Session Description
The SPUs are the power-house of the Cell processor in the PlayStation 3 allowing it to achieve unprecedented levels of performance, but the innovative multi-core architecture brings with it new design challenges to understand and address before this power can be leveraged. This session examines how Sony Worldwide Studios have attempted to harness this power in their games. The talk considers high, mid and low level questions covering topics such as selection of tasks to offload, sharing of SPUs, synchronisation, system architecture, memory layout, DMA efficiency and instruction optimisation - trying as much as possible to focus on concrete use cases rather than abstract theory.
Idea Takeaway
This session's goal is to explain in detail how SCE 1st party games use SPUs, and offer ideas for improving your own games by making better use of the SPUs.
Intended Audience
The session is intended for programmers wanting to learn more about how to utilize SPUs in their games. Attendees are expected to be familiar with the PS3 architecture.
RSX Best Practices
Quote:Speaker: Mark Cerny (Cerny Games), Jon Olick (Senior Programmer, Naughty Dog), David Simpson (Lead Programmer, Naughty Dog)
Date/Time: TBD
Track: Programming
Format: 60-minute Lecture
Experience Level: Intermediate
Session Description
During the runup to launch, Sony Worldwide Studios learned a great deal about creating high performance graphics applications on the Playstation 3. Much attention has already been devoted to shader programming, so this talk focuses instead on the other half of the equation; topics discussed will include the origin and usage of the libgcm API, algorithms for optimal use of the RSX vertex cache, and use of the CELL in tandem with the RSX including necessary synchronization techniques. This material has never been presented before at any developers conference.
Idea Takeaway
The audience members will learn a number of techniques used in SCE 1st party games, with a focus on using the CELL in tandem with the RSX.
Intended Audience
This session is intended for graphics programmers who already know how to make surfaces bumpy and shiny, and are interested in learning other useful techniques for the PlayStation 3.
