Author: Johan Klockars (as28-3-8.va.g.bonet.se)
Date: 12-02-2002 23:07
> MY TT DOES HAVE A BLITTER CHIP
I've never heard of such, but I guess it might be possible. It would be rather strange, though, since it would require a different chip (or some extra hardware) than the normal one due to the wider bus.
> Why is it that people say that the 030@16mhz is the same speed as using a blitter, and yet
The Falcon CPU and blitter sit on the same bus. Thus, if the CPU can max out the bus, the blitter can do no better.
Setting up the blitter takes a bit of work, which makes it a bad choice for small jobs. It should be able to do better for some things, though.
> Or does the TT have a software blitter? if so, then surely the Falcon could have one?
There's little point in having software emulation for the blitter, since it would be easier to write software to do the operation you're actually interested in instead (which is what NVDI (and fVDI for that matter) normally does on the Falcon).
With an MMU, it should be possible to do, though, and I seem to recall hearing about something like that being done for the CT60 (the blitter has no way to access the memory on the card, so the normal Falcon VDI can not work directly (the AB040 support software solves this problem in a different way)).
> NVDI is such a massive boost to the TTs and STEs, and yet it does almost bugger-all for the Falcon.
Have you tried GEMBench or VDIBench?
Window movement is not something that you can easily beat the blitter at.
> all the CPX modules I have say the TT has one, and the Falcon does not.
Then they are wrong.
It is not possible to 'turn off' (it's not actually ever turned off, only unused) the blitter on the Falcon, since its VDI contains no code to do the work it normally uses the blitter for. The programs might be misinterpreting that information somehow. It is rather surprising that they claim the TT has a blitter, though.
> Also I keep hearing about 2 caches on the Falcon? explain, and how can I make sure they are on?
The '030 has 2*256 byte caches for code and data, respectively. It's the same for the TT since it uses the same CPU.
> Maybe the Falcons blitter can be disabled rather than switched off, and mine is just that?
See above.
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