Dynamic 3D graphics workload characterization and the architectural implications
Tulika Mitra, Tzi‐cker Chiueh · 1999
Although PC-class 3D graphics hardware has made significant strides in the last several years, the underlying architectural design principles are still generally considered as a black art. The quantitative approach prevalent in mainstream computer architecture design is rarely applied, at least as far as publicly available research literature is concerned. One main reason for this deficiency is the absence of a detailed workload characterization of 3D applications. This paper reports the results of a dynamic 3D workload characterization effort, which, to the best of our knowledge, is one of the first such studies that have ever been attempted. This study is different from previous similar studies because it focuses on dynamic behaviors of 3D applications, specifically, correlations of workload statistics among neighboring frames in interactive 3D applications. Such inter-frame coherence is the basis of many performance optimization techniques, but has never been actually quantified in a syste...