QUESTIONS

Questions

Questions

Question 1:

GPU is a term generated by the graphics industry to describe the chip on the graphics card. In fact, it is a CPU just like the one running the computer optimized for a single task. GPUs sole reason for existence is to render virtual 3D worlds via complex animations and translate the images into a two dimensional picture presented on the computer monitor quickly enough to allow smooth animations on the computer monitor. Most GPUs are divided into two areas. One area of the chip is concerned with the creation of a 3 Dimensional reality and the other with the generation of the actual pixels that need to be displayed on the screen. The difference being the creation of the in the processors mind is not necessarily what the user sees. For instance, and object in the 3D setting may be behind another. In this instance, the user does not see the object, but the CPU needs to know it is there in case the viewpoint changes (Grimshaw 2001).

Graphic Card Layout To accomplish this, the GPU must have certain resources at its disposal. Thus comes its relation to the graphics card and the rest of the computer system. Figure 1 below gives one basic layout of a graphics card: Figure 1 "? The Matrox GS400 and Card Layout As mentioned before, the chip is shown in the center of the diagram and consists of a "Programmable ultra-pipelined floating point setup engine" and an "Advanced 3D texturing and rendering engine." (Engler 2003) These names vary from company to company, but they are essentially the aforementioned functional divisions. Furthermore, some cards use two CPUs with one dedicated to each function. All cards today have RAM on the card itself. As with a computer system, these can come in various flavors, but do not require reading and writing over the bus or interaction from the CPU. However, if the RAM on these cards is saturated, memory from the system may be used. Assuming the system CPU is not overwhelmed with tasks, the limiting factor will be the speed of the bus. Other components of the card vary (Grant 1999).

Nvidia is always pushing for faster clock rates for the GPU and the memory. The most recent tests in Maximum PC magazine give Nvidia the lead in frame rates, but by a paper-thin margin. It will be interesting to see which approach will ultimately prevail in the end.

Increasing Memory Access vs. Multiple Processors 3Dfx with their voodoo series graphics cards believe that the key to success is with more processors. The Voodoo 5 & 6 boast 2 and 4 processors respectively. However, with more processors comes the need for more dedicated memory for each one. Thus, in this case the number of processors creates a cost problem since processors would need to 128MB of RAM to compete well with a single processor system addressing 32MB of ram. This is similar to running a car with four engines instead of one, in ...