4 ms·
Did "Manga Guide" make a mobile GPU book? I can't say I'm personally too interested in mobile GPUs. I know they're a very different architecture than Desktop G
by dragontamer 3y ago
Did "Manga Guide" make a mobile GPU book?
I can't say I'm personally too interested in mobile GPUs. I know they're a very different architecture than Desktop GPUs and have some important optimizations with regards to memory bandwidth. (Desktop GPUs can just run higher-power RAM for more bandwidth, IIRC Mobile GPUs need to rely upon optimizations that Desktop GPUs simply don't care about yet). EDIT: Oh wow, now that I'm done reading the .pdf, I think they did a good job explaining this in comic-book form.
I can assume though that video game programmers who optimize for specifically mobile-GPUs can get a graphical advantage over their competitors though. So even if its not my cup of tea, its probably very useful to others.
----------
On the "Manga Guide" perspective: these books are a lot of fun and I feel like they're a good introduction. As a comic-book format, they are very quick to read.
Its hit-and-miss though. "Manga Guide to Linear Algebra" is awful and uninspired. Skip, just not worth your time.
But "Manga Guide to SQL" is great. I think the story about the Princess trying to organize Apples in her kingdom (and thinking about customers, businesses, etc. etc.) very naturally teaches SQL. So much of SQL and Databases are about learning a hypothetical business, that a grand story about a Fairy, a princess, a kingdom losing money that needs more organization (etc. etc.) really helps out.
Knowing that Customer's Address and how it can conflict with other customers in 1st or 2nd normal form, but how 3rd normal form fixes the possible conflict (etc. etc.) solidifies SQL ideas and theories with a story.
I think that's the key. Some subjects (and authors) are able to properly weave a story into the explanation. A subject like Linear Algebra probably can't have any story weaved in, so they kind of failed at that. SQL does, and I think a "Mobile GPU as a factory / tour of the factory comic book style" could make sense.
- hobs 3y agoPretty much everyone I taught SQL I mapped the queries to natural questions anyone would have about a business that they were working at right then... because that's what it was basically invented for, is very good at it, and most people don't really care or need advanced features anyway.
- TT-392 3y agoThis one isn't "manga guide" though. I don't think the source is even japanese, cause it reads from left to right (kinda jarring, reading a manga looking comic from left to right). I think this one just comes straight from arm.
- tedunangst 3y agoArm calls it "The Arm Manga Guide to the Mali GPU".
- TT-392 3y agoHmm, fair enough, I guess I should have clarified that I was talking about the official "manga guide" series
- vore 3y agoDesktop GPUs are borrowing ideas from mobile GPU designs though - most modern desktop GPUs have tiling support (kind of) just like mobile GPUs: https://www.realworldtech.com/tile-based-rasterization-nvidia-gpus/ https://www.realworldtech.com/tile-based-rasterization-nvidi... Even though it's not strictly a mobile GPU design, the hybrid architecture is definitely a shift.
- WithinReason 3y agoIndeed. Nvidia is tile based: https://www.realworldtech.com/tile-based-rasterization-nvidia-gpus/ https://www.realworldtech.com/tile-based-rasterization-nvidi... AMD is tile based: https://pcper.com/2017/01/amd-vega-gpu-architecture-preview-redesigned-memory-architecture/2/#ftoc-heading-3 https://pcper.com/2017/01/amd-vega-gpu-architecture-preview-... Intel is tile based (section 5.2): https://www.intel.com/content/dam/develop/external/us/en/documents/the-architecture-of-intel-processor-graphics-gen11-r1new.pdf https://www.intel.com/content/dam/develop/external/us/en/doc... The technology originated with PowerVR in 1996, today known as Imagination Technologies, who designed the ancestor architecture to Apple's GPUs today.
- bpye 3y agoImagination released the driver and simulator sources for PowerVR series 1 last year [0] which is a fun resource to see how tiling GPUs started. Series 1 is particularly weird because it doesn't use triangles, it uses infinite planes, which may be clipped by other planes - meaning that convex polygons with more sides are faster than the equivalent in triangles. Sadly no RTL but I'm guessing the simulator is based on it given some of the weird coding patterns. [0] - https://github.com/powervr-graphics/PowerVR-Series1 https://github.com/powervr-graphics/PowerVR-Series1
- FirmwareBurner 3y agoThanks so much for sharing that, I had no Idea something this cool had been made public. Though initially when you wrote "simulator" I though the Verilog/VHDL source code and the simulator for the HDL design would be there, but that's not it. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I asume it's a simulator for the driver, probably to simulate there's a PowerVR GPU in the system. Just looking through the driver source code and seeing all those #ifdef blocks for all possible combinations of HW, SW, APIs, etc scattered everywhere is making my head spin. Hopefully they had some IDE that would collapse all the unused blocks, as it reminds me of one of my gigs in embedded where the IDE didn't have such a feature and it was brutal following the code.
- Terr_ 3y agoRight: While an entertaining presentation is helpful, the most important factor is having a good metaphor that bridges the underlying concepts to something that can be pictured and casually reasoned about.