatively easy to port Windows programs to UNIX/Linux using the WINE project's winelibs. Using those, you can create a native UNIX/Linux version of the program that will use the Windows SDK for its display, rather than GTK+ or Qt or whatever. This works even better than using WINE to do binary translation of the Windows-native version of the app.
This is a scam. It's just an off-the-shelf Dreamcast that was taken apart and loosely mounted into a slim-profile PC case?
The "controller port" is the front panel of a Dreamcast mounted facing upwards.
The power supply board (toward the front of the case) has the power cable connector attached to it, which runs under the other board and out the back
of the case.
The "black thing" over the circuit board in the center of the unit is the standard GD-ROM drive mechanism.
This is a Dreamcast set-top box that I could put together in a couple of hours. If this is the best that Sega's partner company can come up with, then the Dreamcast set-top box will probably never happen
What is far more likely is that future games from Sega will be dual-platform games. That is, the same CD-ROM/DVD-ROM will come with both the Dreamcast version and the X-Box version. Also, yes, I know that current Dreamcast games come on GD-ROMS which can't be read in a PC CD-ROM drive. However, the Dreamcast can also boot ordinary CD-ROM's.
Sega had previously announced plans to use the dual-boot strategy for releasing Windows/Dreamcast games.
Hey, it was late. I was confusing two recent articles I had read recently: One was about on the hazzards to soldiers of using depleted uranium shells in tanks and ships. The other was on finding a place for spent fuel rods from nuclear reactors.
Anyway, either would make great weight for spam-reply envelopes.
Depleted uranium has all the characteristics of a great spam-weight.
very heavy for its size
unwanted
Plus, nuclear reactors have been trying to figure out for years what they should do with the stuff. I'm sure they would love to pass the responsibility on to the spammers.
Slashdot Mirror
Why wasn't that mentioned in the article?
Cryptnotic
Anyway, software developers (including myself) love it.
Cryptnotic
Objective C isn't going to die. Apple's use of it will hopefully bring some attention to it.
Cryptnotic
Cryptnotic
Cryptnotic
Here's how it works:
Anyway, because the system uses ZERO memory bandwidth for Z-buffer calculations, the system is far more efficient, even though it is essentially traversing the scene dozens of times for each frame.
This is why the Sega Dreamcast is often able to have better performance than the Playstation 2.
Cryptnotic
Sgt. Cryptnotic, Vocabulary Police.
Cryptnotic.
Cryptnotic
I was given a copy as a gift, so I felt somewhat obligated to read it. If you're 12 or 13 and you want to read a book that reads like a bad movie, then you might like it. Otherwise, stay away.
Cryptnotic
This is by far the crippling factor for this machine. Such a small cache makes handling many processes simultaneously (like you would on a server) inefficient. Of course, this machine is not designed as a server. It is designed as an inexpensive SPARC workstation for software developers, probably.
Maybe the UltraSPARC IIe core also has a smaller L1 cache than other processors in the UltraSPARC line. I don't know. I couldn't easily find any more information.
Cryptnotic
Cryptnotic
A good example of this is when developing code that runs on a microcontroller. You use your cross-compilers and cross-assemblers on a Unix or Linux machine, but you need to use an ancient DOS utility to program the device. So you have to ftp or Samba your code to a Windows machine to use the programmer utility.
And DOSEMU doesn't work well enough sometimes. :-(
Hooking up the device programmer to the parallel port of the SunPCi card would allow you to run the programmer and have it read its data files from the hard drive where your compiler places its output.
Convenience is the real reason for this. :-)
Also the new ones (The Sun PCi II's) are Celeron-600's and can have up to 512MB of memory (independant from the system's memory).
Cryptnotic
Cryptnotic
Cryptnotic
Not that this is really all that bad. I can see something happening where Apple needs to integrate some secret code into the OS X kernel that they can't release into Darwin. It will enable some feature that everyone will want or some people in the industry will demand (e.g., a digital rights management module that can't be tampered with). Of course, anyone who's running the Darwin open-source kernel will be out of luck.
Now, you could say "they could release it as a binary loadable kernel module that would work with Darwin". But they wouldn't, probably, since if it ran in the open source Darwin kernel, then someone could write a module that could intercept and override the DRM module.
It's what will happen, probably.
Cryptnotic
Cryptnotic
Cryptnotic
This is a Dreamcast set-top box that I could put together in a couple of hours. If this is the best that Sega's partner company can come up with, then the Dreamcast set-top box will probably never happen
Cryptnotic
And fingers can be removed. No system is perfect.
Cryptnotic
What does "still-cute" mean when in reference to the Linux 2.4 kernel?
Cryptnotic
What is far more likely is that future games from Sega will be dual-platform games. That is, the same CD-ROM/DVD-ROM will come with both the Dreamcast version and the X-Box version. Also, yes, I know that current Dreamcast games come on GD-ROMS which can't be read in a PC CD-ROM drive. However, the Dreamcast can also boot ordinary CD-ROM's.
Sega had previously announced plans to use the dual-boot strategy for releasing Windows/Dreamcast games.
Cryptnotic
Anyway, either would make great weight for spam-reply envelopes.
Cryptnotic
- very heavy for its size
- unwanted
Plus, nuclear reactors have been trying to figure out for years what they should do with the stuff. I'm sure they would love to pass the responsibility on to the spammers.Cryptnotic