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From: koopman@a.gp.cs.cmu.edu (Philip Koopman)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: The 3G Machine
Summary: the third G is pixels/second
Keywords: user-interface bandwidth
Message-ID: <3405@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Date: 27 Oct 88 16:38:02 GMT
References: <470@oracle.UUCP>
Sender: netnews@pt.cs.cmu.edu
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 25

In article <470@oracle.UUCP>, csimmons@hqpyr1.oracle.UUCP (Charles Simmons) writes:
> As we all know, Steve Jobs help popularize the concept of the 3M
> machine; a machine with 1 Megabyte of memory, 1 "Mips" of processing
> power, and a 1 Megapixel display.  (The machine was also supposed to
> cost minimal numbers of dollars.)
> In some sense, these types of machines are fairly common (even
> though the 1 Megapixel display still costs a lot).  So, I'm interested
> in thinking about the 3G machine.

> But what I'm really interested in is, what's that third G?
> A gigapixel display?  That's something like 30,000 by 30,000
> pixels.  How big does the display need to be in order that all
> of the pixels produce information that can be perceived by a
> human?  Or maybe it would be a 3-D display, 1Kx1Kx1K pixels
> on each side?

How about gigapixels/second.  Animation is the key to interaction,
and interaction is the key to understanding.  A 2Kx2K display
at 1 gigapixels/second would update at 250 frames/second,
which is probably overkill.  How about multiple screens updating
at, say 25 frames/second?

  Phil Koopman                koopman@maxwell.ece.cmu.edu   Arpanet
  5551 Beacon St.
  Pittsburgh, PA  15217    
PhD student at CMU and sometime consultant to Harris Semiconductor.