Re: FLASH: Flash4 enhanced for AltiVec (Velocity)? JD? BB?

[Frederico]

On 9/2/1999 12:22 AM, David Mendels via

dmendelsmacromedia [dot] com

, said:


>We have a bunch of teams working with G4 prototypes on optimization, but

>the only product we have publically demonstrated so far on the G4 is

>Director/Shockwave.  It is very fast.  Really beautiful.  We will certainly

>be doing more optimization, but it is premature for us to be talking about

>unnanounced proucts.  The machines look great and are very fast even with

>our current applications, so I would go ahead and purchase if you are

>thinking about it.


Hi David,


The purchase of the G4(s) is a given, and the POs are already executed. 

<G> And, yes, they are quite pretty, but the guts and glory are seen on 

the screen with automated optimisations. I've been fortunate to get some 

first-hand time with the new PS plugin and some of my own AppleScript, 

and it flat blew me away. Far better than I expected for prerelease, and 

a great indication of what is yet to come, when true native AltiVec 

(only) code is employed.


The question is, and I realize you are constrained to a great degree in 

your ability to answer, is will it cost us to gain AltiVec enhancements, 

i.e., will we have to wait for Flash 5, and buy our way to acceleration, 

or will we likely see the enhancements as free, or nominal-cost decimal 

upgrades?


We are also looking at a timetable from the standpoint of actual work 

output. I won't go into great detail, but much of our billing truly is 

based on how long we watch the beach ball spin, and cutting that time in 

half will be passed on to our customers.


Would it be unreasonable to think we should see these improvements by 

Christmas? Easter? Memorial Day? The true Milennium? <w>


I know announcing stuff you've just begun to work on is suicide, but I 

also see other companies who can make a pretty good guess at a time frame 

(e.g., Terran, Avid) and/or at least make a *firm* commitment to what we 

need.


For example, if Adobe tells us we'll see an Altivec plugin for 

Illustrator,  like the one for PhotoShop, just as soon as they can build 

and QA it, I'll be more inclined to upgrade my Illustrator licenses, 

which we abandoned in favor of Freehand, if we don't get a resonable 

assurance of timely, needed Freehand improvements. Make sense? I'm not 

trying to strong arm you, nor do I want you to just tell me what I want 

to hear, I'm just serious about the need for optimal job output, and I 

need to use whatever tool will deliver that.


It is astonishing to actually calculate thumb-twiddling costs in a large, 

partially automated shop, and it's my job to factor out the best way to 

minimize that overhead and maximise resources.


So, even if you can't answer directly, please at least pass along these 

comments to the project resource managers, so they know they might lose 

some customers to whomever can ship the best product soonest for the the 

new era Macs.


Grazi Tando


Frederico


Yikes! It's Here!  Do you Gigaflop? We do it up to 4 times. . .


. . .and Sawtooth is still on it's way. . .


Think Altivec. Think G4. Think Power. Think Different.



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