From: Dave Stampe-Psy+Eng <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 22 Oct 91 17:54:20 -0400

Here's a "weird" proposal.  Read it and think about it before you reply...

Using Amiga 500's as graphics accelerators for IBM PC's ????

The idea is to interface (cheaply) 1 or 2 A500's to a 386 PC.  The output
of the A500's is NTSC video, perfect for driving those cheap Eyephone 
displays.  The 386 supplies the processing power for modelling, list
transversal and I/O; the A500 supplies faster low-level rendering.  The
BIG advantage here is that binocular 3-D is almost as fast as monocular
video.

Now, the cost of an A500 without monitor is under $500: about the cost of
a very cheap graphics coprocessor card for the PC.  Some sort of interface 
has to be implemented that can transfer data FAST without significant
loading of the CPU at either end of the link.  The A500 boots and runs off
a floppy automatically.

I'm not sure where the best place to interrupt the rendering chain for
division of labor is.  The A500 is capable of 3 or 4 times the graphics
performance of the PC in squirting stuff onto the screen; the PC is 
about 6-10x faster on the database and pre-rendering stuff.  Whether
to use a repetitive-drawing algorithm using tha A500's faster drawing
speed or a scan-line algorithm with the PC passing the A500 shading,
texture, and horizontal line segments to draw is another guestion.

My answer to "Why not just go with an A3000 right away" is that it's 
not really a good idea for IBM PC programmers who have a big investment
in their environments, etc.  Besides, see how VPL has been using a MAC
to drive their IRIS workstations: it's a case of software environment
in many cases.

Anyway, let's discuss it.  Is it cost-effective?  How much of a speedup
will it make?  (Oh, come on now.  Just think about for 15 seconds or so...)

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| My life is Hardware,                    |                              | 
| my destiny is Software,                 |         Dave Stampe          |
| my CPU is Wetware...                    |                              | 
| Anybody got a SDB I can borrow?         | [email-masked] |
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