KOSH [Kommunity Orientated Software Hardware]

Weekly Summary

Week:  8th March, 1999

Number:  009

Mailing List:  kosh-hardware-o

In the mailing list this week, the following items were discussed.
Please do not email the scribe regarding any of these topics, it is
not his job to answer these questions, but merely to report the topics
of conversation. If you have any queries about this summary, please
email summaries@kosh.convergence.org, stating the Summary Number, and
Mailing List Name and he will try to answer your queries.

a)

Subject:  AltiVec, 3dNow!, SSE

Summary of Debate:  AltiVec and SSE should be superior to 3dNow!,
                    because they provide new registers rather than
                    reusing the FP registers.  The downside is that
                    new software must be written to take advantage
                    of these new registers.


b)

Subject:  Strategies for new chips

Summary of Debate:  The biggest need is for optimising compilers
                    for new chips.  This would allow a wider
                    range of programmers to take advantage of the
                    benefits of the new chips, without having to
                    program in assembley.  In addition companies
                    should look at marketing their chips.  For
                    example Motorola could possibly generate
                    interest from the Linux community by demonstrating
                    what AltiVec can do for gaming performance.