docs/cell.html

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   3 <TITLE>Cell Driver</TITLE>
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   9 <H1>Mesa Cell Driver</H1>
  10
  11 <p>
  12 The Mesa
  13 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_%28microprocessor%29" target="_parent">Cell</a>
  14 driver is part of the
  15 <a href="http://www.tungstengraphics.com/wiki/index.php/Gallium3D" target="_parent">Gallium3D</a>
  16 architecture.
  17 </p>
  18
  19 <p>
  20 <a href="http://www.tungstengraphics.com/" target="_parent">Tungsten Graphics</a>
  21 is leading the project.
  22 Two phases are planned.
  23 First, to implement the framework for parallel rasterization using the Cell
  24 SPEs, including texture mapping.
  25 Second, to implement a full-featured OpenGL driver with support for GLSL, etc.
  26 </p>
  27
  28
  29 <H2>Source Code</H2>
  30
  31 <p>
  32 The Cell driver source code is on the <code>gallium-0.1</code> branch of the
  33 git repository.
  34 After you've cloned the repository, check out the branch with:
  35 </p>
  36 <pre>
  37    git-checkout -b gallium-0.1 origin/gallium-0.1
  38 </pre>
  39 <p>
  40 To build the driver you'll need the IBM Cell SDK (version 2.1 or 3.0).
  41 To use the driver you'll need a Cell system, such as a PS3 running Linux,
  42 or the Cell Simulator (untested, though).
  43 </p>
  44
  45 <p>
  46 If using Cell SDK 3.0, first edit configs/linux-cell and add
  47 <code>-DSPU_MAIN_PARAM_LONG_LONG</code> to the SPU_CFLAGS.
  48 </p>
  49
  50 <p>
  51 To compile the code, run <code>make linux-cell</code>.
  52 </p>
  53
  54 <p>
  55 To use the library, make sure <code>LD_LIBRARY_PATH</code> points the Mesa/lib/
  56 directory that contains <code>libGL.so</code>.
  57 </p>
  58
  59 <p>
  60 Verify that the Cell driver is being used by running <code>glxinfo</code>
  61 and looking for:
  62 <pre>
  63   OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.1, Cell on Xlib
  64 </pre>
  65
  66
  67 <H2>Driver Implementation Summary</H2>
  68
  69 <p>
  70 Rasterization is parallelized across the SPUs in a tiled-based manner.
  71 Batches of transformed triangles are sent to the SPUs (actually, pulled by from
  72 main memory by the SPUs).
  73 Each SPU loops over a set of 32x32-pixel screen tiles, rendering the triangles
  74 into each tile.
  75 Because of the limited SPU memory, framebuffer tiles are paged in/out of
  76 SPU local store as needed.
  77 Similarly, textures are tiled and brought into local store as needed.
  78 </p>
  79
  80 <p>
  81 More recently, vertex transformation has been parallelized across the SPUs
  82 as well.
  83 </p>
  84
  85
  86 <H2>Status</H2>
  87
  88 <p>
  89 As of February 2008 the driver supports smooth/flat shaded triangle rendering
  90 with Z testing and simple texture mapping.
  91 Simple demos like gears run successfully.
  92 To test texture mapping, try progs/demos/texcyl (press right mouse button for
  93 rendering options).
  94 </p>
  95
  96
  97 <H2>Contributing</H2>
  98
  99 <p>
 100 If you're interested in contributing to the effort, familiarize yourself
 101 with the code, join the <a href="lists.html">mesa3d-dev mailing list</a>,
 102 and describe what you'd like to do.
 103 </p>
 104
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