Accelerating floating-point 3D graphics for vector microprocessors

We present performance results and discuss optimization techniques for floating-point 3D graphics primitives on the ARM vector floating-point (VFP) coprocessor. Much of the work in 3D graphics is performed by a surprisingly small number of primitives. Handheld devices cannot always afford the power and cost of dedicated graphics processors, so there is considerable interest in performing these primitives on the handheld´s own processor. In this paper, we examine the 3D graphics pipeline, break out the important primitives, and then show how to vectorize and optimize these primitives on the VFP.