National Tsing Hua University
I used to work in the industrial for over 15 years. Most of the working experience were in GPU development such as GPU architecture, graphics algorithms, graphics applications, GUI design, and graphics performance analysis. Then, in 2010, I decided to go back to school for teaching and doing the researches that I am interested in.
Besides my working experience, I also served as an adjunct associate professor in Chung-Yuan Christian University (1994~1996) and Yuan-Ze University (1995~1996, 2000), and an adjunct assistant professor at National Tsing Hua University (2008) in lecturing some courses, such as Data Structure and Computer Graphics.
My Professional Experience
After receiving my Ph. D. Degree, I joined ITRI for a replacement of my civil military service. ITRI is one of the best research institute in Taiwan. CCL (Computer and Communication Lab.) is the one in charge of developing computer related technologies. I joined the team in developing 3D graphics hardware and software. 2D engine is the one I involved first. Bitblt, pattern fill, rectangle fill, bitmap text, ROP, etc. are the major functions that I have to deal with. When I realized the combination of operations are so complicate, I decided to develop a software simulator that can help simulate the functions as those in the hardware design. It became the first C-model that can help to verify with hardware design in functional aspect.
Later, I began to lead a team in developing a 3D graphics chip for arcade game machine. That began my 3D graphics hardware/software development in the next 15 years.
After finishing my civil military service in ITRI, I decide to join the company that was designing PC graphics hardware. SiS was one of the graphics hardware vender at that time. Their most success and popular product was the SiS6326, which is a low cost DX7 graphics hardware accelerator at then. I was recruit to lead an architecture team which help developing new architecture, new rendering algorithm, surveying new technologies, and patent invention.
Although designing 3D graphics chip is fun and full of challenge, it’s difficult to compete with the giants NVIDIA and ATI which have the most advanced technologies and resources. So, I decided to work on integrated graphics on PC chipset. Due to the limitation of architecture to integrate several functional IPs and also on the limited bandwidth provided, the performance of this integrated graphics hardware is lower than discrete graphics card. VIA was one of the best PC chipset provider at then. Besides traditional chipset functions, they try to integrate both 3D graphics and video processing into a single chipset. It can greatly reduce the cost for the system vender with less chips required while still providing reasonable functions and performance.
During the time with VIA, I was leading an architecture team to develop C-model, performance evaluation, regression tests, architecture design, rendering algorithm design, and new technologies survey. I also in charge of leading a Bejing team to collaborate with Taiwan team in delivering the requirements of several projects.
It was a great experience with VIA to learn how a graphics chip was initiated, developed, brought up, and debugged. A lot of tools in helping graphics hardware development were developed at then. Besides the technical stuff, I also learned how to collaborate with different departments to help the project deliver on time.
Unfortunately, the growth of PC graphics became slow. However, the mobile/embedded graphics was arising. So, I decided to join MStar for developing mobile/embedded graphics on TV, STB, E-Book tablet, and mobile phone. MStar is the biggest TV chipset supplier in the world. Conventional TV graphics was very primitive with 2D and text processing only. Later, due to the wide spread of mobile graphics applications, embedded 3D graphics into TVs, mobile phones, and other embedded devices was the trend.
During the time with MStar, I was leading a team for developing TV GUI, porting applications (games) to TV, E-Books GUI, mobile phone GUI and applications. Most of these works were using 3D graphics hardware to accelerate the process.
It was another great experience to learn how the graphics were used besides PC.
After working for more than 15 years in the industry, I decided to go back school for doing researches and teaching students. There are two reasons to make this decision. First, doing research is always an interesting work that I love most. Second, helping the student to meet the industrial requirement with my past experience. Hope the students can benefit from what I taught and become a capable and an outstanding engineers in the industry.
