[Open-graphics] Notes on the memory controller and interface

[Timothy Normand Miller]

On Dec 10, 2007 9:57 AM,  <ndownes at tampabay.rr.com> wrote:

> Fundimentally, it's a 8-way vector unit.  But rather than the vectors being math ops, they're memory blocks.  In addition to the normal block-moves, it also has pattern fill, overlay, barrel shifting, and merging.  Setup time should be 3 cycles, and once running can do very large units of memory control in a limited time.  In my design the GPU had no direct access to RAM, only to a small internal fifo buffer, which the blitter would continuously feed in and out.  This kept the GPU itself very small.
>

Are you able to keep the memory controller saturated?  For 2D, I had
planned on a fifo-based engine with just bitblt and solid fill for
rectangles.  Perhaps a different architecture could get better
performance with less logic.

How many blocks does the processor have access to at once, how wide
are they, and what fills and empties them?


-- 
Timothy Normand Miller
http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~millerti
Open Graphics Project