nelson@wdl1.UUCP (Gregory L Nelson) (03/17/89)
We use our Encore for digital signal processing algorithm design. We currently use low-end Sun workstations for graphics output, and they are now obviously inadequate for new data graphics techniques we are starting to design. We are investigating alternatives for adding better interactive graphics capability, one display station for the moment. Every vendor we talk with indicates that their system is vastly superior to all their competitors' systems, and it seems unlikely that *every* one is telling the truth. So my basic survey question is, "What do you use to graphically display the massive amounts of data generated by your Encore?" with the perhaps-obvious sub-question, "And what do you do you like and not like about it?" Since our goals and priorities may be different from yours, here's what is important to us: o resolution--no smaller than 1024 by 1024. o color--8 bits (256 colors) pseudo-color is enough; full 24-bit RGB true color is probably too expensive, unless it is free <grin>. o 2-D vector, 3-D vector, and 3-D polygon performance--we have a need in some cases to display lots of data, so speed is important; we are weighting each equally right now because we will be investigating various data presentation techniques, and we also want something that can do all things reasonably well. o PHIGS, or better yet, PHIGS+ support--we anticipate developing non-trivial amounts of graphics code, and want to be free to port it to other platforms with minimum effort, and PHIGS seems to be the best non-proprietary graphics standard that includes 3D; we also anticipate PHIGS capability becoming universally available soon after the PEX implementation code is publicly released (as happened with X-Windows). o price--somewhat an open issue right now, but rest assured we will not double our Encore investment with a single graphics station! Please e-mail directly to me; I will summarize and post to this newsgroup if there is sufficient interest. Thank you, in advance, for your help. --Greg Nelson Gregory Nelson uucp: nelson@wdl1.fac.ford.com Ford Aerospace Corporation 3825 Fabian Way, MS X-21 Palo Alto, CA 94303 telephone: (415) 852-4090