Industry Standard Interfaces; Graphics Hardware - Compaq AP750 - Professional - 256 MB RAM Manual

Graphics: The Workstation Difference
growth, coupled with increased flexibility and the ability to support new algorithms, makes using
software implementations on extremely fast processors the best choice.
Compaq's graphics provide support for both views. The Alpha processor in the Professional
Workstation XP1000 is powerful enough to deliver application performance exceeding that of
high-end geometry accelerator/graphics accelerator combinations on other, less high performance
platforms.
On the other hand, specialized hardware can speed many graphics operations and provide greater
system performance, although at a greater cost. An example of this is the PowerStorm 600,
which accelerates both graphics rendering and geometry and lighting calculations. Used on the
Intel processor based SP700 workstation, the PowerStorm 600 delivers higher graphics
performance with full Intel processor software compatibility.

Industry Standard Interfaces

By using common interfaces, Compaq graphics insulate applications software from underlying
hardware, providing flexibility to match graphics performance to user needs. In fact, the
implementation of these key interfaces allows the applications to not only run on a variety of
graphics hardware platforms, but to automatically take advantage of the full graphics acceleration
potential of the hardware -- with no changes to the software.
Industry standards address 2D graphics, 3D graphics, video, and hardware requirements. The 2D
graphics are included in the base windowing system, which is part of the operating system. Thus,
2D graphics are provided by X-Windows on UNIX systems, and by Windows on Windows NT
systems. 3D graphics are provided through OpenGL, the leading open systems interface for high
end graphics.

Graphics Hardware

Graphics system design requires optimization of graphics, software, computer systems, user
requirements, market demands, and the interactions between these factors. An optimal, high
performance, cost effective total system balances them all.
Cost
Figure 1: Moving graphics functions into hardware
Figure 1 shows the general relationship between performance and cost for a range of graphics
functions that are often implemented in hardware. Graphics hardware options range from 8-bit,
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Smooth Shading
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Z Buffer
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24 Bit Double Buffer
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24 Bit Frame Buffer
Performance
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Display Lists
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Shadow, Reflection,
Refraction...
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Lighting
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Transformation
Texture Mapping
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