| Vector math processors have, up until recently, been in the domain of the supercomputer, such as the Cray computers. Computers that have recently joined this realm are the Apple Velocity Engine (AltiVec) coprocessor of the PowerPC G4 in Macintosh and UNIX computers, as well as IBM’s Power PC-based Gekko used in the GameCube and Digital Signal Processing Systems (DSP). MIPS processors, such as the Toshiba TX-79, and the Emotion Engine (EE) and Vector Units (VUs) used in the Sony PlayStation 2 are also in this group. The X86 processors, such as Intel’s Pentium III used in the Xbox, and all other X86s including the Pentium IV and AMD’s 3DNow! extension instructions used in PCs are other recent additions. Both fixed-point as well as floating- point math is being used by the computer, video gaming, and embedded worlds in vector-based operations.
3D graphic rendering hardware has been going through major increases in the numbers of polygons that can be handled by using geometry engines as part of their rendering hardware to accelerate the speed of mathematical calculations. There is also the recent introduction of the programmable vertex and pixel shaders built into newer video cards that use this same vector functionality. These work well for rendering polygons with textures, depth ordering z-buffers or w-buffers, and translucency-controlled alpha channels with lighting, perspective correction, etc. at relatively high rates of speed. The problem is that the burden of all the other 3D processing, culling, transformations, rotations, etc. are put on the computer’s central processing unit (CPU), which is needed for artificial intelligence (AI), terrain following, landscape management, property management, sound, etc.Well, you get the idea. For those of you looking for work, keep in mind that this new technology has created a surplus of processor power that is being filled with the new high-growth occupation of AI and physics programmers. |