HP Professional AP500 Graphics: The Workstation Difference - Page 4

Graphics: The Workstation Difference 4 Styling requirements include the manipulation of large datasets, and the use of sophisticated graphics algorithms -- like advanced lighting models and texture mapping -- for the highest possible level of realism. In many ways, styling is as much an artistic endeavor as it is an engineering problem. Scientific visualization has been one of the driving forces in high-end graphics. Many types of scientific analysis can best be understood when the results are shown graphically. An example that may be familiar is molecular modeling. Most people have seen computer images of molecules containing a few dozen or so atoms represented as balls. Much more challenging for both researchers and computers is molecular biology, where the goal might be to show one molecule of 50,000 atoms (I think this goes too deep)docking with another molecule of 30,000 atoms! In addition to manipulating this much raw data, the researcher needs to rotate and view the molecules and animate the motion of docking. Delivering smooth animation of this amount of data is critical to enable researchers to understand the interaction and behavior of the molecules. Another type of scientific visualization used in the petroleum industry involves determining the shape, volume, and characteristics of underground structures. This reservoir modeling processes massive amounts of seismic data to produce a complex 3D dataset. Display of this data requires manipulation of 3D volumetric data and use of texture mapping to show the characteristics of underground structures. With costs for drilling wells ranging up to several million dollars, an investment in tools which improve analysis of underground structures is extremely easy to justify. High energy physics, computational fluid dynamics, large scale weather forecasting, multispectral satellite data analysis and many other scientific fields demand the utmost computer power for analysis and the highest levels of graphics performance to convey results. These demanding applications are best supported by on multiprocessor or AlphaPowered workstations with the fastest available processors are recommended, plenty of memory and high performance storage and PowerStorm 300 or 350 graphics are recommended. On Intel based Compaq Professional Workstations where shaded image performance is critical, the geometry accelerated PowerStorm 600 is the best choice. To effectively support the requirements of these demanding applications, graphics needs to be considered as part of a complete workstation system -- not as an isolated piece of hardware. The next section takes a closer look at the total system approach to application demands. Graphics: The Total System Approach. Key to understanding the role of graphics hardware is a simple observation: all graphics operations can be done in software. Any picture that can be produced by high end graphics hardware can be produced entirely in software with just a simple frame buffer for display. Through OpenGL, applications use the same software interface and graphics functions, independent of graphics hardware in use. While all graphics can be done in software, this is not a solution to the broad needs of the graphics community as it does not deal with high performance 3D. Though the same image can be produced with any of the graphics options, there are major differences in how fast images can be produced, and in graphics movement that can be produced. A specialized type of hardware called a graphics accelerator speeds up graphics operations. Compaq offers a family of graphics accelerators, providing similar graphics features and functions at several levels of performance, thus matching user requirements. For many years, the graphics community has debated the role of graphics accelerators. Some think specialized graphics hardware is the performance winner. Others believe that general purpose processors are on a more rapid performance growth curve, and that this performance 0054-0499-A