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Topic: CPUs, gotcha, GPUs, fine - PPUs, huh?  (Read 3057 times)

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Offline Monty

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CPUs, gotcha, GPUs, fine - PPUs, huh?
« on: March 09, 2005, 07:52:47 am »
Found this story off the inquirer,

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21648
(with pic)
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21681

Apparently its the new thing we will all want to have. Physics Processor units, hardware based solutions to the physics engines our games use/will use.

It sounds incredible.

First we had CPU wars.

Then we had GPU wars,

should we expect, in due course, PPU wars?

Can't wait to see them in action(imagines unreal tournament with hardware physics solution :drool: ).
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Offline Javora

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Re: CPUs, gotcha, GPUs, fine - PPUs, huh?
« Reply #1 on: March 09, 2005, 09:02:36 am »
The problem is which one gets the PCIe x16 slot, the GPU or the PPU?  We already know that the GPU needs the x16 slot given a one GPU setup.  I'm guessing that the PPU will need the same bandwidth given the functions it has to perform.  This should be a interesting fight to see which one gets the prime motherboard realestate.
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Offline Pestalence_XC

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Re: CPUs, gotcha, GPUs, fine - PPUs, huh?
« Reply #2 on: March 09, 2005, 04:05:39 pm »
Quote from: Javora on March 09, 2005, 09:02:36 am
The problem is which one gets the PCIe x16 slot, the GPU or the PPU? We already know that the GPU needs the x16 slot given a one GPU setup. I'm guessing that the PPU will need the same bandwidth given the functions it has to perform. This should be a interesting fight to see which one gets the prime motherboard realestate.


Motherboards will change to incorporate 2 PCI slots to incorporate both devices..
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Offline Nemesis

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Re: CPUs, gotcha, GPUs, fine - PPUs, huh?
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2005, 06:32:33 pm »
Quote from: Javora on March 09, 2005, 09:02:36 am
The problem is which one gets the PCIe x16 slot, the GPU or the PPU?  We already know that the GPU needs the x16 slot given a one GPU setup.  I'm guessing that the PPU will need the same bandwidth given the functions it has to perform.  This should be a interesting fight to see which one gets the prime motherboard realestate.

First of all I suspect that the PPU will be integrated into the GPU or at least onto the video card even though the current prototype is a separate card.

Second if needed it could be set up as a SLI system, 1 Video card and 1 PPU card.  Current SLI systems will when run with 2 SLI compatible cards (on an SLI capable motherboard) rund 2 PCIe x16 slots as 2 PCIe x8.  In place of the 2nd video card would be the PPU card of course.

All this is of course assuming that such a unit becomes an actuallity.
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Offline Javora

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Re: CPUs, gotcha, GPUs, fine - PPUs, huh?
« Reply #4 on: March 09, 2005, 10:04:12 pm »
I guess I'm just being sceptical but I do see some hurtles to overcome.  Currently SLI setup requires two exact video cards to operate properly, can SLI handle one GPU and one PPU without a major overhaul of the motherboard?  If it can be set up in SLI mode then neither card can operate in full x16 mode without yet more work being done to the motherboard.  So I see SLI as a short time fix, but then that has been my biggest gripe about SLI from the start.  If the motherboard is going to be changed to incorporate a (much) larger data pipe, will this change require a larger motherboard standard or are some features going to be removed in favor of these data lines.  Being that the computer world seems to be evolutionary instead of revolutionary or so they say.  It should be interesting to see how this all plays out.
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Offline Dash Jones

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Re: CPUs, gotcha, GPUs, fine - PPUs, huh?
« Reply #5 on: March 09, 2005, 10:09:17 pm »
Quote from: IKV Nemesis on March 09, 2005, 06:32:33 pm
Quote from: Javora on March 09, 2005, 09:02:36 am
The problem is which one gets the PCIe x16 slot, the GPU or the PPU? We already know that the GPU needs the x16 slot given a one GPU setup. I'm guessing that the PPU will need the same bandwidth given the functions it has to perform. This should be a interesting fight to see which one gets the prime motherboard realestate.

First of all I suspect that the PPU will be integrated into the GPU or at least onto the video card even though the current prototype is a separate card.

Second if needed it could be set up as a SLI system, 1 Video card and 1 PPU card. Current SLI systems will when run with 2 SLI compatible cards (on an SLI capable motherboard) rund 2 PCIe x16 slots as 2 PCIe x8. In place of the 2nd video card would be the PPU card of course.

All this is of course assuming that such a unit becomes an actuallity.

I'd suspect the same thing, in fact that's what came to mind when reading the article that the eventual result would be as you posted.
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Offline Monty

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Re: CPUs, gotcha, GPUs, fine - PPUs, huh?
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2005, 04:47:32 am »
Interesting bloggers view on the topic:

http://wwto2.blogspot.com/2005/03/physics-accelerators-and-gamers-pcs.html

oh and anandtech have picked up on it but theres not much more substance (though its a decent enough read):

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2376
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