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From: rsb@rayssde.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: DSP chips used for graphics
Message-ID: <258@rayssde.RAY.COM>
Date: Thu, 19-Nov-87 13:48:04 EST
Article-I.D.: rayssde.258
Posted: Thu Nov 19 13:48:04 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Nov-87 17:06:44 EST
References: <308@trane.UUCP>
Sender: rsb@rayssde.RAY.COM (Raymond S. Burns @ Raytheon Company, Portsmouth RI)
Reply-To: rsb@rayssde.RAY.COM (Raymond S. Burns)
Organization: Raytheon Company, Portsmouth RI
Lines: 33
Keywords: dsp graphics

In article <308@trane.UUCP> freed@trane.UUCP (Erik Freed) writes:
>Does anybody have any exerience with the use of DSP chips such as the
>TI TMS320C20 with graphics frame buffers? What are their advantages
>and disadvantages?	Thanks in advance	

Could not reach Erik Freed at the given address (freed@trane). Is the
correct address freed@aurora?  

The TMS320 family provides a lot of power for graphics. To summarize 3-4 years
of experience in developing graphics packages for the family, here are my
main observations:

Advantages-

high-speed: both for numeric (multiplications) and standard operations. 
available: you can buy 32020s readily. I haven't followed the 'c20s recently.
affordable: around $100 for the 32020's in singles, volume much better
supported: some would argue about how well, but support exists and does help.
reasonable architecture: very general purpose
programming ease: relatively good
interfacing ease: relatively good

Disadvantages-

limited address space: 64k words is not a lot for graphics applications
                       (we increase the address space through an external
                        segment address register. Clearly a kludge, but it 
                        works)

Raymond S. Burns		galaxia!insight!ray@rayssd
InSight Graphics
Portsmouth,  RI; (401)-683-2189
UUCP:  {gatech|cbosgd|uiucdcs|ihnp4}!rayssd!galaxia!insight!ray