HP-835 TruboSRX - What!
Julian Perry
HP products) and am drooling over it. Wow - I want one. We currently have
a fully configured HP-350 SRX and are very impressed with what it can do
but this TurboSRX must really soak up the Watts (the normal SRX has 2 power
sockets (rated at 8 amps each)).
But ..... (now to the real point of the posting)
What the heck are:
"Multiple obscurable movable accelerated (MOMA) windows allowing
multiple windows (up to 32) to be created moved obscured and
simultaneously accelerated."
I'm sure I missed something in my somewhat limted education....but what
are 'accelerated windows'.
Jules [the well and truly awed]
P.S. For those who aren't in the know, the TurboSRX is like the normal
SRX (a real time solid rendering graphics system - 16 million
colours simultaneously, 16-bit Z buffering, multiple light sources,
surface shading and lots lots more) but with a speed increase of
3-10 times (just tell me how?) and loads more bits done directly
in hardware or microcode - radiosity, ray-tracing, Gouraud shading,
etc etc etc
--
IN-REAL-LIFE: Julian Perry
E-MAIL: ju...@zen.co.uk || ...!mcvax!ukc!zen.co.uk!jules
PHONE: +44 532 489048 ext 217
ADDRESS: Zengrange Limited, Greenfield Road, Leeds, England, LS9 8DB
Mike Stroyan
> "Multiple obscurable movable accelerated (MOMA) windows allowing
> multiple windows (up to 32) to be created moved obscured and
> simultaneously accelerated."
>
> are 'accelerated windows'.
As technology progresses, local jargon is sure to follow.
Accelerated windows are windows that are drawn into by the graphics
processors. The old HP98710 could use a transformation processor to
render into the full frame buffer, but could not draw into one of the
window system windows using acceleration. The window system could only
be drawn in with software running on the CPU. The SRX can run one
accelerated application at a time, drawing into the image planes
while the window system does unaccelerated graphics into windows in
the overlay planes.
The TurboSRX can run up to 32 applications at a time that time-share
its three transform engines. Each application writes into its own
window in the image planes. The windows may be moved around and can
overlap each other. When drawing in a window partially obscured by other
windows, the output is clipped to the visible part of the window. In
the TurboSRX, the obscured parts of an accelerated window are not
retained for later exposure, requiring that a window be redrawn to
handle shuffling to the front. The applications using accelerated
windows must be compatible about the display mode, since all will be
displayed with the same color mode and double buffering buffer.
> ... with a speed increase of
> 3-10 times (just tell me how?) ...
There are three transformation processors in the TurboSRX compared to
one in the SRX. There are also improvements in the performance of
parts of the graphics pipeline.
Mike Stroyan, [hplabs!]hpfcla!stroyan
I speak for myself, not for Hewlett-Packard.
P.S. They are still 8 amp fuses, but one of the power plugs has gone
from 4.4 to 6.2 amp rating.
Dan Schmidt
> HP products) and am drooling over it. Wow - I want one. We currently have
> a fully configured HP-350 SRX and are very impressed with what it can do
> but this TurboSRX must really soak up the Watts (the normal SRX has 2 power
> sockets (rated at 8 amps each)).
>
> But ..... (now to the real point of the posting)
>
> What the heck are:
> "Multiple obscurable movable accelerated (MOMA) windows allowing
> multiple windows (up to 32) to be created moved obscured and
> simultaneously accelerated."
>
> are 'accelerated windows'.
MOMA window are windows into which the graphics acceleration of the
hardware may be applied. On the SRX you can effectively only drive one
graphics window whereas on the TurboSRX, 32 are supported. The
microcode context switches for each window to run simultaneously.
>
> Jules [the well and truly awed]
>
> P.S. For those who aren't in the know, the TurboSRX is like the normal
> SRX (a real time solid rendering graphics system - 16 million
> colours simultaneously, 16-bit Z buffering, multiple light sources,
> surface shading and lots lots more) but with a speed increase of
> 3-10 times (just tell me how?) and loads more bits done directly
> in hardware or microcode - radiosity, ray-tracing, Gouraud shading,
> etc etc etc
The ray-tracing is strictly a software extension that allows starbase to
render an SRX database as a ray traced image. Radiosity is another
software extension except in this case it is "hardware-assisted".
Radiosity models the inter-reflections of diffuse light between surfaces
of the environment. The strengths of the radiosity method are highly
realistic lighting, shading, and shadowing effects, soft shadowing, and
view independence. View independence allows a user to change his view
at any time and not have to recalculate the radiosity effects.
Other new features in the TurboSRX include:
Quadrilateral Mesh and Triangle Strip primitives with up to 50K
light-sourced polygons/second.
Pixel Pan & Zoom and Frame Buffer Blending for imaging
applications.
Hardware Cursors to unload the CPU of cursor updates.
6th Order NURBS with Trimming (the SRX had 4th Order).
Point and Outline primitives for PHIGS+ compatibility.
Extended lighting support.
3-10X overall performance improvement over the SRX by simply
relinking your software. (If you switch from polygons to
meshes, however, you can get ~20X performance.)
Dan Schmidt, Hewlett-Packard Graphics Technology Div., Fort Collins, Colorado
{ihnp4 | hplabs}!hpfcla!dgs, 303-229-3734
Rion Cassidy
>Other new features in the TurboSRX include:
>
> Quadrilateral Mesh and Triangle Strip primitives with up to 50K
> light-sourced polygons/second.
>
> Pixel Pan & Zoom and Frame Buffer Blending for imaging
> applications.
>
> Hardware Cursors to unload the CPU of cursor updates.
>
> 6th Order NURBS with Trimming (the SRX had 4th Order).
>
> Point and Outline primitives for PHIGS+ compatibility.
>
> Extended lighting support.
>
> 3-10X overall performance improvement over the SRX by simply
> relinking your software. (If you switch from polygons to
> meshes, however, you can get ~20X performance.)
What are meshes and how easy is it to switch to them?
We are considering purchasing either an SGI 4D/70GT or an HP 835
TurboSRX; any comments on the difference in graphics performance? I
know SGI's hardware is no where near as reliable, but my boss keeps
insisting that SGI is still far and away the graphics performance
leader. What can I tell him?
Rion Cassidy
Ford Aerospace
ri...@ford-wdl1.arpa
...{sgi,sun,ucbvax}!wdl1!rion
Disclaimer: My employer forced me to write this at gun-point.
I assume no responsibility whatsoever for what I've said here.