From: Robert Jacobson Subject: TECH: Sapphire board specifications Date: Mon, 26 Jul 93 22:14:32 -0700 Crossposted from the WELL (192.132.30.2) vr conference Topic 49: Hardware for VR #254: David Frerichs (frerichs) Mon, Jul 26, '93 (13:11) 49 lines (This is what you get when you accidentally mark a topic "forget" in 1991!) This is a response to the concerns about the published Sapphire performance quotations. The Sapphire performance quotations are accurate under context. While we can achieve the specified performance rates, that rate does not represent "usable" performance. The number specified 100 pixel Gouraud shaded polygons/second. That number does not take into account Z-buffering, A-buffering (transparency), varied polygon size, simulation management, etc, etc, etc. (i.e. usable) As was stated in topic 150 (I think), Sapphire delivers between 15K and 20K USABLE polygons/second. Also, as was discussed in the benchmarking topic, we are refocusing our performance efforts from "raw" polygon numbers to relative FPS numbers measuring during benchmark simulations. Raw numbers are meaningless out of context, what is important is performance in an actual application. Anyone who is interested in comparative performance is invited to develop a CDK-based application (or WTK when Sense8 makes WTK Core available) and we will gladly run it on Sapphire and measure the FPS. This number can then be compared to the same simulation running on competitive systems. This will eliminate the guesswork of "how do these performance quotations relate to my real application?". Sapphire's list price is $5000. It is important to keep in mind that not only does Sapphire offer superior performance, but it also has more features and up to date architecture. SPEA performance numbers are usually quoted under flat shading. This is because they to not have a dedicated pixel processor and therefore have poor Gouraud fill and bitblt numbers. Sapphire's graphics processor has the fastest constant shaded, Gouraud shaded, A-buffer, bitblt and clear numbers available in its market. Anyone interested in seeing Sapphire perform can visit Autodesk's booth at Siggraph 93 in Anahiem from August 3 to August 5, 1993. Sapphire will be running Cyberspace Developer Kit/3D Studio demonstrations on the show floor. After Siggraph, interested parties are invited to visit my office in Mountain View, CA to see Sapphire in action. If you would like to schedule a visit or if you have any questions at all, please call me at 415.335.3315. -dfRERICHS David Frerichs Executive VP Future Vision Technologies, Inc. 701 Devonshire Drive Champaign, IL 61820 217.355.3031 (fax) frerichs@well.sf.ca.us