Altivec Builds

Cybermagellan · Post by **Cybermagellan** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:41 am

Well our good friend Daniel Foesch on #PearPC has developed the Altivec code to have implemented in builds....what does this mean?

Better compatibility in future programs (e.g. Tiger already runs better)

More speed, because of the processes floating point math operations can be handled which makes the client faster.

And your nifty PearPC installation runs as a G4

The PearPC Information Station is hosting the binaries of this at...

http://pearpcexe.sytes.net

Note: This requires the CPU_PVR code to be changed in your configuration file. The Configuration Maker has already been updated to reflect this. Just choose G4 as the processor.

eaglebtc · Post by **eaglebtc** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 9:21 am

downloaded. Rebooting PearPC to see if this makes much of a difference. Here's hoping! :D

edit:

System Specs:
Pentium 2.6GHz, 800MHz FSB
1GB PC3200 DDR
Western Digital WD360JB "Raptor" (10,000 RPM)
Windows XP SP2 RC2, build 2149

Bootup Time: 2:42

Shutdown Time: 0:12.

Also, during shutdown the spinner is blended on top of the wallpaper. In previous versions of PearPC, the wallpaper disappeared and the spinner was shown on a solid blue background.

desertboy · Post by **desertboy** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:04 am

Cybermagellan wrote:Well our good friend Daniel Foesch on #PearPC has developed the Altivec code to have implemented in builds....what does this mean?

Better compatibility in future programs (e.g. Tiger already runs better)

More speed, because of the processes floating point math operations can be handled which makes the client faster.

And your nifty PearPC installation runs as a G4

The PearPC Information Station is hosting the binaries of this at...

http://pearpcexe.sytes.net

Note: This requires the CPU_PVR code to be changed in your configuration file. The Configuration Maker has already been updated to reflect this. Just choose G4 as the processor.

http://www.kelley.ca/pearpc/wiki/index.php/Altivec

Has this got JIT altivec support? I thought there was a problem with that.

If it hasn't unless you have an altivec only program this isn't going to give you anymore speed, in fact it might well be slower.

If the altivec is interpreted instead of recompiled, remember those figures interpreter 400 times slower, jitc 40 times slower, well it's going to take a hit in pearpc.

matteraf · Post by **matteraf** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 11:52 am

I ran this version of PearPC, I try to run Excel 2004 and crashes.

Cybermagellan · Post by **Cybermagellan** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 1:30 pm

Does it register as a G4? Also I have to compile with --fpmath=sse cflags which I have yet to find how to add two cflags to a optimized build

Tekmaven · Post by **Tekmaven** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 1:48 pm

As I've posted before, my builds *work*

.

------
Alrighty, I was unhappy with the selection of builds available, so I decided to make my own builds.

These are the following builds I'm making:

G4/Altivec (from altivec CVS branch), SDL
G4/Altivec (from altivec CVS branch), Win32
Standard CVS CPU, SDL
Standard CVS CPU, Win32

Each of the above configurations are available optimized for Pentium 4, or AthlonXP, so there are eight builds total. Additionally, each build will stay archvied, so if tomorrows CVS isn't as good as todays, you can go back.

If the folders are missing zip files, its just because it's currently building

. http://www.tekmaven.nu/pearpc/builds/

Just one note, if you are using the G4/Altivec builds, be sure to add this line to your config file:
cpu_pvr = 0x000c0000
-----------

Cybermagellan · Post by **Cybermagellan** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 4:36 pm

How is this any different from what I do? maybe I didn't make a SDL build? Sorry...

brannoch · Post by **brannoch** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 5:22 pm

Cybermagellan wrote:How is this any different from what I do? maybe I didn't make a SDL build? Sorry...

The primary difference that I can see is that he only provides AthlonXP and P4 optimized builds, not the standard builds that I can run on my PIII, Celeron or Athlon Thunderbird. A PIII optimized build would be nice...

matteraf · Post by **matteraf** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 5:37 pm

in both versions excel 2004:mac crashes.

Tekmaven · Post by **Tekmaven** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 6:18 pm

brannoch wrote:
Cybermagellan wrote:How is this any different from what I do? maybe I didn't make a SDL build? Sorry...
The primary difference that I can see is that he only provides AthlonXP and P4 optimized builds, not the standard builds that I can run on my PIII, Celeron or Athlon Thunderbird. A PIII optimized build would be nice...

P3 build is going to be up tonight. I changed the script last night for it, and it didnt get a chance to run again

.

Marc · Post by **Marc** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 8:56 pm

matteraf wrote:in both versions excel 2004:mac crashes.

Excel uses the FPU extensively and teh bug which makes it crash has not been completely fixed yet. AltiVec definiatly doesn't fix this.

Tekmaven · Post by **Tekmaven** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 12:44 am

Cybermagellan wrote:How is this any different from what I do? maybe I didn't make a SDL build? Sorry...

Don't take offense to this, and I'm not trying to compete with ya

. Your site is doggy slow, and I get like 7k/s when downloading builds. Also, the popup is pretty annoying.

P3 builds for all configurations are available on my site now too (currently compiling now 8) ).

brannoch · Post by **brannoch** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:27 am

Tekmaven wrote:P3 builds for all configurations are available on my site now too (currently compiling now 8) ).

Yay!

BTW, what's with the later 2116 builds?

Tekmaven · Post by **Tekmaven** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 2:46 am

I changed the script to append the time in military format to the end (2116 = 21:16 EDT). This way, if there is a major CVS update in the middle of the day, I can rebuild and you'll be able to distinguish between the builds. I don't think there is a difference between the two builds, other that the one with the time was compilied slightly later that day (it did to a cvs update automattically, but it might not have updated anything 8)).

prasys · Post by **prasys** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 7:09 am

Great , I am going to mirror it...

Cybermagellan · Post by **Cybermagellan** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 7:38 am

21 July 04 Updated:

I would just like to say one thing. If you are using a P3 trying to run the Altivec build your kinda being redundant. The Altivec code isn't going to give any PURE boost levels or "optimized" performance. Running a P3 with Altivec is like running a race backwards. "You might get there" but not as fast as you would doing it the right way.

Shawn

dethell · Post by **dethell** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 9:30 am

This might be somewhat offtopic, but I'm wondering if you guys doing the nightly builds only do them if CVS has a change. I download new builds every day, but I don't know if anything has actually changed in CVS from one day to the next or if you guys just build daily regardless.

Thanks,
dethell

Cybermagellan · Post by **Cybermagellan** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 3:20 pm

I do it even if it doesn't have a change... :-D

Tekmaven · Post by **Tekmaven** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 3:22 pm

dethell wrote:This might be somewhat offtopic, but I'm wondering if you guys doing the nightly builds only do them if CVS has a change. I download new builds every day, but I don't know if anything has actually changed in CVS from one day to the next or if you guys just build daily regardless.

Thanks,
dethell

Look at the webcvs, it will show ya all the diffs

dethell · Post by **dethell** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 5:08 pm

I use webcvs to look for changes, but wasn't sure if the ChangeLog was always updated when there is a change. Knowing if the new builds represented new code in CVS would help because each day I retest a specific app to see if it's working yet and if the code didn't change then I'm spinning my wheels for that day. No big deal. Just trying to save myself a few seconds.

brannoch · Post by **brannoch** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 6:40 pm

Cybermagellan wrote:I would just like to say one thing. If you are using a P3 trying to run the Altivec build your kinda being redundant. The Altivec code isn't going to give any PURE boost levels or "optimized" performance. Running a P3 with Altivec is like running a race backwards. "You might get there" but not as fast as you would doing it the right way.

Shawn

The P3 and Celeron I have here are 800 and 1300 Mhz, respectively. They both support MMX and SSE. They are also what I have available. Short of buying/building a new computer (which I can't do right now, though I have many parts) this is as right as it'll get for me.

Anyway, isn't the "right way" still using a Mac?

bonehead · Post by **bonehead** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 11:31 pm

Cybermagellan wrote:I would just like to say one thing. If you are using a P3 trying to run the Altivec build your kinda being redundant. The Altivec code isn't going to give any PURE boost levels or "optimized" performance. Running a P3 with Altivec is like running a race backwards. "You might get there" but not as fast as you would doing it the right way.

It is because the P3 doesn't have SSE2? If so, wouldn't an Athlon XP build be just as wrong?

kybernaut · Post by **kybernaut** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 12:01 am

hey guys...

From the info I got from the dev mailing list and the wiki, AltiVec is software emulated at the moment. It should run on a 486 as well as on a P4.

http://www.kelley.ca/pearpc/wiki/index.php/Altivec
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/foru ... arpc-devel

--kybernaut

prasys · Post by **prasys** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 7:43 am

so its possible to emulate G4 on a 486 PC

kybernaut · Post by **kybernaut** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 8:14 am

prasys wrote:so its possible to emulate G4 on a 486 PC

Yes... that should be possible.

Altivec Builds

Altivec Builds

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