Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mailrus!uwm.edu!dogie.macc.wisc.edu!decwrl!sgi!jmb@maddog.sgi.com From: jmb@maddog.sgi.com (Jim Barton) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi Subject: IRIX 3.2 Release Notes (Part 1 of 3) Message-ID: <44982@sgi.sgi.com> Date: 19 Nov 89 18:38:54 GMT Sender: jmb@maddog.sgi.com Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA Lines: 1127 Enclosed as a copy of the relevant portions of the 3.2 release notes which come with every 3.2 release (you can get these with the "relnotes" command). It is broken in three parts, because of the size. Glue them together before using. I've taken the liberty of compressing the output by removing extraneous empty lines. These are chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. One thing unmentioned in the release notes is a development caveat that we follow that I believe you will find out when running the system: the next release has to be at least as fast as the last one (and it had damn well better be faster!). These release notes are: Copyright (c) 1989 Silicon Graphics Computer Systems All Rights Reserved -- Jim Barton Silicon Graphics Computer Systems "UNIX: Live Free Or Die!" jmb@sgi.com, sgi!jmb@decwrl.dec.com, ...{decwrl,sun}!sgi!jmb ------------------- cut here --------------------- IRIX 3.2 Release Notes, as posted to USENET in comp.sys.sgi (Part 1 of 3) Copyright (c) 1989 Silicon Graphics Computer Systems All Rights Reserved >>>>>>>>>> 3.2 Release notes, Chapter 3 >>>>>>>>>> - 1 - 3. Major_Enhancements_and_Compatibility This chapter describes the major enhancements of the 4D1-3.2 software release, summarizes compatibility issues for the program development tools, and provides a description of the subsystems provided with this release. This chapter is divided into the following sections: o Major Enhancements o Compatibility of Program Development Tools o Description of 4D1-3.2 Subsystems - 2 - 3.1 Major_Enhancements 3.1.1 Software_Enhancements The 4D1-3.2 release provides these major software enhancements: o The IRIS WorkspaceTM The Workspace is a graphically organized iconic interface to UNIXTM that allows quick and easy access to the file system. System administration tasks are greatly simplified via the System Manager, which is included in the Workspace package. o Visual Login The console login now is visual by default. See pandora(1) and the IRIS-4D System Administrator's Guide for information about configuring the console login. o Visual Administration/System Manager The System Manager offers a suite of icon-driven tools for administering the UNIX system under the IRIX Workspace. The System Manager is built on top of standard UNIX commands and file formats. Using those standard commands directly will not interfere with the System Manager. o QuickPaintTM (by Alias Research) QuickPaint is a color paint program employing a rich variety of brush types, sizes, and shapes, as well as many brush functions. o QuickModelTM (by Alias Research) QuickModel is a 3-D modeling package that gives the user the ability to quickly create solid objects, render them, and interactively view them in real time. o Personal VisualizerTM (Wavefront's renderer) The Personal Visualizer is a rendering package that allows the user to import 3-D models and create photorealistic renditions of them under different lighting, material, and other scene characteristics. The Personal Visualizer features ray tracing capabilities. - 3 - o NURBS NURBS is a major new GL feature that allows direct rendering of Trimmed Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline Surfaces. This new feature is offered through a combination of software, firmware, and hardware on all 4D platforms. o Logical Operations (Personal IRIS only) Logical operations (logicop) is a new GL feature that allows GL application to perform boolean pixel operations. o User-level SCSI devices drivers. See ds(7M) in the IRIS-4D Programmer's Reference Manual for more information. o Support for the use of all serial ports on Power Series systems. 3.1.2 Hardware_Enhancements The 4D1-3.2 release provides support for the following hardware and firmware: o 4D/210GTX 4D/210S A new member of the Power Series. It has a single processor MIPS R3000/R3010 running 25 MHz. o Personal IRIS Turbo New 20 Mhz CPU board with higher performance. Two surface mount daughter boards added to GR1 to increase the graphics performance. o RE2 New Raster Engine chip is supported on Personal Iris models including Turbo. It has the following new features: logical operations on a Personal IRIS, pixel unpacking, screen mask, better antialiased lines. o Diskless Workstations without hard disks. The 4D/20 and 4D/25 can both operate as diskless workstations. Diskless workstations require special installation. o SCSI 1/2" Tape - (Personal IRIS only). o Industry Standard (IBM compatible) floppy disk drive - Personal IRIS only. - 4 - 3.2 Compatibility_of_Program_Development_Tools The following tables describe compatibility between software releases 4D1-3.1 and 4D1-3.2 and between releases 4D1-2.0 and 4D1-3.2. In these tables, source means source files, whether FORTRAN, C, or another language. Application libraries means not only archive libraries of object files (.o files), but also individual object files. Executables means executable binaries (not shell command files). Release 4D1-3.2 is compatible with release 4D1-3.1 with one exception: programs linked under release 4D1-3.1 using the shared library /usr/lib/libfm_s.a which were not also linked with the shared library /usr/lib/libgl_s.a must be relinked to run under release 4D1-3.2. Binaries linked with the non-shared versions of libfm.a or libgl must be relinked. 3.2.1 Upwards_Compatibility _______________________________________________________ | |_________________________________________| |4D1-3.1 | Compilation | Tools | Execution | |Generated | Environment | Environment | Environment | | | (cc, f77, | (nm, | | | | ar, ld) | strip, | | | | | dbx, edge, | | | | | lint, | | | | | stdump, | | | | | size, dis) | | _______________________________________________________| |____________|_____________|_____________|_____________| |application | yes | yes | yes | |libraries | | | | | | | | | |____________|_____________|_____________|_____________| |executables | NA | yes | yes, | | | | | unless the | | | | | non-shared | | | | | versions | | | | | of libgl.a | | | | | or libfm.a | |____________|_____________|_____________|_____________| - 5 - _______________________________________________________ | |_________________________________________| |4D1-3.0 | Compilation | Tools | Execution | |Generated | Environment | Environment | Environment | | | (cc, f77, | (nm, | | | | ar, ld) | strip, | | | | | dbx, edge, | | | | | lint, | | | | | stdump, | | | | | size, dis) | | _______________________________________________________| |____________|_____________|_____________|_____________| |application | yes | No for nm, | yes | |libraries | | dbx, edge, | | | | | stdump, | | | | | dis. Yes | | | | | for strip, | | | | | size | | | | | | | |____________|_____________|_____________|_____________| |executables | NA | No for nm, | yes, | | | | dbx, edge, | unless the | | | | stdump, | non-shared | | | | dis. Yes | versions | | | | for strip, | of libgl.a | | | | size | or libfm.a | |____________|_____________|_____________|_____________| - 6 - _______________________________________________________ | |_________________________________________| |4D1-2.0 | Compilation | Tools | Execution | |Generated | Environment | Environment | Environment | | | (cc, f77, | (nm, | | | | ar, ld) | strip, | | | | | dbx, edge, | | | | | lint, | | | | | stdump, | | | | | size, dis) | | _______________________________________________________| |____________|_____________|_____________|_____________| |application | yes | No for nm, | yes | |libraries | | dbx, edge, | | | | | stdump, | | | | | dis. Yes | | | | | for strip, | | | | | size | | | | | | | |____________|_____________|_____________|_____________| |executables | NA | No for nm, | No if | | | | dbx, edge, | graphics. | | | | stdump, | Yes | | | | dis. Yes | otherwise. | | | | for strip, | | |____________|_____________|_____________|_____________| 3.2.2 Backwards_Compatibility You can safely assume that software generated in 4D1-3.2 will not work with previous system software releases. - 7 - 3.3 Description_of_4D1-3.2_Subsystems 3.3.0.1 Execution_Only_Environment_Tape_1 eoe1.sw.acct This is the System V Process Accounting package. It is used to monitor system resource usage on a per-user basis. When Process Accounting is installed and turned on, a record is kept of every command that is executed along with data on the resources the command used. Report generating scripts are then run which produce periodic reports of system utilization. This package is useful when it is desired to monitor usage patterns in systems with large numbers of users. eoe1.sw.cdsio This is the driver for the VME Serial Expansion board. It is required for systems with that option installed. eoe1.sw.crypt This subsystem contains the crypt and makekey programs which, along with the editors ed and vi, implement a simple text encryption system. eoe1.sw.dfm This is a subset of IRIX utilities dealing with directory and file management. It is generally required in all systems. eoe1.sw.editors This subsystem contains the standard IRIX text editors and is generally required on all systems. eoe1.sw.hyper This is the driver for the HyperNet VME interface and is required only on systems with that option installed. eoe1.sw.ikc This is the driver for the VME Parallel Expansion interface and is required only by systems with that option installed. - 8 - eoe1.sw.ipc This subsystem contains utilities useful in controlling the System V Inter Process Communications facility. It consists of two utilities: ipcrm and ipcs. eoe1.sw.lp This subsystem contains the Line Printer Spooling package and is required on any system that will be used with printers, either locally or over a network. eoe1.sw.mast This subsystem contains vital graphics software and is generally required on workstations. On some systems, this subsystem will be empty however. eoe1.sw.perf This subsystem contains the System Activity Reporting (SAR) package. This facility is useful for monitoring processor activity and IRIX system performance. It may be used in either an interactive mode or as a background data collector/report generator. This subsystem is not required, but may be useful in diagnosing system performance problems. eoe1.sw.spell This subsystem contains a dictionary and command that checks spelling. eoe1.sw.tcp This subsystem contains programs and files that implement the TCP/IP family of networking facilities. It is generally required on all systems even if they will be used in a stand-alone environment. eoe1.sw.terminf This is the Terminfo terminal database. It contains files describing the capabilities of hundreds of different types of terminals and is used by the vi editor as well as many common terminal- oriented applications. A few common terminals may be used without this subsystem. eoe1.sw.ts This is the driver for the ISI VME quarter-inch cartridge tape controller. It is required on systems with that option installed. - 9 - eoe1.sw.unix This subsystem contains the core IRIX commands and files and is required on all systems. - 10 - eoe1.sw.usrenv This subsystem contains a subset of the standard IRIX commands and is generally required on all systems. eoe1.sw.uucp This is the traditional UUCP communications package which implements a point-to-point networking facility. This is only required for sites where UUCP is used but it also contains facilities that may be useful for systems with modems. eoe1.sw.xm This is the driver for the Xylogics VME 1/2" tape controller and is required only on systems with the controller installed. eoe1.man.relnotes This is an on-line readable copy of the IRIX release notes. eoe1.man.unix This is an on-line copy of the IRIX user's manual. Entries may be viewed with the ``man'' command. 3.3.0.2 Execution_Only_Environment_Tape_2 eoe2.sw.NeWS This is the 4Sight window manager and is required by all workstations. This subsystem contains the ``standard'' NeWS fonts. Courier Icon Courier-Bold Iris Courier-BoldOblique Screen Courier-Oblique Screen-Bold Cursor Times-Bold Helvetica !Times-BoldItalic Helvetica-Bold Times-Italic Helvetica-BoldOblique Times-Roman Helvetica-Oblique type eoe2.sw.NeWSimg This is an image database for the 4Sight image demonstration programs. - 11 - eoe2.sw.X11 This is the run-time X11 windowing package. It is required to run X11 applications. This subsystem includes the following fonts that are required to run X, along with some terminal emulator fonts expected by xterm users: 6x10 cursor 6x12 Terminal 6x13 Terminal-Bold 8x13 Terminal-BoldNormal 8x13b TerminalNormal 9x15 eoe2.sw.Xdemos These are demonstration programs that make use of the X windowing system. You must install eoe2.sw.X11 in order for these programs to work. eoe2.sw.Xfonts These are a set of fonts which were shipped with X11 Release 2. They are no longer a part of X, but some older X programs require these fonts to be in place. apl German sup arrow Greek supsup chess Hebrew swd chp ipa sym cyr krivo vbee Cyrillic lat vctl dancer met vg fcor micro vgb fg mit vgbc fg-Bold oldera vgh fg-Oblique plunk vgi fgone rot vgvb fgone-Bold runlen vgl fgone-Oblique sansserif vmic fgs sansserif-Bold vply fqxb sansserif-Oblique vr fr serif vrb fr-Bold serifb vri fr-Oblique serifi vsg frone stan vsgn frone-Oblique stempl vshd frthree sub vxms frtwo subsub xif - 12 - eoe2.sw.demos This is the standard SGI demonstration package. It has been enhanced and expanded with this release and features a new menu driven front end called ``buttonfly''. Some programs may not image properly on machines with eight bit-planes or without a Z-buffer. eoe2.sw.envm This is the IRIX Workspace package, a user-friendly alternative to the standard IRIX command shell. eoe2.sw.gltools This subsystem contains a collection of simple tools that perform a variety of graphics related functions on a workstation. Complete source code for these tools is contained in the dev.sw.gifts subsystem described in the next section. These tools include: blanktime ipaste cedit istat clock loadmap dialwarp mag gamcal mousewarp gamma savemap ical scrsave icut showmap imgexp snapshot interp textcolors eoe2.sw.moredemos This is an extension of the eoe2.sw.demos subsytem and contains more demonstration programs. These programs are segregated here due to disk space requirements. eoe2.sw.moregltools This is an extension of the eoe2.sw.gltools subsystem and contains commands that implement simple image processing functions. The complete source to these commands is contained in the def.sw.gifts subsystem described in the next section. - 13 - eoe2.sw.optfonts These are additional fonts that are not required by the base system but may be desirable for some applications. Boston NewCenturySchoolbook-Bold Charter-Black NewCenturySchoolbook-BoldItalic Charter-BlackItalic NewCenturySchoolbook-Italic Charter-Italic NewCenturySchoolbook-Roman Charter-Roman Symbol Kanji eoe2.sw.sysadm This is a system administration package that does not require graphics and is intended for use primarily on server machines. eoe2.sw.vadmin This is a graphical interface to the standard IRIX administration utilities. It provides user-friendly tools for managing printers, users, disks, networks and other common administrative functions. eoe2.man.X11 This is an on-line version of the IRIX user's manual entries that describe the commands in the eoe2.sw.X11 subsystem. eoe2.man.demos This is an on-line version of the IRIX user's manual section 6, which describes the demonstration programs. 3.3.0.3 Development_Option dev.sw.G0libraries This subsystem contains versions of all of the standard programming libraries compiled with the -G 0 option. These versions of the libraries are generally not required. dev.sw.cc This subsystem is contains all of the standard IRIX commands and files for compiling and debugging C programs. - 14 - dev.sw.cedgetut This contains files that accompany documentation on how to use Edge the IRIX window-based debugger, when programming in C. dev.sw.crypt This subsystem contains the file libcrypt.a for use by programs that perform data encryption. dev.sw.debug This contains the IRIX kernel debugger and is useful only to those developing kernel device drivers. dev.sw.giftssrc This subsystem contains a multitude of sample programs in source code form including the source for all of the eoe2.sw.gltools and eoe2.sw.moregltools subsystems described in the previous section. While the installation of this subsystem is not required, many developers have found the example programs to be extremely useful in learning about the GL, TCP/IP, and Generic SCSI interfacing. dev.sw.rcs This contains the Revision Control System (RCS) which is a set of programs that may be used to control a source code development project. With RCS, changes to source files are kept in a database with comments such that previous versions of a particular file may be retrieved. dev.sw.sccs This contains the Source Code Control System which is identical in purpose although different in use to RCS described above. dev.man.cc This contains all of the programmer's reference manual in an on-line readable format. - 15 - 3.4 Subsystem_Sizes This is a list of all the subsystems and their sizes. Default Install indicates subsystems that are are installed by default when you install using automatic mode, or you select default. To install subsystems that are not installed by default, you must select them with manual installation features. ___________________________________________________________________ subsystem Personal IRIS 4D Data Power Default IRIS & Station Series Power Server ___________________________________________________________________ eoe1.sw.acct 896 896 896 896 no eoe1.sw.cdsio 50 50 50 50 yes eoe1.sw.crypt 52 52 52 52 yes eoe1.sw.dfm 1053 1053 1053 1053 yes eoe1.sw.editors 619 619 619 619 yes eoe1.sw.hyper 194 194 194 194 no eoe1.sw.ikc 36 36 36 36 yes eoe1.sw.ipc 214 214 214 214 yes eoe1.sw.lp 1386 1386 1386 1386 yes eoe1.sw.mast 0 312 0 0 yes eoe1.sw.perf 1090 1090 1090 1090 yes eoe1.sw.spell 867 867 867 867 no eoe1.sw.tcp 7601 7601 7601 7601 yes eoe1.sw.terminf 1637 1637 1637 1637 no eoe1.sw.ts 31 31 31 31 no eoe1.sw.unix 26894 23455 25612 24531 yes eoe1.sw.usrenv 990 990 990 990 yes eoe1.sw.uucp 2088 2088 2088 2088 no eoe1.sw.xm 67 67 67 67 no eoe1.man.relnotes 284 284 284 284 yes eoe1.man.unix 4003 4003 4003 4003 yes ___________________________________________________________________ TABLE 1. S4-EOE1-3.2 - 16 - _____________________________________________________________________ subsystem Personal IRIS 4D Data Power Default IRIS & Station Series Power Server _____________________________________________________________________ eoe2.sw.NeWS 12791 11911 11493 11493 yes eoe2.sw.NeWSimg 12879 12879 12879 12879 no eoe2.sw.X11 17628 17628 17628 17628 no eoe2.sw.Xdemos 2143 2143 2143 2143 no eoe2.sw.Xfonts 3072 3072 3072 3072 no eoe2.sw.demos 4047 4569 2013 2013 yes eoe2.sw.envm 6828 6828 6828 6828 yes eoe2.sw.gltools 1048 3144 0 0 yes eoe2.sw.moredemos 4981 4733 4378 4378 no eoe2.sw.moregltools 2718 7778 188 188 no eoe2.sw.optfonts 4617 4617 4617 4617 no eoe2.sw.sysadm 533 533 533 533 yes eoe2.sw.vadmin 7875 7875 7875 7875 yes eoe2.man.X11 663 663 663 663 no eoe2.man.demos 378 378 378 378 yes _____________________________________________________________________ TABLE 2. S4-EOE2-3.2 ____________________________________________________________________ subsystem Personal IRIS 4D Data Power Default IRIS & Station Series Power Server ____________________________________________________________________ dev.sw.G0libraries 15097 13692 15097 15097 no dev.sw.cc 19308 17452 19222 19222 yes dev.sw.cedgetut 16 16 16 16 no dev.sw.crypt 32 32 32 32 yes dev.sw.debug 848 556 848 556 no dev.sw.giftssrc 4486 4486 4486 4486 no dev.sw.rcs 1846 1846 1846 1846 no dev.sw.sccs 1496 1496 1496 1496 no dev.man.cc 3121 3121 3121 3121 yes ____________________________________________________________________ TABLE 3. S5-DV01-3.2 >>>>>>>>>> 3.2 Release notes, Chapter 4 >>>>>>>>>> - 1 - 4. Additions This chapter describes additions to IRIX, the Graphics Library, 4Sight, and networking in the 4D1-3.2 software release. Also, it describes a new command for reading these release notes on-line. 4.1 On-Line_Release_Notes Release notes have been added to the on-line documentation. When you install the on-line documentation for a product, you will be able to view the release notes on your screen as you would an on-line manual page. However, unlike the on- line manual pages, the printed hard copy of these release notes is more up to date than the on-line version. The relnotes command accepts the following argments: -h describes how to use relnotes -p product displays the chapters or chapter numbers for a given product -c chapter displays a given chapter To see a description of how to use the on-line release notes tool, type: relnotes -h To see which product have on-line release notes installed, type: relnotes To see which chapters of a product are installed, enter the command below, but replace the word product with a product name generated when you type the previous command. renotes -p product To see a specific chapter of product, replace the words product and chapter in the next command: relnotes -p product -c chapter To page through a chapter, press and to quit, press or . See relnotes(1) for more information. 4.2 Additions_to_IRIX The 4D1-3.2 software release provides these additions to the IRIX operating system. o The IRIS-4D Series Owner's Guide and these release notes document a new way to back up and restore your system. This new system supports incremental backup and - 2 - recovery across multiple tapes. o pmake(1) and smake(1) are enhanced versions of make that create targets in parallel. o As of the system software release 4D1-3.2, on the Personal IRIS computers, the SCSI disk driver attempts to negotiate synchronous SCSI mode with the drive when it is opened. When supported by the drive, this results in greater disk throughput, and better SCSI bus utilization when multiple devices are attached to the SCSI bus. If problems occur because of this (due to use of unsupported drives that don't properly handle this negotiation), you may disable this negotiation by changing the scsi_syncenable variable in the file /usr/sysgen/master.d/scsi as described by the comments in that file, and linking a new kernel with lboot(7M). Of currently supported drives, the Imprimis 94171 (Wren IV 344 MB), 94221 (Wren V 190 MB half high), and 94191 (Wren VI 760 MB) drives all support synchronous mode. The Toshiba MK156FB (156 MB) and Imprimis 94161 (Wren III 155 MB) do not support synchronous mode, but do handle the negotiation correctly. o IRIX now has the capability to force a user process to run only on a particular CPU on a Power Series multiprocessor system. This facility is provided at the IRIX command level by the new command runon, which can be used as a prefix to a command at the shell level. For example, you can run vi on CPU 1 by using the following command: runon 1 vi myfile This facility is also available as a system call from within a user program: #include main() { int cpunumber = 1; sysmp(MP_MUSTRUN, cpunumber); /* * At this point, this process will run only on * cpu 1 except when it needs to run on another * cpu to access hardware that only exists on * the other cpu. */ /* * To revert to normal behavior (the process runs - 3 - * on whatever cpu is available), make the following * call: */ sysmp(MP_RUNANYWHERE,); ... } Refer to the manual pages runon(1) and sysmp(2) for further information. 4.2.1 System_Configuration_Files The 4D1-3.2 software release contains some enhancements to /etc/passwd. When you install your new software, a file called /etc/passwd.N is installed. Use diff to compare the two files. Then use a text editor, such as vi, to edit /etc/passwd.N to include the pertinent login/password information so users can login. Rename /etc/passwd.N to /etc/passwd. See Section 2.4, ``Finishing Up the Installation'', for more information about dealing with ``.N'' and ``.O'' files. 4.3 Additions_to_Documentation o Administrator's Guide for Diskless Workstations explains how to be the system administrator for one or more IRIS-4D/20 diskless workstations. It includes instructions for setting up a server for diskless workstations, common changes to the diskless tree, and configuring a disk upgrade. o STREAMS Primer and STREAMS Programmer's Guides provide comprehensive reference documentation for using STREAMS. The primer provides a high level, technical overview of STREAMS. The programmer's guide contains information on the use of the STREAMS mechanism at user and kernel levels. o Modeling on the IRIS-4D accompanies the Graphics Library Programming Guide and contains color plates that illustrate some of the features and capabilities of the IRIS-4D for 3-D modeling. o Silicon Graphics Server Owner's Guide is the new owner's guide for all Silicon Graphics servers. It explains how to set up the server, back up and restore data, recover from a system crash, maintain hardware and software, and perform the first few administrative tasks. This information used to be combined with information on Silicon Graphics workstations, in the IRIS-4D Series Owner's Guide. With the new server guide, you no longer need to sort through material intended for workstations. - 4 - 4.4 Additions_to_Demos Several demos, which used to be shipped with the GT, have been added for Personal IRIS and Power Series (GTX) systems: _______________________________________________________________ buttonfly 3D graphical interface to other demos solidview display and interact with finite element data lathe interactive simulation of a lathe flip interactive rotation of lit objects (replaces spin) boing a ``rubber planets'' simulation New demos for the Personal IRIS, GT, and GTX: ______________________________________________________ Demo Description ______________________________________________________ flyray an interactive ray-tracer logo watch a Silicon Graphics logo being grown newton enhanced version of jello (more polyhedra) gview display the results of radiosity calculations Demos installed on the Personal IRIS only: _____________________________________ house interactively display a house Demos installed on GT and Power Series only (need alpha bitplanes): ___________________________________________________________ Demo Description ___________________________________________________________ mir mirrored objects using z- and alpha-buffer tricks shadows objects casting shadows on each other 4.5 Additions_to_Networking The 4D1-3.2 release provides these additions to networking: o On Power Series multiprocessor systems, the processor which receives network interrupts can be reassigned. - 5 - The variable network_processor in the file /usr/sysgen/master.d/kernel defines this processor. Processor numbering begins at 0. On multiprocessor systems, the default is to use processor 1. To reassign the network processor, change this value and use lboot(1M) to create a new kernel. On single processor systems, the default value of 0 must not be changed. The specified processor receives all interrupt levels which are generated by networking devices, including all Ethernet and HyperNET VME boards. Currently, this is only IRQ4. If any unsupported VME boards which generate IRQ4 are installed in a multiprocessor system, the network processor should be reassigned to 0 to insure compatibility with the software driver. 4.6 Additions_to_the_Graphics_Library 4.6.1 NURBS With the IRIX 3.2 software release comes a major new GL feature: direct rendering of Trimmed Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline Surfaces. This new feature is offered through a combination of software, firmware, and hardware on all IRIS-4D platforms. NURBS surfaces and trimming curves of up to 8th order are supported (except for the Personal IRIS which supports up to 4th order surfaces). Tessellation of trimmed NURBS surfaces is based not only of the shape and the view, but also on a user-settable parameter which controls the size of polygons generated. This gives a smooth speed/quality tradeoff that the user may adjust adaptively. Routines supporting this new feature may be used in both immedate mode and display-list mode. This interface is compliant with the PHIGS+ specification. The new routines are: bgnsurface bgntrim endsurface endtrim getnurbsproperty setnurbsproperty nurbscurve nurbssurface pwlcurve See the Graphics Library Programmer's Guide for more information. - 6 - 4.6.2 Rendering o colorf is a new GL routine to specify fractional colorindex values using floating point arguments. Use it to draw shaded colorindex images. o logicop (only on the Personal IRIS with RE2) is a new GL routine to specify logical operations to be performed on pixels drawn by graphic primitives. 4.6.3 Anti-Aliasing Release 4D1-3.2 expands drawing of antialiased primitives and includes the new feature of subpixel positioning for point, line and polygon vertices. Certain capabilities may not exist on all hardware configurations (see manual pages for details). o pntsmooth is a new GL routine to cause all points to be drawn with antialiasing. o linesmooth allows you to set antialiasing of lines on or off. New development should use linesmooth instead of smoothline. o subpixel is a new GL routine to invoke subpixel positioning of all lines and points, typically used with linesmooth and pntsmooth for highest quality of line and point drawing. 4.6.4 Lighting lmcolor (Personal IRIS and GT) provides a quick way to change the properties of the current material. 4.6.5 Event_Queue There is a new device, called QFULL. When it is queued, a QFULL event will be inserted in the event queue of a GL program at the point at which a queue overflow occurred. The QFULL event will be returned by qread(3G) at the point in the input queue at which data was lost. 4.6.6 Menus o setpup is a new routine that allows you to affect the display characteristics of a pop up menu. It allows you to grey out entries that you don't want to be active, then later re-enable them without recreating the whole menu. o defpup and addtopup calls now understand a %l option for an entry. It will place a seperating line between entries in the menu. - 7 - 4.6.7 Windows swinopen is a new GL routine which creates a subwindow, or a window within another window (called the parent of the subwindow). Subwindows maintain a fixed geometrical relationship with their parent window, that is, the subwindow moves as the parent window is moved. 4.6.8 Graphics_Peripherals o videocmd is a new GL routine which initiates command transfers to video peripherals. Use this to initialize and request frame transfers from the Live Video Digitizer option board on the GTX o IRISphere devices have been added to o STR_RECT is a sybol definded for use in setmonitor/getmonitor to support StereoGraphics stereo hardware. This new video mode allows 1280x492x2 resolution. 4.6.9 Configuration/Compatibiltiy o getgdesc is a new GL routine that allows a program to inquire about characteristics of the graphics system upon which it is running. Use this to configure your software at run time based upon the capabilities of the current graphics system. o glcompat: A new compatibility mode has been added: GLC_ZRANGEMAP. It controls whether the domain of the z-range arguments to lsetdepth, lRGBrange, and lshaderange is graphics system dependent or independent. o gversion now recognizes the RE2 and Turbo Graphics on the Personal IRIS. >>>>>>>>>> 3.2 Release notes, Chapter 5 >>>>>>>>>> - 1 - 5. Changes This chapter describes changes to IRIX, graphics, networking, 4Sight, and Program Development tools in system software release 4D1-3.2. 5.1 Changes_to_IRIX The 4D1-3.2 release includes these changes to IRIX: o The sysadm versions of backup and restore are no longer supported. These utilities have been replaced with new tools, which are documented in Appendix A, ``Backing Up and Restoring Your System'' and Appendix B, ``Recovering From a System Crash'' o The beer backup utility is no longer supported. o Printer device support has been modified for software release 4D1-3.2 to comply more closely with System V rules for printer drivers. Some of the lp commands now have different pathnames and might have additional options. When you update to software release 4D1-3.2, remove your old printer definitions. Then re-install the printer definitions using the Printer Administration tool, which is included with the System Manager. See the IRIS-4D System Administrator's Guide for more information about using the System Manager. Old printers will still work even if you don't perform this procedure. However, administering printer definitions in the future will be more difficult. o snapshot(6D), a tool to save a portion of the screen in an image file, replaces snap(1G). snapshot is much easier to use. o Several changes have been made to the libmalloc routines that are available when a program is linked with the -lmalloc or -lmpc (the multiprocessing library) directives. Two options have been added to the mallopt(3X) routine, which allows user control of malloc's allocation algorithm. When malloc(3X) requires additional space it uses the sbrk(2) system call. It always requests enough memory for the current malloc request rounded up to a minimum block size: that size can now be specified via an M_BLKSZ argument to mallopt. - 2 - Additionally, malloc will now abort its search for a free block of memory and call sbrk(2) for memory to satisfy a request after it has searched 100 blocks to no avail. The number of blocks to search can be changed by calling mallopt to change the M_MXCHK parameter. Along with the above change, various algorithmic changes were made to reduce fragmentation and to speed up memory coalesing when memory is returned via free(3X). The changes now ensure that memory allocated to the user will always be (minimally) double-word aligned. o The Extent File System code in IRIX has been enhanced in software release 4D1-3.2 to support files bigger than 256 megabytes. In the new software, files are limited by the size of the disk (the largest Silicon Graphics currently ships has 1.2 Gbytes unformatted capacity) and the fact that offsets into the file are represented by 32-bit integers. The 32-bit limitation puts the ceiling at 2 Gbytes. o The IRIX kernel has been enhanced to allow pages of page table entries and user structures in the kernel to be pageable. This means fewer pages are wired down by the kernel, so that in situations where the system is short on physical memory, more memory is available to hold user program text and data. o The graphical system monitor, gr_osview(1), has been significantly enhanced. It provides additional information, much more flexible display modes (including strip charts) and is configurable from a command file to make the greater flexibility easy to use. Refer to the gr_osview(1) manual entry for a ---------- end of Part 1