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Author Topic: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?  (Read 11370 times)

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Offline ple3003Topic starter

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G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« on: December 19, 2002, 10:07:07 PM »
Is Altivec something that the parts in OS4 that are written in native ppc code will make use of in the first release early 2003?
I ask because i've heard some great things about the G3 XE 700 from IBM, so if OS4 lacks Altivec support i'd rather go for the G3 XE.
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Offline Skyraker

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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2002, 10:10:36 PM »
AFAIK (I hope someone corrects me on this), OS4 will not make use of Altivetec..... as i understand it future revisions will.....

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Offline ikir

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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2002, 10:11:50 PM »
Quote

Skyraker wrote:
AFAIK (I hope someone corrects me on this), OS4 will not make use of Altivetec..... as i understand it future revisions will.....



mmm but single software can have Altivec support, right? :-?
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Offline jaokim

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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2002, 10:17:09 PM »
I'll bet there will be a couple of libraries with altivec-support.

Like altivec.library.

I dont know why I get aroused by that... altivec.library ... mmm...gaaahhh.....

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Offline mikeymike

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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2002, 10:29:35 PM »
I reckon Altivec support will come at a later revision of AmigaOS.  Seperate apps can have processor optimisations, as most Amiga owners are fairly well aware :-) Altivec wouldn't be any different unless there's some weird legal bit, which I strongly doubt, as hardware manufacturers tend to like people who write software for their products, unless they're very stupid :-)
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Offline DaveAE

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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2002, 10:50:21 PM »
Quote
mmm but single software can have Altivec support, right?


If there's an option in gcc for Altivec, nobody is going to stop me from turning it on!  :-D  :-D

Cheers,

Davy
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Offline ikir

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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2002, 11:00:03 PM »
Quote

DaveAE wrote:
Quote
mmm but single software can have Altivec support, right?


If there's an option in gcc for Altivec, nobody is going to stop me from turning it on!  :-D  :-D

Cheers,

Davy


LOL :-)
Altivec is very good! Hope to see my Amy use it.. SOON :-)
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Offline tonyw

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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #7 on: December 22, 2002, 11:55:25 AM »
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Altivec just a fancy name for the maths processor in the MPU? If so, then Altivec is to PPC what the 68881 FPU was to the 68000.

Any program can use the Altivec registers to its own advantage, but only if it's the only game in town. As soon as other tasks start using the registers as well, the exec needs to save and restore them each time there is a task switch. More overheads in the task switching process.

tony
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Offline jd997uk

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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #8 on: December 22, 2002, 01:08:21 PM »
Quote
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Altivec just a fancy name for the maths processor in the MPU? If so, then Altivec is to PPC what the 68881 FPU was to the 68000.

Correct, but hugely more powerful. Any program that uses Altivec FP calculations is going to benefit big time (IIRC, some Apple apps have certain operations speeded up by 10 times) so any forthcoming OS4/Application updates are sure to take advantage of it.
Also, the G4's are Multi-processor aware, so when (not if ;-)  ) OS4 becomes able to take advantage of that as well, applications will again be able to take advantage of that speed increase.

-john
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Offline Rogue

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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #9 on: January 04, 2003, 06:42:40 PM »
Altivec support is planned, most likely for 4.1, possibly earlier.
The new gcc 3.2 already has support for it, but since we only have 3.2 as a cross compiler and not as a native version yet, I can't say for sure.

(Having said that, I *do* have a G4 in my AmigaOne, so...)
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Offline The_Editor

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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2003, 06:51:27 PM »
Rogue said:

Quote
Altivec support is planned, most likely for 4.1, possibly earlier.



Oh .. YES !!
#
 :-D
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Offline The_Editor

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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2003, 06:56:10 PM »
Now all we need is for  Nova (ImageFX) & PhotoGenics to be coded to take advantage of it.

Things ARE looking good again.

@ Rogue .... Little snippets of info like this  are VERY much appreciated.

Ta.
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Offline jd997uk

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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #12 on: January 04, 2003, 06:58:35 PM »
@Rogue
Quote
Altivec support is planned, most likely for 4.1, possibly earlier.

Happy New Year Hans-Jörg, good to hear you posting this outside of the OS4 ML. Hopefully it will stop any DIS-information.****
Quote
The new gcc 3.2 already has support for it, but since we only have 3.2 as a cross compiler and not as a native version yet, I can't say for sure.

Are you working on a fix for this?

Quote
(Having said that, I *do* have a G4 in my AmigaOne, so...)

Now, now. Flashy talk like that will not win you any more friends you know.  :-D

Regards

-john

ps: **** (too late!) do NOT (under any circumstances) go over to Ann.lu ATM. Rumor is you are currently out of work!   :-P  :-P
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Offline The_Editor

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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #13 on: January 04, 2003, 07:04:32 PM »
@ John ... Out of work ...

Yeah .....  Os4 is completed, and now their taking a well earned rest !!  :-D
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Re: G4 Altivec - OS4 support?
« Reply #14 on: January 04, 2003, 07:09:58 PM »
Rogue with OS4 in later versions impliment any kind of memory protection?.. thats one of the main questions I have about it..also "in your opinon' will OS5 materialise within a year of OS4 like Bill says?... (hope I'm not asking for insider info here)

thanks in advance :P
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