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We have a simple high-level
architectural block diagram to give you a basic glimpse into
the design of the S3 DeltaChrome S8 GPU. As the name
implies the "S8" version of the DeltaChrome is an 8-pixel
pipe design. S3 will also be producing a low-end card
with four pixel pipes that will carry an "S4" moniker, and a
high-end model dubbed the "DeltaChromeF1", which
also has 8-pixel
pipelines...
As the above diagram shows, the
DeltaChrome S8 is a true 8-pixel pipe design. And due
to the fact that this is a DirectX 9 compliant part, each
pixel pipe has full floating-point precision throughout the
entire length of the pipeline (PS 2.0+). Each of the
pixel shaders is precise up to 96-bits per pixel, which is
exactly the same level of precision as ATi's R3x0 line of
GPUs. The 8-pixel shaders are complimented by 4 vertex
shader units (VS 2.0+ with 128-bit (4xFP32) vertex precision),
which doesn't mean much because
vertex shader performance varies significantly from one
manufacturer's GPUs to another. This diagram shows the
AGP8X interface funneling data into the GPU, which
communicates with the on-board memory via a 128-bit wide
bus. From the frame buffer, data is sent to the
display output block where the images can be output to HDTV,
a CRT or an LCD.
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S3 DeltaChrome S8 Features |
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A
Very Complete Feature Set |
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Although the true DirectX 9
compliance, and 3D features are the S3 DeltaChrome S8's main
attractions, the architecture has a few other compelling
features integrated into the hardware as well. Along
with true hi-res HDTV output, the DeltaChrome features S3's
"Chromotion Programmable Video Engine", which is similar to
ATi's "Video Immersion II" feature. The Chromotion
Engine was designed to enhance video playback in a variety
of ways. For example, DVDs are enhanced by a per-pixel adaptive
de-interlacing technique that helps reduce the feathering
and pixelation that occurs with some other products.
The Chromotion Engine can also
filter a video, to help reduce or eliminate the "blockiness"
associated with a low-quality stream. Take a look at
the screen captures above, and you'll immediately perceive
the benefits of this feature. Anyone who has tried to
watch a streaming video over the web, has seen these blocky
images first hand. The de-blocking is handled
automatically, provided you have a player that supports S3's
Chromotion video processing technique. S3 provided us
a version of Intervideo's WinDVD, patched to support
Chromotion, and even though we had a limited time to
experiment with the hardware, we can say that video playback was excellent
with the DeltaChrome.
Another feature inherent in the
Chromotion engine is called "ArtisticLicense". With
ArtisticLicense the DeltaChrome's pixel shaders can directly
manipulate the video, so with the proper tools users can apply a
special effect to a video
stream in real-time. At the moment, effects like soft
focus, emboss, sharpen and neon edges are available with the
DeltaChrome, and others are sure to follow. A few of these effects are shown in the
screen shot above.
Image Quality & The Drivers
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