Abstract :
Because floating-point computation is the heart of 3D geometry, speeding up floating-point computation is vital to overall 3D performance. To produce a visually perceptible difference in graphics applications, Intel´s 32-bit processors-based on the IA-32 architecture-required an increase of 1.5 to 2 times the native floating-point performance. One path to better performance involves studying how the system uses data. Today´s 3D applications can execute a lot faster by differentiating between data used repeatedly and streaming data-data used only once and then discarded. The Pentium III´s new floating-point extension lets programmers designate data as streaming and provides instructions that handle this data efficiently. The authors designed the Internet Streaming SIMD Extensions (ISSE) to enable a new level of visual computing on the volume PC platform. They discuss their results in terms of boosting the performance of 3D and video applications
Keywords :
Internet; floating point arithmetic; microprocessor chips; microprogramming; parallel processing; solid modelling; 32 bit; 3D geometry; IA-32 architecture; ISSE; Intel 32-bit processors; Intel Pentium III microprocessor; Internet Streaming SIMD Extensions; data use; floating-point computation; graphics applications; performance; streaming data; video applications; visual computing; visually perceptible difference; volume PC platform; Acceleration; Application software; Computer architecture; Concurrent computing; Geometry; Graphics; Internet; Microarchitecture; Programming profession; Semiconductor process modeling;
