2005-11-29 Lecture 9:

Personal Computers - System Hardware and Software

Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen Dept. of CSE, Helsinki University of Tech.

Sangjin Han Dept. of EECS, Korea Advanced Institute of Sci. & Tech.

Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 1

Overview of the presentation

• • • System hardware  A walkthrough of different multimedia related devices in PCs System software    Operating systems Multimedia APIs GUI toolkits Extra  Case Study: PC vs. PlayStation2 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 2

System hardware

• • • • • • • • System architectures Processors (CPUs) Main memory Mass storage devices Display devices Graphics cards (GPUs) Sound related devices Other multimedia devices 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 3

System architectures

• • • • • • Basic CPU/memory/bus model is the most common system architecture Uni/multi processor systems One/many memory locations Network systems (not really a PC anymore?) Busses  PCI, AGP, PCI-E, IDE, SCSI..

Main boards connect other components together and provide integrated functionalities 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 4

Processors (CPUs)

• • • • • • • Mostly 32 or 64 bit systems Only two big CPU manufacturers exist    Intel (Celeron, Pentium, Xeon..) AMD (Sempron, Athlon, Opteron..) Other CPUs (RISC, MIPS, Transmeta..) Clock frequencies  MHz, GHz, FSB, multipliers..

Multicore processors (virtually many CPUs) Multilevel cache memory  L1, L2..

Heat and power consumption is huge problem!

Mobile CPUs 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 5

Main memory

• • • • • • • Main memory is usually RAM (Random Access Memory) Loses its data if not constantly refreshed Not as expensive as fast L1 and L2 level memories, but more expensive than magnetic mass storage memories Technologies  DRAM, SIMM, DIMM, RIMM, DDR, DDR2 , SO-DIMM, ECC..

Clock speeds (MHz)  e.g. 266, 333, 400, 500..

FSB and latencies make the true speed Memory sizes  Several MBs – a few GBs  128, 256, 512, 1024 (1GB)..

2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 6

Mass storage devices

• • • • • Mainly magnetic and optical disks  Hard drives / disks   CDs, DVDs Floppy disks (almost gone) Other mass storage solutions  USB (flash) memories, CompactFlash cards etc..

 Tape drives Capasities  From megas to hundreds of gigas Speeds  Seek time   Rotational latency (rpm) Bus speeds (MHz) Magnetic disks exist only because main memory is expensive 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 7

Display devices

• • • • CRTs  CRTs’ era is almost over Flat panels (LCD)   Are now cheap enough Used to have latency issues  Still have view angle issues Projectors (beamers)  Expensive  LCD and DLB technologies (Digital Light Processing) Main properties of the devices  Colors they can show • e.g. 24bit (= 16M colors)  Max resolution they support • e.g. 1600x1200 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 8

Graphics cards (GPUs)

• • • • • • • Graphics cards are like small computers themselves!

They process the frames that are to be drawn on the display device Mainly two (chip) manufacturers dominate the market  ATI (Radeon) • Newest product family is the Radeon X1000 series  nVIDIA (GeForce) • E.g. the GeForce 7800-series Main card components  Pixel and vertex shaders (processors)  Memory (e.g. GDDR) AGP vs. PCI-E bus technologies Heat, noise and power consumption are major problems Two cards can be used the same time with GeForce SLI and ATI CrossFire technologies.

2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 9

Sound related devices

• • • Sounds are processed by a sound module that can be an:  Internal sound card • E.g. Sound Blaster Audigy & X-Fi   External sound peripheral • The best sound modules are usually external Integrated sound “card” on the main board • E.g. AC’97 Sounds are produced by speakers  E.g. 2, 2.1, 5.1 or 7.1 channel speaker Sound quality comes from good hardware plus  High encoding bitrates and sample frequencies (e.g. 24bit, 48KHz..) 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 10

Other multimedia devices

• • There are a lot of different other multimedia related peripheral out there e.g.

 TV-cards  I/O devices • mouse, keyboard, gamepad, joystick etc.

   Networking hardware • Network, Bluetooth, USB, Firewire cards/modules Webcams Microphones Is the next big thing the invention of a physics card that does the world modelling calculations?

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System software

• • • Operating systems  Windows, Linux, Mac OS Multimedia APIs  Windows API, GDI, DirectX, DirectFB, OpenGL, SDL GUI toolkits  Windows, X Window, Java, examples 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 12

Operating systems

• Microsoft Windows    Most current version is XP (2001) Next version is Vista • Now in Beta1 stage • Should be released in the end of next year (2006) Windows is by far the most popular OS of today      Easy to use and learn Supports almost all hardware there is Because of popularity it has some security conserns A massive system that requires new hardware to work It sometimes causes BSoDs (Blue Screens-of-Death) 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 13

Operating systems (cont’d)

• Linux   A lot of different distributions (distros) available • Mandrake/Mandriva, Suse, Fedora, Debian, Red Hat, Xandros, Slackware, Ubuntu, etc..

• • Most are freely downloadable from the Internet Some distros cost money – By giving money you will get CDs, support services, user manuals etc.

A Unix type OS      Source code is available Is stable and secure (at least some distros are) A true multi-user environment Not all programs or games are available in Linux Because of lack of device drivers, not all hardware works with Linux.

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Operating systems (cont’d)

• • • Mac OS X      Current version of OS X is Tiger (10.4) Previous one was Panther (10.3) Macs and OS Xs are known to be used mainly by graphics artists and content producers It’s easy to use and its usability is far better that other OSs.

Under the pretty outlook, it is still a Unix based OS Macs look nice and trendy Some could argue that Macs are not really PCs at all, because they are not that customizable 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 15

Multimedia APIs

• • • • This part introduces a few Multimedia Application programming Interfaces (APIs) I'm going to consentrate on the Windows environment and especially on Windows API and DirectX  I'll also show a few code examples I'm also going to tell shortly what are DirectFB, OpenGL (probably quite familiar already) and SDL I'm trying to be a little practical so I'm not going to tell about the history of these APIs in detail  Everyone interested can search for more information from the internet or by using the provided links in the end 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 16

Windows API

• • • • Provides building blocks for applications that are written for Windows Designed for C/C++ programmers Familiarity with the Windows graphical user interface and message-driven architecture is required Examples that Win API can be used to:  graphical user interfaces    display graphics and formatted text (GDI) manage system objects such as memory, files, and processes sounds and video (Windows Multimedia) 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 17

User Interface

• • • • Windowing Resources  Icons, cursors, menus...

Common controls  Buttons, text fields, edits, syslinks (hypertext), scroll bars, list boxes...

User input  Keyboard, mouse...

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Graphical Device Interface (GDI)

• • • • Used in most Windows applications to generate graphical output for video displays and printers Can draw lines, curves, closed figures, paths, text, and bitmap images Color and style depends on selected or created drawing objects: pens, brushes and fonts GDI+ is improvement to GDI that optimizes existing features and adds for example gradient colors, alpha blending   Included in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (available to some earlier Windows’) Also improves the API 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 19

Windows Multimedia

• • • A basic Windows library Enables applications for example to play sounds and video and to record sounds Used in PlaySound example 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 20

DirectX

• • • • • One of the most popular APIs in game development Only works in Windows (and Xbox) Provides APIs enabling software developers to access specialized hardware features without having to write hardware-specific code Enables higher performance in graphics and sound when you’re playing games or watching video Consists of many components that are meant for different kinds of tasks 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 21

DirectX 9.0 Main Components

• • • DirectX Graphics component combines the Direct3D component and the D3DX utility library, which simplifies many graphics programming tasks DirectInput component provides support for a variety of input devices, including full support for force-feedback technology DirectSound component can be used in the development of high-performance audio applications that play and capture waveform audio 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 22

Old DirectX Components

• • DirectDraw handled all 2D drawing but it isn't available anymore and using it is no longer recommended   In DirectX 9.0 all 2D functionality is contained within Direct3D and its associated helper functions in D3DX DirectDraw documentation is still available and can be viewed on MSDN DirectMusic will maintain its current status until new technology is made available  DirectMusic documentation can be found at: /Documentation/DirectX9 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 23

Old DirectX Components (cont'd)

• • DirectPlay is deprecated and Microsoft strongly recommends against using it to develop new applications  Game developers should use Windows Sockets and the Windows Firewall APIs DirectShow is no longer recommended for game development  All of the DirectShow components were removed from the DirectX 9.0 SDK Update April 2005, but are available in the latest Platform SDK Install 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 24

DirectX Example: Far Cry

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DirectFB

• • • Thin library that provides:  Hardware graphics acceleration   Input device handling and abstraction Integrated windowing system and multiple display layers on top of the Linux Framebuffer Device Supports GNU/Linux and FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD without accelation support Support for Mac OS X is currenly worked on 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 26

DirectFB Example: Quake 3: Arena

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OpenGL

• • • • Free environment for developing portable, interactive 2D and 3D graphics applications.

Since its introduction in 1992, OpenGL has become the industry's most widely used and supported 2D and 3D graphics API, bringing thousands of applications to a wide variety of computer platforms Speeds application development by incorporating a broad set of rendering, texture mapping, special effects, and other powerful visualization functions Many OpenGL extensions, as well as extensions to related APIs like GLU, GLX, and WGL, have been defined by vendors and groups of vendors 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 28

OpenGL ES

• Royalty-free, cross-platform API for full-function 2D and 3D graphics on embedded systems  Consoles   Phones Appliances 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 29

OpenGL Example:Homeworld 2

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Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL)

• • Cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL or DirectX and 2D video framebuffer Used e.g. for games, emulators, demos, multimedia applications • Supports Linux, Windows, BeOS, MacOS Classic, MacOS X, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, Solaris, IRIX, and QNX  2005-11-29 Some unofficial support for Windows CE, AmigaOS, Dreamcast, Atari, NetBSD, AIX, OSF/Tru64, RISC OS, and SymbianOS Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 31

SDL (cont'd)

• • • Written in C but works with C++ natively Has bindings to several other languages, including Ada, Eiffel, Java, Lua, ML, Perl, PHP, Pike, Python, and Ruby Currently available under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2 or newer.

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Using SDL

• • • Initializing the library Video   Choosing and setting video modes Drawing pixels on the screen and loading and displaying images Events   Waiting for events Polling for events and event states 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 33

Using SDL (cont'd)

• • • Audio  Opening the audio device   Loading and playing sounds CD-ROM audio Threads  Create a simple thread  Synchronizing access to a resource Timers  Get the current time, in milliseconds  Wait a specified number of milliseconds 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 34

SDL Example:NetHack Falcon Eye

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GUI toolkits

• What is a GUI toolkit? (Widget toolkit)  A set of basic building elements for graphical user interfaces.

Widgets: GUI:

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For Windows

• Windows API  A basis of all GUI toolkits on Windows • • MFC (Win32) Windows Forms (.NET) • OWL   VCL  Of Borland CLX 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 37

For X Window System

• X doesn’t offer any common widgets.

 The reason why X applications look different.

• Two major GUI toolkits QT • Managed by Trolltech • Basis of KDE • C++ • • GTK+ • GPL • Basis of GNOME C (with an OOP manner) Originally for GIMP 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 38

For Java

• • • AWT   In early versions of Java Direct mapping to native widgets • Heavyweight Swing   Since Java 2 Controls widgets by itself • Lightweight • Low-performance SWT 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 39

Examples: How to make a GUI app?

• Simple “Hello World” Programs on Windows using    Win32 api (Message-handling manner) QT (Event-handling manner) Windows Forms (IDE-integrated manner) 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 40

Hello World – (1) Win32 API

• • Tens of lines should be coded even for a simple application.

Message handling  When clicked, a WM_COMMAND message is passed.

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Hello World – (2) QT

• • • mywidget.h, mywidget.cpp, main.cpp

Event handling  By connecting clicked() signal to onClick() Compilation  From extended C++ code to usual C++ slot 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 42

Hello World – (3) Windows Forms

• • • Using Visual Studio .Net, IDE integrated GUI programming  Like other RAD tools such as Delphi, Borland C++ Builder, Visual Basic, etc.

Must be run on Microsoft .Net Framework 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 43

PC vs. PlayStation2

• • What makes PCs different from other multimedia-dedicated devices?

 Why PS2 games look nicer than PC games even today?

A case study with PlayStation2

versus

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PC vs. PlayStation2 (cont’d)

• Hardware • • PC • Powerful CPU (x86)    1~3Ghz CISC 8 32bits GPRs 256MB ~ 1GB of RAM Magnetic disks • A HW abstraction layer is needed PlayStation2 • • • Poor CPU (EE)    200Mhz RISC (MIPS inst.) 32 128bits GPRs Many useful features for multimedia No compatability problem 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 45

PC vs. PlayStation2 (cont’d)

• Software PC • • Various OS  Windows, Linux, etc.

Various MM APIs  DirectX, SDL, OpenGL, etc.

PlayStation2 • • No operating system  Runtime library only No MM APIs   Must deal with HW directly Some 3 rd party libraries are available 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 46

PC vs. PlayStation2 (cont’d)

• Development environment PC • Plentiful programming languages.

 Hundreds of!

• Various IDE and RAD tools • So many references PlayStation2 • • • No option  ASM, C, C++ Notepad =)  CodeWarrior is available like other embedded systems.

Seldom documents  Confidential almost 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 47

References

• • • • • •

Windows API

 http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en us/winprog/winprog/windows_api_start_page.asp

DirectX

  Customers: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx

Developers: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en us/dnanchor/html/anch_directx.asp

DirectFB

 http://www.directfb.org/

OpenGL

 http://www.opengl.org

/

OpenGL ES

 http://www.khronos.org/opengles /

Simple DirectMedia Layer

 http://www.libsdl.org

/ 2005-11-29 Raine Mäki, Reima Saarinen, Sangjin Han 48

Kiitos!

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