On Monday 17 November 2003 20:25, Joshua 'Schwa' Gargus wrote:
> One of my problems is that I'm a graphics geek... even if we can
> somehow manage to replace the CPU + software VM with an FPGA VM
> implementation, how would we replace the GPU?

It certainly not easy, just like doing a CPU in FPGA can be complicated. 
Look at how awful a Z80 turns out to be when done that way.

At the very least you have to start out with a large FPGA with nice 
features. The Spartan III 400, for example, has 16 hardwired 18x18 
multipliers.

> Or could we still interact with commodity GPUs? 

That is an option, though any chip that requires a huge fan and extra 
power lines (beyond those in the AGP connector) isn't something I will 
be seriously considering.

> I recall a message from you some time
> ago that revealed that you have put a significant amount of thought
> into graphics on your type of system.  Have your thoughts changed at
> all now that we have GPUs with their own assembly languages?

I must confess that I have not kept up with Cg and other recent 
developments. But I don't consider OpenGL and friends the ultimate 
graphics solutions. REYES will have real time implementations in the 
near future (see http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/reyes-vs-opengl/ 
and 
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~gfx/Courses/2002/BigData/lectures/Stream%20Processing/Stream_Processing_6up.pdf
) but I don't think even that bag of tricks will replace ray tracing and 
radiosity.

We need better graphics.

-- Jecel