Reply 60 of 164, by Jo22
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MikeSG wrote on 2024-02-05, 14:42:A TIGA card would be interesting but I don't think the chips are available anymore
That's true. It just came to mind, because the original TIGA chip (TMS34010) was originally meant for arcade use.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TMS34010
A Raspberry Pi maybe could emulate a part of it, like with that 68000 accelerator (PiStorm).
rasz_pl wrote on 2024-02-05, 14:30:You cant speed up drawing with an FPU. CAD software uses FPU to do math, not draw.
Uh, I was thinking of coordinates and vectors, which are related to math.
I mean, the x86 doesn't draw either, it's just executing the ROM code on the VGA card which in turn is instructing the VGA CRTC to do something.
Hm. But now that I think of it, a SIMD like good old MMX would be more effective, maybe. Photoshop and video players had used it. But it's not available to anything pre-Pentium MMX.
Hm. Weren't there any x87 FPUs with extra features? Cyrix or ULSI? I vaguely remember reading they had a non-intel mode (different protocol or i/o) that was more effective and had extra functions.
The more I'm thinking about it.. A Blitter chip for DOS PCs would be neat! It used to be available on Atari ST/Amiga.
Or how about a VGA-like card with DMA capability? EMM386/QEMM API could be used to coordinate things (for Protected-Mode magic and access to 386 MMU)
The Weitek co-processor as a memory-mapped device was the closest 386/486 owners could install back then, maybe, not sure. EMM386 has a switch for it.
But then we have the math problem again and I don't know of Weiteks capabilities, exactly. 🤷♂️
Doom as a game isn't using a full 3D engine, but rather using 2D textures on flat objects. The rooms are 3D, though.
Anyway, these are just some ideas, of course.
Edit: Wouldn't it be possible to install a VGA card between 80386 and mainboard?
As an interposer, with a full 32-Bit connection?
If it had SRAM or dual-ported VRAM directly accessible to both VGA and 80386, read/write operations between both of them should be quicker.
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