lindwall@sdsu.UUCP (John Lindwall) (02/17/89)
I'm posting this for my friend Scott. He recently acquired an IKONAS rds-3000 frame buffer. He would like to hear from anyone who has one of these so he can gether information on how to make use of it. Apparently the company is out of business: is this true? If not, where can they be reached? Scott would like to hear from anyone with info on the IKONAS rds-3000. (From what I gather it is a 24 bit color Frame buffer). Please email to scott as sts@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM or scott.swazey@tw-rnd.SanDiego.NCR.COM Thanks!
ksbooth@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Kelly Booth) (02/18/89)
In article <3500@sdsu.UUCP> lindwall@sdsu.UUCP (John Lindwall) writes: >I'm posting this for my friend Scott. He recently acquired an IKONAS >rds-3000 frame buffer. He would like to hear from anyone who has one of >these so he can gether information on how to make use of it. Apparently >the company is out of business: is this true? If not, where can they >be reached? They were bought out by Adage. If you ship your Ikonas to Waterloo, we will verify that it works (we collect them:).
falk@sun.uucp (Ed Falk) (02/18/89)
In article <3500@sdsu.UUCP>, lindwall@sdsu.UUCP (John Lindwall) writes: > I'm posting this for my friend Scott. He recently acquired an IKONAS > rds-3000 frame buffer. He would like to hear from anyone who has one of > these so he can gether information on how to make use of it. Apparently > the company is out of business: is this true? If not, where can they > be reached? We had one where I used to work. A truly wonderful machine, although big and hairy. It has a frame buffer that can be software configured to be 1024x1024x8 or 512x512x32. The extra eight bits are called the "alpha" planes and you can do various things with them. Pixar used them for storing compositing information, for instance. The 32 bits, plus a cursor bit plus two more software-setable bits feed into an optional device called the crossbar switch. This takes the 35 input bits and re-arranges them into almost any possible combination of 34 output bits. If you don't have a crossbar, you just send 34 of the 35 bits directly to the next stage. The next stage is the "luvo". It takes the 24 rgb bits and splits them into three 8-bit channels, which are combined with the high-order two bits (cursor + software-settable) to form 10-bit channels which are sent into the rgb color tables and then on to the display. A truly versatile frame buffer. Also, you there's another card called the BPS32 which is a simple 2900-series microcomputer -- I learned to microcode on this machine. The BPS32 performs a full complement of transform and painting operations and it's easy to write your own ucode. There's a standard ucode package called IDL which, when loaded, interprets a higher-level graphics language. You can also get C compilers and so on. Next, there's *another* microprocessor called the MA1024 which is a matrix multiply engine. This works in conjunction with the BPS32. Next, there's *another* microprocessor which is specially geared for painting to the frame buffer. In particular, it does polygon fill with blinding speed. I left my job before I got much chance to play with this one though. Also, there's a 68000 board you can get, and you can even get unix for it. We only used it to drive devices though. Anyway, Ikonas was bought by Adage and I don't know what Adage is doing with it. The people who founded Ikonas went on to found Trancept which invented the Taac machine for the sun, which is like a second-generation Ikonas. Sun then bought Trancept which is now a division of sun I think. Both the Ikonas and the Taac have developed cult followings. Disclaimer: I'm mostly talking from my experiences at my previous job, and I'm somewhat fuzzy on the details since then. -- -ed falk, sun microsystems sun!falk, falk@sun.com card-carrying ACLU member.