Amiga.org
Operating System Specific Discussions => Amiga OS => Amiga OS -- Development => Topic started by: ple3003 on December 19, 2002, 10:07:07 PM
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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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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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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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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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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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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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DaveAE wrote:
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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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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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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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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Rogue said:
Altivec support is planned, most likely for 4.1, possibly earlier.
Oh .. YES !!
#
:-D
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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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@Rogue
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.****
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?
(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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@ John ... Out of work ...
Yeah ..... Os4 is completed, and now their taking a well earned rest !! :-D
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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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@Mips_proc
IIRC, memory protection is in place, although _only_ for apps written specifically for OS4.
You will have to trawl trawl through the OS4 ML and read Rogue's posts to get the _real_ info though. He has gone into quite specific details as to how it works.
-john
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The_Editor wrote:
@ Rogue .... Little snippets of info like this are VERY much appreciated.
Indeed. And another little snippet of info that would be very much appreciated is: "when" ...
;-)
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@jd997uk
Where do I join the 4.0 mailing list?
/Björn
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OS4 list: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amigaos4/ (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amigaos4/)
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Memory protection on the Amiga is a bit of a topic really.
ExecSG so far has what we refer to as "weak" memory protection, that is, it protects unallocated areas, code, kernel memory, stack etc. I think you will find that the memory system is one of the most worked-on places in OS 4, we already have implemented quite an amount of feature, like said memory protection. There will be more technical details RSN.
About OS 5, I don't know. I have hope that our involvement ends somewhere in 4.x, although Operating Systems was one of the topics I studied at university, I really want to go back to what I really want to do - programming my own games.
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YAY!! AmigaOs needed heaps on memory to
get to the stage where Mem-protect was in place
new it would be a big job or a ...... well add-on :-?
great to hear :-? ....er read :-) you hear again.org
.....oh yeah dont go to ANN.LU I got burned for codeing amiga Os 4 wich was strange because I've
only just learnt about "hello world" :oops: and I dont recall codeing for any thing Os or otherwize :-? :-o :-? LOL
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>mmm but single software can have Altivec support, right?
Yes, I think so.
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> 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.
If we're talking about the time when the x86 didn't have any real FP support, yes. As in MMX, no.
Altivec is basicly a way of introducing math paralellism. It's useless for speeding up most Photoshop type of tasks, but invaluable for FFT, Fractals, or software synthesizers (as in music). If you want to modify a buffer or a stream, without reading data from additional buffers or streams, then it's great. If not, then it's useless.
Let me clarify that. A software synthesizer crunches numbers like no other software. It takes a single input stream, like f.ex. a looped soundwave and modify it using variables that rarely change. One sample in. one sample out and many, many DSP-like operations inbetween.
Most people do not realize what kind of performance the simulation of a classic analog synth require. Playing a piece of music using a software synth pretty much demand all that a modern CPU can deliver. The Altivec changes that.