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From: windemut@lisboa.tmc.edu (Andreas Windemuth)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.visualization
Subject: Re: Biomedical field?
Summary: NeXT computer for visualization
Message-ID: <1990Nov8.020108.11026@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 8 Nov 90 02:01:08 GMT
References: <1470@vtsai2.sai.vtt.fi> <1990Nov7.193654.7665@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Sender: windemut@lisboa.ks.uiuc.edu (Andreas Windemuth)
Organization: Theoretical Biophysics, University of Illinois, Urbana
Lines: 68


andyrose@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Andy Rose) writes:

> <Pardon the rambling nature of this note, consider this some free think>
Likewise ...

> If a seemingly strong commitment to graphics, if judged by the size of
> Tek's booth at SIGGRAPH, can vanish, where do graphics people put their
> "beans"?  IBM (RS6000), Silicon Graphics, Stardent,souped up apples?

    One possible solution to advanced scientific visualization
    that comes to my mind is the NeXTdimension board from
    NeXT computer Corp. We are definitely considering this
    machine for the visualization of macromolecules here.
    
    A list of the features of such a system 
    ($20k educational with 16M RAM and 2.8Gb Disk)
    includes full 24 bit colour plus 8 bit alpha, 
    60-80 MFlops graphics performance (an i860),
    30,000 Polygons per second (Gouraud shaded)
    and actual live video capture, storage
    and playback. The latter would make all the expensive
    video equipment that is usually associated with 
    scientific visualization obsolete, as the NeXTdimension
    board is supposed to be able to digitize live video,
    store it on disk, do any editing in software using an 
    application with a friendly user interface and output
    the result as a high quality video signal. Generating
    animations with rendering software such as Renderman
    would also be possible.
    All that is needed in the way of video equipment
    is a VCR to put final edited videos (of which up to 60min
    can be stored on 2.8 Gbytes of disk) on tape.
    The VCR can supposedly be connected to the board with
    a standard video cable (both RGBS and Composite).

    Given that the NeXT is a full-blown workstation and
    has the most progressive software development
    environment on the market (especially compared with
    that of Silicon Graphics, Stardent or Sun), it would seem
    to me that the NeXTdimension machine is superior
    to any other configuration that I can think of
    costing three times as much, not even considering 
    the video  feature. 
    
    One problem with this setup might
    be the (as yet) unavailability of ready-to-go software packages.
    Having tried my hand at Wavefront, though, I must say
    that I would prefer custom coding in NeXTstep
    to using this awfully kludgy package. 
    On the other hand, maybe I just don't know it well enough.
    AVS is more in the spirit of NeXTstep, and I suppose
    that NeXT (or some third-party developer) are planning
    to implement something like that in the future.
    
    IMHO, if there is any machine/philosophy
    for doing Visualisation and Animation already evident
    at this time that could be "sailing into the 21st
    century", chances are it's the NeXTdimension system.
    
    Even though I might not sound like that, I have no 
    connection to NeXT other than as a very satisfied customer.
    
Andreas Windemuth
Theoretical Biophysics Group
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
3121 Beckman Institute
405 N. Mathews, Urbana Illinois 61801