[XviD-devel] [RFC] AMD64 support

[Edouard Gomez]

Hans K. Rosbach (hk at circlestorm.org) wrote:
> > Well, looking at the active developers, none has an AMD64 computer.
> > I don't pan on buying such a box until the architecture becomes
> > more stable hardware wise, i mean there are already 2 sockets in
> > a 1 year timelife of the CPU,
> 
> Actually there are 3 sockets: 754, 939, 940
> 
> 754 is for mainstream desktop use. Single memory channel
> 939 is for heavy duty single-cpu workstations. Dual memory channels
> 940 is for servers. 1-8 cpus. Dual memory channels per cpu

Ah see i missed one :-)

> A new socket roumoured to be 941/942 will be introduced for
> the DDR2 capable chips around 2006 when DDR2 is fast and cheap.

Ok ok so even more choice in so little timelife.
 
> > PCI-express is also something being
> > in transition... all this is too risky to make a choice now
> > I'm pretty sure if i buy an AMD64 now, i'll regret my choice.
> 
> PCI express is right around the corner, and makes the choice equally difficult
> on the Intel platform aswell. There are big advantages with PCI express, but
> it should pose no difference in software other than performance.

But, my development machine is my desktop machine, so the bucks i put
on it directly impact other components i use for my pleasure(tm). A NVidia
6600 SLI config would be yummy :-)

The main problem i have for choice is that i need to upgrade my Graphic card.
And if i want to still have the option to pay my GCs at low price, it seems
i'll have to buy a PCIe MB, and if i want to keep the SLI option as well, i'll
have to buy a nforce4 chipset driven MB. But linux support for nforce is
bad, i don't like having "binary drivers only" for so important pieces of
hardware.

So now, mix that with my will to have a SLI system and an AMD64 CPU and you'll
understand why i don't want to make my choice now... i'll patiently wait
before i can play with fragment shaders on my new geForce and kick some
monsters' asses in Doom3 :-)

> As a side note, Tyan is sampling a dual system that incorporates 3 north-bridge
> chipsets..! Two nvidia ones, each one has a 16x pci-e and a gbit lan connection.
> The third is an AMD chipset that provides two pci-x buses. In other words, the
> ultimate enthusiast or server board.. I want one..
> 
> > Moreover, amd64 ships with sse2, which is emulated with mmx opcodes...
> > so it's slow. amd64 supports mmxext, so why bothering with mmx (if there
> > is a xmm version) ? Do you get the dilemna now ? It's not like on ia32 CPUs
> > where, to get maxpeed you had to support tons of sub-intruction sets, amd64
> > is sort of "standardized" arch at the moment, we can rely on stable
> instruction
> > set at least for this hardware generation.
> 
> The next generation AMD64 cpus are roumoured to be SSE3 capable, so
> there are interesting things coming in the future aswell.

Well unless it's emulated :-)

> Also the dual-core cpus will make the speed balance shift somewhat.

That's only an OS thing, it will not impact xvidcore arch.

-- 
Edouard Gomez