---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash SunPHIGS 1.4.1 SunFLASH Vol 35 #23 November 1991 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the first of two PHIGSs announcements. -johnj ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- *********************************************************************** * * * SunPHIGS 1.4.1 * * Full GT Accelerator Support * * - Best stroke anti-aliasing in the industry * * - (comparable to vector stroke displays) * * - Image anti-aliasing for presentation quality display * * - Alpha or Screen Door Transparency * * - Stereo (binocular) viewing of geometry within X windows * * - Wide-stroke end-caps and join style controls * * * * Improved Functionality * * - Improved quick updates * * * * Higher Quality * * - Many fixes to reported problems have been incorporated * * * *********************************************************************** SunPHIGS 1.4.1 is an incremental release to SunPHIGS 1.4 which adds GT accelerator support. In addition some bugs were fixed and performance of quick update methods was enhanced. SunPHIGS 1.4.1 enables full support of the GT accelerator. This enables applications to take advantage of the GT's high performance and advanced graphics features, including anti-aliasing, transparency and stereo. As the API extensions for this support were included in SunPHIGS 1.4 but not yet enabled, there is no change to the API or to the documentation (except the RTF) with this release. As with SunPHIGS 1.4, SunPHIGS 1.4.1 will only be available on CD-ROM. Please verify that your customer understands that they will need a CD player to be able to install SunPHIGS 1.4.1. SunPHIGS 1.4.1 will obsolete SunPHIGS 1.4, which in turn obsoleted SunPHIGS 1.3. FEATURES AND BENEFITS --------------------- GT Support The GT accelerator is fully supported by SunPHIGS 1.4.1. This includes support for: Best stroke anti-aliasing in the industry Comparable to vector stroke displays, the GT's stroke anti-aliasing provides high quality dynamic wireframe images. An environment variable can be set to change the default width-1 stroke rendering to anti-aliased, so the GT's anti-aliasing can be enabled for programs written with earlier releases of SunPHIGS -- recoding isn't necessary. Image anti-aliasing for presentation quality display Image anti-aliasing removes polygon "jaggies" for presentation quality static images Alpha or Screen Door Transparency - Compatible with PHIGS PLUS transparency coefficients in earlier releases of SunPHIGS Stereo (binocular) viewing of geometry within X windows - Geometry (PHIGS CSS) is entirely unchanged, only an enabling workstation attribute (set once) and the workstation view representations for the left eye need be added for stereo viewing. Wide-stroke end-caps and join style controls Improved Functionality: Improved quick updates API Binary Compatibility and Dynamic Libraries-- SunPHIGS 1.4.1 maintains upward API compatibility with releases 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4. Even though SunPHIGS 1.4.1 extends the API to add new functionality, it does not alter the part of the API that existed for both SunPHIGS 1.2 or SunPHIGS 1.3. This means that 1.2 and 1.3 applications do not require any coding changes in order to take advantage of the performance and quality enhancements offered in release 1.4.1. Developers who are currently using SunPHIGS 1.3 or 1.4 with dynamic linking only need to install the SunPHIGS 1.4.1 libraries and runtime files. Developers who are currently using SunPHIGS 1.2 need to relink to the new SunPHIGS 1.4.1 libraries. Furthermore, the SunPHIGS API is the same for SunPHIGS 1.4 and SunPHIGS 1.4.1. Therefore, anyone that coded to the GT extensions in SunPHIGS 1.4 will only need to load SunPHIGS 1.4.1 in order to get the GT functionality. SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE CONSIDERATIONS ------------------------------------ o SunPHIGS 1.4.1 supports the following hardware and software: CPUs: Sun 4 OS: OS4.1 and OS4.1.1 GFX rev 1 or 2 Window System: Sunview Accelerators: GX, CXP, GXplus, GS, GT o GFX-4.1.1 rev. 2 is required to support GXplus, GS and GT systems on SunOS 4.1.1. o SunPHIGS 1.4.1 is a SunView release--SunPHIGS 2.0 (which is currently in beta) will be the first OpenWindows release. o SunPHIGS 1.4.1 is distributed on CD media only. U.S. PRICING AND ORDERING INFORMATION THE FOLLOWING ITEMS APPEAR ON THE END USER AND RESELLER PRICE LISTS (SunPHIGS 1.4.1 replaces and uses the same order numbers as SunPHIGS 1.4) Short Order List Discount Same Day Description Number Price Category Service Price =============================================================================== CD-ROM, single RTU, docs PHI-1.4-4-4-21 $3,600 A $20 SunPHIGS Manuals PHI-1.4-X-X-9 $ 150 A n/a Single RTU PHI-X-X-X-0 $3,300 A ORDERING INSTRUCTION -------------------- - Order only for use with SunOS 4.1 or SunOS 4.1.1 - Make sure customer has appropriate GFX, if needed: o GFX-4.1-01 is required to run SunPHIGS 1.4.1 on SunOS 4.1 o GFX-4.1.1-02 is required to support GXplus, GS and GT systems on SunOS 4.1.1. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For information send mail to info-sunflash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. Archives are on solar.nova.edu and paris.cs.miami.edu. All prices, availability, and other statements relating to Sun or third party products are valid in the U.S. only. Please contact your local Sales Representative for details of pricing and product availability in your region. Descriptions of, or references to products or publications within SunFlash does not imply an endorsement of that product or publication by Sun Microsystems. John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. (305) 776-7770.