Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ames!hc!lanl!pxl
From: pxl@lanl.gov (Peter Lomdahl)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Request for comments on Pixar and TAAC
Summary: Comments on Pixar II
Keywords: Pixar, TAAC, framebuffer
Message-ID: <12857@lanl.gov>
Date: 28 Apr 89 19:47:32 GMT
References: <9400@watcgl.waterloo.edu>
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lines: 45

In article <9400@watcgl.waterloo.edu>, dmmartindale@watcgl.waterloo.edu (Dave Martindale) writes:
> 
> The only suitable hardware I know of at the moment is the Pixar Image
> Computer, the Pixar II, and the Transcept/Sun TAAC-1 board.  If anyone
> has used one or more of these and has any comments about them, I'd
> really appreciate hearing from you.  

I just took delivery of a Pixar II image computer and I'm trying to get up
to speed using it. My requirements are a little different than yours, - I
want to do movie-loops of regular 2D and volume rendered data. Anyway, here
are some of my impressions.

(1) The installation of the Pixar II is relatively easy. It goes basically
like the instructions say. I had one problem with the configuration of
the driver for the high-speed-interface in the kernel. I called Pixar
customer support and my problem was fixed. It turned out that the
documentation was wrong. The person that I talked to seemed quite
knowledgeable about the product.

(2) I'm in the process of getting some of my own data up on the Pixar, and
I was indeed faced with the problem you mention. It isn't entirely obvious
which is the best way of doing things. I guess it takes about a 3-4 days
careful perusal of the documentation to get familiar with things and decide 
what will do the job for you. I hope I'm doing the right thing now :-) - 
I'm using picio(3H). I'm so far pleased with the tight UNIX-like 'feel'
of the software.

(3) It is my impression that it would not be too much of a problem to use
the off-screen-memory (OSM) for you application. I'm certainly planning on
doing just that for movie-loops, and there is a program called 'tileblast'
that does that. Also, there is a demo program that does an image-roam on
a 2Kx1K picture. I suspect it wouldn't be too hard to modify that to
take advantage of OSM. Another possibility you might consider - if you
budget allows it - is to get the parallel transfer disks. I've seen them
demoed on a 16Kx16K image-roam - that was quite impressive. They run
about $50K list for 1 Gbyte. Btw, the Pixar I takes 192Mb now.

(4) Some people here have TAAC boards, and it's my impression that the
user interface (the integration with SunView) makes them easy to prototype
on. On the other hand these people are also complaining about the limited
8M of memory.

I'll let you know more when I get a little more experience with the Pixar.

-- Peter Lomdahl -- Los Alamos National Laboratory -- pxl@lanl.gov