Fast Fourier Transforms and the GVX

[Robert Skinner]

In article <1990Mar2.160357.10094 at hellgate.utah.edu>,
twolf%ug.utah.edu at cs.utah.edu (Tom Wolf) writes:
> In reading through the literature on the latest Graphics machines(I believe
> they are called GVX's), I see that they use Fast Fourier Transform chips in
> the graphics pipeline. 
> 
> As I have an application that requires thousand's of Fourier Transforms, 
> I am curious as to whether you can use the FEEDBACK function to help
> crunch the FT's? Does anyone know if this is possible?
> 
> 
> Several of us have been trying to figure out what Fourier Transforms are used
> for in graphics processing? Any ideas?
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Tom

I assume you mean the GTX.  

caveat:  someone else should be responding with the scoop on what
hardware is in a GTX, not a new software engineer like me.  
But since they haven't, I'll try and provide correct information...

The FFT is used in image processing, but not in normal graphics processing.
The IRIS graphics hardware does not compute an FFT.

I'm not aware of any chips that specifically perform the FFT, and I'm
sure that there aren't any in the IRIS's.  Some IRIS's (just the PIs, I 
think) have Digital Signal Processing chips in them.  These DSP chips 
are often used to compute the FFT *in other products*, but they are 
just used as very fast processors in the PI.  

Robert Skinner
robert at sgi.com

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