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- Optimization Documents
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- documentation on optimizing programs is our focus
-
- The following documents are included herein:
-
- * Optimization for Real-Time Graphics Applications, February, 1996
- * MIPSpro(TM) Compiling and Performance Tuning Guide, March 1996
- * IRIX 6.2 MIPSpro 64-Bit Porting and Transition Guide, March 1996
- * REACT(TM) Real-Time Programmer's Guide, March 1996
- * Build-time alternatives relating to ld
- * overview of Quickstart, Requickstart and tasks performed by RLD
-
- SEE ALSO: the Performance Tuning/Issues Topical Listing
-
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-
- * Optimization for Real-Time Graphics Applications, February, 1996
- o HTML format -- 1, complete, image-rich document
- --also accessible via this separate Table of Contents entry-point
- file
- (generated with CERN WebMaker and a good dose of futzing!)
- o View HTML format with this Table of Contents to separate,
- broken-out files
- NOTE: in this version, "Section" links will work but "Figure"
- links won't.
- o compressed PostScript (37 pages)
-
- Real-time entertainment applications are very sensitive to image
- quality, performance, and system cost. Graphics workstations provide
- full product lines with a full range of price points and performance
- options. At the high end, they provide many traditional Image Generator
- features such as real-time texture mapping and full scene antialiasing.
- They can also support many channels, or players, per workstation to
- offset the cost of getting the high-end features. At the low end, they
- have entry prices and performance that are often competitive with PCs.
- Graphics workstations can provide a very powerful, flexible solution
- with a rich development environment. Additionally, because of binary
- compatibility across product lines and standards in graphics APIs,
- graphics workstations offer the possibility of portability of both
- applications and databases to different and future architectures.
- However, this power and flexibility increases the complexity for
- achieving the full quoted performance from such a machine. This paper
- presents a strategy for performance for developing and tuning real-time
- graphics applications on graphics workstations.
- The following topics are covered:
- o typical application requirements for graphics workstations
- o multi-processing issues for graphics subsytems
- o graphics workstation pipelines and performance trade-offs
- o strategies for diagnosing pipeline bottlenecks
- o database structure for traversal
- o designing and tuning a real-time application
- o run-time diagnostics and load-management strategies
- o tools for debugging graphics performance
- Developing a designed-for-performance application requires
- understanding the potential performance problems, identifying which
- factors are limiting performance, and then making the trade-offs to
- achieve maximum frame rate with the highest quality scene content.
-
- * MIPSpro(TM) Compiling and Performance Tuning Guide, March 1996
- o HTML format
- o compressed PostScript Table Of Contents (chapters as separate
- files)
-
- This guide discusses a variety of issues and tools involved in
- programming under the IRIX operating system. It describes the
- components of MIPSpro compiler system, other programming tools and
- interfaces, and dynamic shared objects. It also explains ways to
- improve program performance.
- The compiler system produces either 64-bit object code, new 32-bit
- (n32) object code, or old 32-bit object code. This guide describes the
- MIPSpro compilers that produce n32-bit and 64-bit objects. For
- additional information about n32, see the MIPSpro N32 ABI Handbook. For
- information about compilers that produce old 32-bit objects, refer to
- the MIPS Compiling and Performance Tuning Guide.
- What You Should Know Before Reading This Guide
- This guide is for anyone who wants to program effectively using the
- MIPSpro compilers. We assume you are familiar with the IRIX (or UNIX)
- operating system and a programming language such as C or Fortran. This
- guide does not explain how to write and compile programs.
- This guide does not cover the differences between n32-bit, 64-bit,
- and 32-bit compilation modes. Refer to MIPSpro Application Porting and
- Transition Guide and MIPSpro N32 ABI Handbook for information about the
- differences between these modes, language implementation differences,
- source code porting, compilation issues, and run-time execution.
-
-
-
- * IRIX 6.2 MIPSpro(TM) 64-Bit Porting and Transition Guide, March 1996
-
- This document describes porting and transitioning to the MIPSpro
- 32-bit, 64-bit and high performance 32-bit (N32) compilers, and how to
- employ them with IRIX 6.2, as well as providing techniques for tuning
- the performance of your R8000 applications.
-
-
-
- * REACT(TM) Real-Time Programmer's Guide, March 1996
- o HTML format
- o compressed PostScript Table Of Contents (chapters as separate
- files)
-
- A real-time program is one that must maintain a fixed timing
- relationship to external hardware. In order to respond to the hardware
- quickly and reliably, a real-time program must have special support
- from the system software and hardware.
- This guide describes the support that IRIX and the Silicon Graphics
- CHALLENGE, Onyx, and POWERCHALLENGE computers provide to real-time
- programs. The support bundled with all versions of IRIX is called
- REACT. A set of extra-cost features is called REACT/Pro. This guide
- covers REACT for IRIX 6.2, and REACT/Pro 3.0.
- This guide is designed to be read online, using IRIS InSight. You
- are encouraged to read it in non-linear order using all the navigation
- tools that Insight provides. In the online book, the name of a
- reference page ("man page") is red in color (for example: mpin(2),
- sproc(2)). You can click on these names to cause the reference page to
- open automatically in a separate terminal window.
- Who This Guide Is For
- This guide is written for real-time programmers. You, a real-time
- programmer, are assumed to be
- o an expert in the use of your programming language, which must be
- either C, Ada, or FORTRAN to use the features described here
- o knowledgeable about the hardware interfaces used by your real-time
- program
- o familiar with system-programming concepts such as interrupts,
- device drivers, multiprogramming, and semaphores
- You are not assumed to be an expert in UNIX system programming,
- although you do need to be familiar with UNIX as an environment for
- developing software.
-
-
- The below files are old, but still included until we get something more
- current.
-
-
-
- * ld.showcase: showcase slides presented in-house
- covers Build-time alternatives relating to ld, including using the
- "-update_registry" and "-no_unresolved" flags, Transitive Links, and
- Delayed Load.
-
-
-
- * rld.overview: ascii version of showcase slides presented in-house
- provides an overview of Quickstart, Requickstart and tasks performed by
- RLD, the dynamic linker.
-
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- Copyright ⌐ 1995-96, Silicon Graphics, Inc.
-