From: sorrow@maple.circa.ufl.edu
Subject: Re: TECH: Using TI340x0
Date:    , 28 Nov 1858 06:34:58 GMT
Organization: The CIRCA Underground


In all this discussion of the i860 vs. TI chip, one of my biggest
concerns was the bus bandwidth of the PC.  As far as I know, the i860
is strictly a numerical processor -- it has a lot of graphical functionality,
but does not inherently support output of any type.

The TI, however, does, and thus all video operations are kept on the 
card.  And most of your program code can be uploaded onto the card
(including primitives, etc.).  While numerically it is not as fasta as
the i860 ( which can scan convert and shae 50,000 Gouraud shaded 100-pixel
triangles per second ), it should have faster video output and there
is not overhead due to the communications of the bus.  The MWay Number
Smasher 860 has an 8-bit connector!

Brian