[Arm-netbook] libre 64-bit risc-v SoC

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 12:47 PM, mike.valk at gmail.com
<mike.valk at gmail.com> wrote:

> If you're trying to trans-code something that you don't have a
> co-processor/module for you're forced to CPU/GPU trans-coding.

 you may be misunderstanding: the usual way to interact with a GPU is
to use a memory buffer, drop some data in it, tell the GPU (again via
a memory location) "here, get on with it" - basically a
hardware-version of an API - and it goes an executes its *OWN*
instructions, completely independently and absolutely nothing to do
with the CPU.

 there's no "transcoding" involved because they share the same memory bus.

> Would a FPGA
> still be more power huns gry then?

 yes.

> I think/hope FPGA's are more efficient for specific tasks then CPU/GPU's

 you wouldn't give a general-purpose task to an FPGA, and you wouldn't
give a specialist task for which they're not suited to a CPU, GPU _or_
an FPGA: you'd give it to a custom piece of silicon.

 in the case where you have something that falls outside of the custom
silicon (a newer CODEC for example) then yes, an FPGA would *possibly*
help... if and only if you have enough bandwidth.

 video is RIDICULOUSLY bandwidth-hungry.  1920x1080 @ 60fps 32bpp
is... an insane data-rate.  it's 470 MEGABYTES per second.  that's
what the framebuffer has to handle, so you not only have to have the
HDMI (or other video) PHY capable of handling that but the CODEC
hardware has to be able to *write* - simultaneously - on the exact
same memory bus.

 the point is: if you're considering using an FPGA to accelerate video
it's gonna be a *really* big and expensive FPGA, and you would need to
implement something like PCIe just to cope with the communications
between the two.

 costs just escalated way beyond market value.

 this is why companies just simply... abandon one SoC and do another
one which has an improved custom CODEC silicon which *does* handle the
newer CODEC(s).

> We can always have evolution create a efficient decoder ;-)
> https://www.damninteresting.com/on-the-origin-of-circuits/

 woooow.

"It seems that evolution had not merely selected the best code for the
task, it had also advocated those programs which took advantage of the
electromagnetic quirks of that specific microchip environment. The
five separate logic cells were clearly crucial to the chip’s
operation, but they were interacting with the main circuitry through
some unorthodox method— most likely via the subtle magnetic fields
that are created when electrons flow through circuitry, an effect
known as magnetic flux. There was also evidence that the circuit was
not relying solely on the transistors’ absolute ON and OFF positions
like a typical chip; it was capitalizing upon analogue shades of gray
along with the digital black and white."

that's incredible.

l.