🚀 go-pugleaf

  We have just received a VAX8000 workstation as a donation from DEC (can
you say tax write off?).  For those who don't know what that is (was?),
it is a 3D workstation developed jointly by DEC and Evans&Sutherland which
was released in early 1988 and within a couple of weeks of its introduction
the two companies had a major falling out and it was yanked from the market.
Through a long and drawn out process, we have managed to get one donated
(we have almost zero funds right now for capital equipment and are in very
bad need of some number crunching power) and we would like to make the most of
it.  I'll be writing a couple 3D animation programs to analyze and display human
motion (our lab does clinical and research evaluations of human gait in
3D using 6 camera VICON system, I already have alot of stuff running on
a MicroVax), but mostly we'll be using the 8250 cpu in the 8000 for number
crunching.
  I know that writing software specific to the 8000 is a dead end, but we
feel obligated to do at least a few things to use its capabilities.  Does
anyone have an 8000 or know someone who does ?  Any pointers on software
which is available for it would be most helpful (I'm not too optimistic
about there being any but it's worth a try :-)  Also, how compatible (or
more appropriately incompatible) is the HPWS windowing system in the 8000
with DECwindows ?  The preliminary documentation I've seen (the computer
showed up with no documentation !) says that HPWS is based on X windows.

Thanks for any information...

____________________________________________________________________________
What is the world coming to when people are obligated to include disclaimers
with everthing ?  In that spirit, anything expressed here was not said by
anybody.  Period.

Dwight Meglan, Phd-in-training/Research Engineer
Ohio State University Hospital
Gait Analysis Laboratory
1054 Dodd Hall
471 Dodd Drive
Columbus, OH 43210  USA (614)293-3808   Email: meglan%gait1@eng.ohio-state.edu