Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!walt.cc.utexas.edu!greg
From: greg@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Transputer Graphics Board
Keywords: whiz bang
Message-ID: <33682@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 10 Jul 90 05:49:54 GMT
Sender: news@ut-emx.UUCP
Reply-To: greg@walt.cc.utexas.edu (Greg Harp)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 70

I may have missed this in my absence, but has the Digital Animation Productions
Video Graphics Transputer been discussed here?

Looking in my SCOPE magazine (Dallas-area users group -- The Society of
Computer Owners and PET Enthusiasts (puts a date on this group!)) I see
two articles on it.

Here is a paraphrased set of specs from the two articles:

The board comes with one T800 Transputer and a G300 Color Video
Controller.  There are a stock 2MB of RAM for EACH of these two chips.

The board is capable of 512 X 512 to 8192 X 8192 resolutions at 24 bits.
The board apparently produces some sort of video output at 1280 X 1024.

With some sort of (unexplained) optional other transputer board, this thing
is capable of 1K X 1K ray-tracing in about 7 seconds.  W/O the other board,
it take about 5 mins for the same.

I quote:  "The VGT operates at 10 RISC MIPS, with floating point speeds of
1.5 MFLOPS.  The board can draw 19MB of image per second, and can perform
bit-block operations (blit) up to 8MB in size."

The other Transputer board may be the SANG board which is discussed in the next
paragraph, which when fully loaded with T800s and RAM will pull 120 RISC MIPS.
Prices are listed as $6000 for the VGT.  The SANG with one T800 and
(either 2MB or 4MB -- not clear) RAM goes for $2000.  A SANG with four T800s
and 16MB runs $7000.  You can use FOUR of the fully populated SANGs
together!

The second article says that 8K by 8K imaged would require the four SANGs,
but that the result would be a theatrical-quality animation studio (with
SCSI film recorder) for about $20000, which is better than the current industry
amount of "several hundred thousand dollars".

These people are apparently trying to get the current Amiga ray-tracing s/w
adapted to the board (they were apparently trying to get the author of
Aegis/Oxxi's AniMagic s/w during the interview).

The address listed for this company is:

Digital Animation Productions
1010 Thatcher St.   Suite 16
Boston, MA  02113
(617)720-2038

Anyway, this sounds like really exciting stuff!  I don't consider the price
too steep considering the alternatives, and this is at least at the level of
anything PIXAR has produced. (And if you haven't been impressed by a PIXAR
production, then you plain can't be impressed!)

So, what has anyone else heard about this little wonder?

What, if any, competitors exist?  What about comparable (don't laugh)
PC or Mac boards?  Why doesn't CBM know about this? (or do they and are they
just sitting on it?)

I NEED ANSWERS!!!!! :-)

Well?

...greg...


        ___  Disclaimer:  The opinions expressed above are not my own, but
AMIGA! ////  the property of some higher-up power, to which I am only a tool.
      ////     "Welcome, my son.  Welcome to the machine." -- Pink Floyd
___  //// "Reality is only a simulation, and it's still in beta testing." -- Me
\\\\//// 
 \\XX//            Greg Harp                greg@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu