Re: Pf 1.2 & 2.0, IRIX 5.3 & 6.0, OpenGL

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Michael Jones (mtj++at++babar)
Wed, 22 Feb 1995 09:53:29 -0800

On Feb 22, 8:20am, Carlo L. Tiana wrote:
> Subject: Pf 1.2 & 2.0, IRIX 5.3 & 6.0, OpenGL
:
:We have a 'mission-critical' :-) application written under Performer
:1.2, IRIX 5.2/5.3 and GL, which runs too slowly (CPU-bound) to be
:useful to us right now. We purchased a PowerIndigo 2 (R8000) to try
:to improve the speed problem (since it is floating point stuff that
:holds us up). Now we are having to make it run optimally on that
:platform.
:It is my understanding that the order of business to achieve this is:
:
: - port to OpenGL
: - (minor?) port to Performer 2.0 (do Performer calls pretty much remain
: unchanged between 1.2 and 2.0?)
: - (very minor?) tuning for IRIX 6.0 (if any at all).
:
:Am I broadly correct?
:If so, I have a few more questions (pushing my luck), to help me figure out
:how portable between different SGI boxes the resulting application will be:
:
: - is Performer 2.0 available for IRIX 5.3
: - are GalileoVideo and the VideoLibrary fully supported and functional
: under IRIX 6.0?

Answers:

IRIX 6.0 supports both 32-bit and 64-bit applications. Only 64-bit
applications use the multiply-accumulate instruction, if-conversion,
and the extra floating-point registers. Presumably, 64-bit is where
it's at for you.

As it happens, only OpenGL is supported for 64-bit operation. 32-bit
applications can use either IrisGL or OpenGL. Since you will be
wanting the increased CPU performance derived when using the
64-bit MIPS-IV instruction set, you will be using OpenGL.

The IRIS Performer 2.0 release will support 64-bit, OpenGL operation.
In fact, it supports all three combinations of OpenGL/IrisGL and
32-bit/64-bit (the other choice, 64-bit/IrisGL is not available)

IRIS Performer 2.0 will run with either IRIX 5.3+ or IRIX 6.0+, with
the same API in both 64-bit and 32-bit modes, and with few API
differences in the OpenGL version. 64-bit operation requires
IRIX 6.0+, of course.

If you have no draw-callbacks, the port to OpenGL should be very
easy for you. If you have no draw callbacks and use the existing
IRIS Performer 1.2 X-window input model (a.k.a. "perfly -x")
then the port will be nearly effortless.

You may end up wanting two versions of your application. One
that's 64-bit MIPS-IV, R8000 maximized; and one that's 32-bit
MIPS-II that runs everywhere. This second version could be
either OpenGL or IrisGL depending on your desires; the first
version must be OpenGL-based due to 64-bit operation.

-- 


Be seeing you,      Phone:415.390.1455  Fax:415.965.2658 M/S:8U-590
Michael T. Jones    Silicon Graphics, Advanced Graphics Division
mtj++at++sgi.com         2011 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mtn. View, CA 94039-7311

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