Re: How many times must Apple make such DRASTIC architecture changes?

[Tim Cutts <timc@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

In article <11am8lu3aj5i71a@corp.supernews.com>,
G.T. <getnews1@dslextreme.com> wrote:
>> Absolutely.  Integer performance is all that matters for the vast
>> majority of desktop consumer applications (games might be an exception,
>> these days).
>>
>
>Aren't sound and video exceptions, too?

Not as I understand it; 2D image processing and video (and sound) are
integer operations.  In the case of e.g. TIFF, you use integer values to
represent the levels of red, green and blue.  It's all integer numeric
data.  The same's true of digital sound; you use integer values to
represent the intensity.

The Altivec, heavily used for image processing, is an integer vector
unit.

And even in floating point applications, doing an approximation using
integer maths is often good enough, by and large, and considerably
faster.  Any of you who have used 'Fractint' on a PC will have seen that
in action; generating these fractals is in theory a pure floating point
problem, but those guys developed a blisteringly fast integer
approximation which works well at low magnifications.

Tim