Table of Contents
Neon: A Big, Fast, 3D Workstation Graphics AcceleratorAugust 17, 1998Joel McCormack, Bob McNamara, Chris Gianos, Larry Seiler, Norm Jouppi & Ken Correll
Outline
What Is Neon?
Goals
Neon in a System
Design Philosophy
Why Doesn’t Hardware Do Geometry?
What is Unified Memory?
Features of Unified Memory
Why One Chip?
Neon Chip Block Diagram
Block Responsibilities: PCI Interface, Command Parser
Block Responsibilities: Fragment Generator
Block Responsibilities: Texel Central, Pixel Processors
Block Responsibilities: Video Refresh, Memory Controllers
What Makes Neon Tick?The Memory System
What Makes Neon Tick?Texture Cache
What Makes Neon Tick?Command Interface
Neon: A 10 BIP Chip
Neon: A Big Chip
Die Plot
Some Memory Bandwidth Problems
Problem: Page Crossings
Problem: Raw Memory Bandwidth
Problem: Efficient Use of Data Pins
Problem: Degenerate Triangles
Memory Usage Example: Z Buffering
Problem: Bus Latencies
Problem: Overlapping Objects Create Read/Write Inconsistency
How Effective Are These Techniques?
Performance Comparisons
Conclusions
For More Information
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Author: Larry Seiler
Email: joel@pa.dec.com
Home Page: http://www.dec.com/
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