sahtirn@ipla01.hac.com (Walter and Bill) (03/26/91)
less than a car which will have throughput competitive with a (shared) supermini. So i'm gonna junk the old xt and buy a 25 MHz 486 machine loaded w/memory etc. I intend to run Windows, if it doesn't limit me in some way. I intend to do image processing on 8-bit imagery using Neural Net algorithms (i.e., lots 'o' flops - correlations, array operations, statistical analysis) and i will need the CPU throughput and 256-grey-level display capability to support it. Since i have been out of touch with the PC world, i would like to solicit some advice: * I would like to get a Weitek coprocessor, but i would also like to stay with Turbo C++ (i understand 2.0 does windows - any bugs?). Can the new Tc++ gen- erate Weitek code or is there some other compiler compatible w/ Tc++ with which i can build a linkable library? * I need to display 8-bit (256-level) grey scale with a minimum of 512x640 resolution (and square pixels!). I have been told that there is an enhanced VGA mode which supports this. Which compilers and graphics cards are able to work in this mode, if any? I would like to stay as "mainstream" as possible, e.g. paradise card, turbo c. * I will eventually need to build a user interface and would prefer to make it portable. Thus i'd like to hear reccommendations/experiences concerning X-windows packages running under MS windows. Any comments on mouse support would also be helpful. I think that there must be other NN/IP researchers like myself who would find this info valuable. Please respond to this by e-mail and i will summarize on the appropriate topics. this is especially important since i will be posting this to several PC HW, PC SW, and ANN topics and might miss your response if you just posted it. I will credit all responses in my summary. Thank you all in advance! Walter Alden Tackett tackett@ipla01.hac.com sahtirn@ipla01.hac.com
martin@saturn.uucp (Martin J. Schedlbauer) (03/31/91)
In article <14039@hacgate.UUCP> sahtirn@ipla01.hac.com (Walter and Bill) writes: >w/memory etc. I intend to run Windows, if it doesn't limit me in some way. >I intend to do image processing on 8-bit imagery using Neural Net algorithms >(i.e., lots 'o' flops - correlations, array operations, statistical analysis) >and i will need the CPU throughput and 256-grey-level display capability to >support it. Since you'll be doing a lot of computation, a good math coprocessor is a must. The 387 built into the 486 is significantly faster than the 387-33. I'm not sure how much faster the Weitek is. Doing such work under DOS in 16bit is a waste of CPU power. You should really think of going to 32bit programming. A DOS extender and a good C compiler is a must. Since you'd like to use X Windows and 32bit programming, why not look into Unix? A good Unix for the PC (such as ESIX) can be had for around $550. If you use GNU cc you will get decent 32bit performance (a lot faster than you can get under DOS). Also, there is a lot of PD image processing software under Unix and X. ...Martin -- ============================================================================== Martin J. Schedlbauer | martin@saturn.UUCP | ...!ulowell!saturn!martin 8 Gilman Road | mschedlb@ulowell.edu | ...!uunet!wang!saturn!martin Billerica, MA 01862 USA | CIS: 76675, 3364 | Voice/Fax: (508) 670-2169