Author: Anders S (port305.cvx2-sto.ppp.netlink.se)
Date: 01-26-2002 06:59
Of course both Paranoid and Johan are much
more experienced than us when it comes to
computer engineering. We are just some
happy hobbyists who need to do experiments
in order to find things out. ;) And since
experimenting is the best part of the hobby,
we enjoy every minute of it.
Most ideas on the site were suggestions that
we got from other people. For example, one
mail suggested an extended VIDEL with 128 bit
RAM bus! We discussed it with the french team
that helps us with the VIDEL developement,
and their suggestion was: Since the SDRAM is
64 bit wide and every byte has a parity bit,
we have a total of 72 bits on one DIMM,
and this would be more than enough.
We thought they had a good point.
Another mail suggested that, by having the
RAM clocked at twice the CPU speed, then
the VIDEL and the CPU could access RAM each
other time, without interruptions, which
should eliminate an well known bottleneck.
We fell for this idea, but will have to try
it out before we can say it really will work.
For the 36 bit TC, we have found out that the
human eye canīt tell any difference between
24, 30 or 36 bit color, so we wonīt need it.
However, a German team told us they want to
develope a MAC engine for the TOSter, and
if we can use MAC programs in the future,
we would probably have use for 24 bit color.
We are *not* sure about the following yet,
but IF they are right, running the MAC engine
on a G4 card and Magic still on the 040, this
would let us run Photoshop in a window, under
MagiC!! We like the idea, hope it will work.
The 882, again.
This was yet another public suggestion.
The only application that we could notice any
difference at all with, was POV. However, the
FPU bar on Centbench indicated a 60% raise,
when the FPU was not used, but that fell down
very quickly, as soon as something used the FPU.
The Ramdisk was actually our own idea. ;-)
Instead of burning MagiC, NVDI, Jinnee, and
every other boot stuff into a rom, this would
be a much more flexible solution, and it will
not be slower than the ROM alternative.
The biggest problem when booting up MagiC and
Jinnee on a MAC, is that the harddrive almost
jumps out of the computer case! It really
gives the HD a hard time, and it also is a
horrible bottleneck. With the RAMdisk, the
boot will go very smooth and quick, and the
computer doesnīt even need any HD, to boot.
With 32 bit adress bus, we have direct access
to up to 4 GIG of adresses, so a 16MB RAMdisk
should be like a piss in the sea... There are
plenty of RAM left for D2R recording. :o)
The dll hacking idea came from an norwegian guy.
we had already done the serial bugging, but
we thought that *if* someone actually COULD
do it, it should be an even more noble way
to reach those badly wanted commands.
Just one problem with the commands recording,
we must have access to a certain device,
to be able to write a program for it.
-There are thousands of different USB devices
around, so thereīs pretty much work ahead...
There are plenty of other public suggestions,
that we havenīt looked over yet. Right now,
after the break-in, we donīt feel up to just
about anything. We are having a vacation in
the studio, trying to recover ourselves...
Just one modest wish to go, completely out of
ignorance: Since we donīt know everything,
but are willing to try rather wild things out
before we can say other than īwe are looking atī,
we do absolutely *not* say that "this is how
things are, and thatīs it!". We like to try
things out, canīt se anything wrong with that.
Anyone may point things out if they want,
but please hold all the rediculous stupidity
stuff in. Would be much nicer for us all, eh?
Hugs to all :)
Anders S & Flashlabs crew
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