🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1990Sep6.172900.5859@lavaca.uh.edu> jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend) writes:
>
>They sure did.  But no one I know has a copy yet.  When will it
>be publicly available? 

The next sentence of my append partially answered the question:  third 
quarter 1990 for Objective C (as part of NextStep).  For C++, I'd suggest
contacting Oasys directly.  

>How is the performance of the 3d card compared to the 2d card?

Yep, without a graphics adapter the systems have no graphics capability
at all ... perfect for environments where the system will be configured
as a server or ASCII host only.  No need to pay for what you don't need!

The additional capabilities of the 3-D cards are useful primarily in a GL 
environment.  You can run X and GL applications simultaneously on the 3-D 
adapter.  I think the quote is 100,000 shaded polygons per second on the
3-D card.  The 2-D adapters are great for X and NextStep, where the 3-D
capabilities of the more expensive cards are not exploited.

Here's some detail from the announcement material:

           GRAYSCALE GRAPHICS DISPLAY ADAPTER (#2760):  The Grayscale Graphics
           Display Adapter provides support for an IBM 8508 19-inch monochrome,
           analog non-interlaced; 1280 X 1024 67Hz graphic display.  16
           concurrent shades of gray may be displayed from a palette of 256
           shades of gray.  This adapter occupies one card slot in the Micro
           Channel and is an AT (R) form factor card.
            (R) Registered trademark of International Business Machines
              Corporation.
           CHARACTERISTICS:
           o   4-bit pixels, 16 concurrent shades of gray
           o   Palette of 256 shades of gray
           o   Programmable two-plane sprite cursor (three gray shades out of
               256 shades of gray and transparent mode)
           o   1-bit per pixel mask map allows both rectangular and
               non-rectangular scissoring
           o   1-bit per pixel maps are color expandable to 4-bits per pixel
           o   Integer coordinate system
           o   Maximum of two per system.
           COLOR GRAPHICS DISPLAY ADAPTER (#2770):  The Color Graphics Display
           Adapter provides support for 16-inch, 19-inch and 23-inch, analog
           non-interlaced; 1280 X 1024 60Hz color graphic displays.  Two hundred
           and fifty-six concurrent colors from a palette of 16.7 million colors
           may be displayed.  This adapter occupies one card slot in the Micro
           Channel and is an AT form factor card.  The cable from the adapter to
           the display is included and is 2.5 meters (8 feet) in length.
           CHARACTERISTICS:
           o   8-bit pixels, 256 concurrent colors
           o   16.7 million colors palette
           o   Programmable two-plane cursor (three colors out of 16.7 million
               colors and transparent mode)
           o   1-bit per pixel mask map allows both rectangular and
               non-rectangular scissoring
           o   1-bit per pixel maps are color expandable to 4-bits per pixel
           o   Integer coordinate system
           o   Maximum of two per system.
           HIGH-PERFORMANCE 8-BIT 3D COLOR GRAPHICS PROCESSOR (#2780):  The
           High-Performance 8-Bit 3D Color Graphics Processor provides support
           for 16-inch, 19-inch and 23-inch analog non-interlaced; 1280 X 1024,
           60Hz color graphic displays.  Two hundred and fifty-six concurrent
           colors may be displayed from a palette of 16.7 million colors.  This
           adapter provides higher function than the Color Graphics Display
           Adapter and a modular approach to graphics.  This feature requires
           two card slots in the Micro Channel.  The cable from the adapter to
           display is included and is 2.5 meters (8 feet) in length.
                  Only one color graphics processor per system may be installed.
                  This base feature provides an 8-bit, 256 color, 2D and 3D
           adapter.
                  Two optional features are available for the High-Performance
           8-Bit 3D Color Graphics Processor (#2780).
                  The optional 24-Bit Z-Buffer Solid Rendering Option (#2782)
           provides for hidden line and hidden surface removal and enables
           smooth surface rendering.
                  The other optional feature, the 24-Bit Color Graphics Frame
           Buffer Upgrade (#2783) (this is a field only upgrade), provides an
           additional 16-bit buffer, 16 sets of 256 concurrent colors, two
           additional overlay planes, two additional window control planes, and
           24-bit "true color." The 16 sets of 256 concurrent colors provide for
           defining colors in separate windows to keep the colors consistent
           when the cursor is moved from window to window.  Color modes
           supported by this option are single or double buffered 8-bit, single
           or double buffered 12-bit, and single buffered 24-bit frame buffer
           modes.
                  The two optional features plug on to the adapter cards and do
           not occupy additional card slots.
           CHARACTERISTICS:
           o   16.7 million color palette
           o   8-, 12-, 24-bit color modes
           o   24-bit Z buffer
           o   Two or four overlay planes
           o   Two or four window control planes
           o   Support for arbitrarily shaped windows
           o   Support for multiple, colored, local and infinite lights
           o   Support for diffuse, ambient, and specular (Phong) lighting
               models
           o   Support for flat and smooth (Gouraud) shading
           o   Support for dithered RGB shading
           o   Support for anti-aliased lines
           o   Support for backface polygon removal
           o   Support for 6-axis clipping
           o   Support for depth cueing
           o   Support for pan and zoom of images
           o   Programmable cursor two-plane (three out of 16.7 million colors
               and transparent mode)
           o   Integer and 32-bit floating-point coordinate systems.
           HIGH-PERFORMANCE 24-BIT 3D COLOR GRAPHICS PROCESSOR (#2781):  The
           High-Performance 24-Bit 3D Color Graphics Processor (#2781) is the
           same as the High-Performance 8-Bit 3D Color Graphics Processor
           (#2780) with the addition of the 24-Bit Color Graphics Frame Buffer
           Upgrade (#2783) as a standard feature.
                  Only one color graphics processor per system may be installed.
                  One optional feature is available for the High-Performance
           24-Bit 3D Color Graphics Processor (#2781).
                  The optional 24-Bit Z-Buffer Solid Rendering Option (#2782)
           provides for hidden line and hidden surface removal and enables
           smooth surface rendering.
           CHARACTERISTICS:  The High-Performance 24-Bit 3D Color Graphics
           Processor (#2781) characteristics are the same as the
           High-Performance 8-Bit 3D Color Graphics Processor (#2780) with the
           following additional enhancements:
           o   8-, 12- or 24-bit pixels, 24-bit "true color"
           o   16 sets of 256 concurrent colors
           o   Four overlay planes
           o   Four window control planes
           o   24-bit Z buffer.

Sam Drake / IBM Almaden Research Center 
Internet:  drake@ibm.com            BITNET:  DRAKE at ALMADEN
Usenet:    ...!uunet!ibmarc!drake   Phone:   (408) 927-1861