Table of Contents
Advertisement
Document ECG026/0498
W
P
HITE
APER
. .
. .
3D-RAM is a new technology used for the Frame buffer and Z-buffer memory on the Fire GL.
. .
This design includes a small arithmetic logic unit in the DRAM that performs a number of the
. .
calculations locally. This improves performance by reducing traffic to and from memory.
. .
. .
. .
The Fire GL uses CDRAM (Cache DRAM) for the texture memory. This technology provides a
. .
small SRAM cache built into the DRAM. This high-speed cache provides a buffer for texture
. .
. .
between the controller and the DRAM memory, which reduces data access times and ultimately,
. .
increase graphics performance.
. .
. .
With all of the Fire GL' s high performance features, it can deliver performance exceeding the
. .
. .
throughput capabilities of the PCI bus. One component of the Highly Parallel System Architecture
. .
in the Compaq Professional Workstation 6000 and 8000 is dual peer-PCI buses, which eliminates
. .
. .
the potential PCI bus bottleneck to provide improved throughput and overall system performance
. .
when compared to single bus implementations.
. .
. .
The Fire GL 4000 comes standard with 15 MB of 3D-RAM for frame buffer and Z-buffer
. .
. .
memory, 16MB of CDRAM for texture memory, and 1 MB DRAM Frame Buffer memory for the
. .
CIRRUS Logic 5446 VGA controller. The maximum resolutions, colors, and refresh rates are
. .
. .
outlined in the chart below; other resolutions are selectable:
. .
. .
Table 7: Fire GL 4000 double buffered resolutions
. .
. .
Double Buffered
. .
. .
Capabilities
. .
Resolution; Max Colors
. .
. .
1280 x 1024; 16M
. .
. .
1024 x 768; 16M
. .
. .
800 x 600; 16M
. .
640 x 480; 16M
. .
. .
. .
Fire GL 4000 Features
. .
. .
. .
Features of the Fire GL 4000 graphics controller include:
. .
Support for major industry 3D APIs, including
. .
OpenGL –- Open Graphics Library is a software interface to graphics hardware developed by
. .
. .
Silicon Graphics Inc. The Fire GL supports OpenGL 1.0 under Windows NT 3.51 only and
. .
OpenGL 1.1 under Windows NT 4.0 only.
. .
. .
Direct3D – A set of APIs for real-time 3D graphics that are an addition to the Microsoft
. .
DirectX interactive media technologies. They provide a comprehensive 3D solution for
. .
. .
software developers building interactive media programs and games. Fire GL 4000 support
. .
for this API under Windows 95 will be provided at a later date.
. .
. .
Heidi – 3D API from Kinetix (an AutoDesk company) that provides an immediate 2D and 3D
. .
mode drawing interface for 3D Studio Max. Support for Windows NT 3.51 and 4.0 is
. .
. .
available immediately. Support for Windows 95 will be provided at a later date.
. .
BigFocus Display list drivers – Provide performance acceleration for AutoCAD R13.
. .
. .
3D-Win – 3D viewer software for AutoCAD R13, Windows NT and OpenGL
. .
On-board VGA support with CIRRUS Logic 5445 VGA chip for full-screen DOS box support
. .
. .
on Windows NT Workstation 3.51 and 4.0.
. .
Hardware accelerated 3D, 24-bit Z-buffering for realistic depth perception and texture
. .
. .
mapping.
. .
Full, 32-bit RGBA double buffering for smooth animation by allowing the next image to be
. .
created in off-screen memory while displaying the current image.
. .
. .
Gouraud shading for smooth surfaces.
. .
Texture mapping for creating realistic images.
. .
. .
. .
16
. .
Fire GL 4000
Max Hz
85
100
120
120
Advertisement
Table of Contents
