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diff --git a/docs/README.MITS b/docs/README.MITS new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..a89176a62e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/README.MITS @@ -0,0 +1,102 @@ + + Mesa 3.0 MITS Information + + +This software is distributed under the terms of the GNU Library +General Public License, see the LICENSE file for details. + + +This document is a preliminary introduction to help you get +started. For more detaile information consult the web page. + +http://10-dencies.zkm.de/~mesa/ + + + +Version 0.1 (Yes it's very alpha code so be warned!) +Contributors: + Emil Briggs ([email protected]) + David Bucciarelli ([email protected]) + Andreas Schiffler ([email protected]) + + + +1. Requirements: + Mesa 3.0. + An SMP capable machine running Linux 2.x + libpthread installed on your machine. + + +2. What does MITS stand for? + MITS stands for Mesa Internal Threading System. By adding + internal threading to Mesa it should be possible to improve + performance of OpenGL applications on SMP machines. + + +3. Do applications have to be recoded to take advantage of MITS? + No. The threading is internal to Mesa and transparent to + applications. + + +4. Will all applications benefit from the current implementation of MITS? + No. This implementation splits the processing of the vertex buffer + over two threads. There is a certain amount of overhead involved + with the thread synchronization and if there is not enough work + to be done the extra overhead outweighs any speedup from using + dual processors. You will not for example see any speedup when + running Quake because it uses GL_POLYGON and there is only one + polygon for each vertex buffer processed. Test results on a + dual 200 Mhz. Pentium Pro system show that one needs around + 100-200 vertices in the vertex buffer before any there is any + appreciable benefit from the threading. + + +5. Are there any parameters that I can tune to try to improve performance. + Yes. You can try to vary the size of the vertex buffer which is + define in VB_MAX located in the file src/vb.h from your top level + Mesa distribution. The number needs to be a multiple of 12 and + the optimum value will probably depend on the capabilities of + your machine and the particular application you are running. + + +6. Are there any ways I can modify the application to improve its + performance with the MITS? + Yes. Try to use as many vertices between each Begin/End pair + as possbile. This will reduce the thread synchronization + overhead. + + +7. What sort of speedups can I expect? + On some benchmarks performance gains of up to 30% have been + observerd. Others may see no gain at all and in a few rare + cases even some degradation. + + +8. What still needs to be done? + Lots of testing and benchmarking. + A portable implementation that works within the Mesa thread API. + Threading of additional areas of Mesa to improve performance + even more. + + + +Installation: + + 1. This assumes that you already have a working Mesa 3.0 installation + from source. + 2. Place the tarball MITS.tar.gz in your top level Mesa directory. + 3. Unzip it and untar it. It will replace the following files in + your Mesa source tree so back them up if you want to save them. + + + README.MITS + Make-config + Makefile + mklib.glide + src/vbxform.c + src/vb.h + + 4. Rebuild Mesa using the command + + make linux-386-glide-mits + |