[vtkusers] Re: VTK on a DUAL Processor board

[Nigel Nunn]

Hi Peter, 
 
(Nice system -- see below!) 
 
One of the joys of having multiple CPUs in your system, 
even without threading your more intensive ops, is that 
the operating system and other executing apps can run on 
their own chip.  This keeps housekeeping matters out of 
the way of our wery waluable SciViz activities. 
 
However, as far as improving performance for a single 
executing application, a number of issues come to mind. 
The two most basic are:  
 
 1. high-speed rendering of an existing dataset; 
 2. iterative generation and rendering of data. 
 
OpenGL drivers for some graphics cards can exploit multiple 
CPUs.  This automatically boosts the final stage of the Vtk 
pipeline -- mapping your organized data to hardware. 
 
More interesting is when your application is a simulation, 
where significant time slices are spent preparing a dataset 
for display.  By simply offloading the "generation" phase 
to a worker thread, the GUI can remain responsive even on 
a modest dual-300MHz box.  Here is where multiple chips can 
mean the difference between an application that merely "runs", 
and a killerApp that users enjoy using.  Of course, some of 
your time will be lost struggling with issues that arise 
from synchronizing the multiple threads.  But that is time 
well spent!
 
cheers, 
Nigel 
 
--- Peter [p.boettcher at anat.vetmed.uni-muenchen.de] wrote --- 
 
> I have got a dual Pentium Processor board running under 
> Windows2000 and Linux with a 800 MHZ PentiumIII and 
> 3 GB RAM (Thunder LE S2510 from TYAN). Unfortunately I 
> have got only an onboard card with 4 MB. I would like 
> to know whether there will be any rendering improvement
> with a second processor under VTK. Furthermore I would 
> like to know, whether you know a PCI-64-Bit card I could 
> use for my board. If not, I woukd like to know which 32-Bit 
> PCI card I should by. (There is a special connector for 
> 32-Bit cads available). There is no AGP-Port on the board!!