New IBM Graphics Workstations

[Kathy Kuba]

> / hpfcdj:comp.sys.sgi / ciemo at bananaPC.wpd.sgi.com (Dave Ciemiewicz) / 12:10 pm  Jul 30, 1990 /
> In article <1990Jul29.165033.22289 at portia.Stanford.EDU>,
> dhinds at portia.Stanford.EDU (David Hinds) writes:
> > In article <9007261139.AA05802 at aero4.larc.nasa.gov>
> blbates at AERO4.LARC.NASA.GOV ("Brent L. Bates AAD/TAB MS361 x42854") writes:
> > >
> > >    The last I heard was that the IBM's were comparable to the bottom
> > >of the SGI line, 4D/20 with minimal graphics.
> > >--
> >     The IBM RS6000's have several levels of graphics support.  The 8-bit
> > color 3D graphics level is quoted as doing 90K 3D vectors/sec, and 10K 3D
> > polygons/sec.  The 24-bit color 3D graphics system is quoted as doing
> > 990K 3D vectors/sec and 120K 3D polygons/sec.
> 
> Has it been released yet or is it still vaporware?  Something else to
> consider is that IBM's high-end graphics board is an IBM proprietary
> and does not run the GL.
> 


An IBM rep at SIGGRAPH told me that GL and GraPHIGS both run across
their entire 3D line, which includes the PI boards.  If you have 
contradictory information, I am very interested in learning more.

> 
> >     For comparison, SGI says a base IRIS 4D/50 with 8 bit planes does
> > 140K vectors/sec and 5.5K polygons/sec.  An IRIS with GTX graphics is
> > supposed to do 475K vectors/sec and 100K polygons/sec.
> 
> Don't forget the VGX system's 1M vps and 1M pps.  This board uses the GL
> unlike IBM's top-o'-the-line.
> 
> >     It is not obvious how to compare the figures, however.  The IBM
> The graphics performance numbers for the Personal Iris and GT graphics systems
> vps are based on 10 pixel, connected, full 24-bit color, arbitrary orientation
> 

2D or 3D vectors?

Kathy