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A solids modeling engine for the IBM PC AT can generate vector (Wireframe) graphics, solid graphics, and floating point calculations. Using the IBM professional graphics controller, the WTE 7100 from Weitek Corp. features a vector-processing speed of up to 6,500 pixels per second and solid graphics processing speeds of up to 60,000 shaded pixels per second. The board set, costing from $3,000 to $4,000, has a processing rate of eight million floating point operations per second and can be microprogrammed. A photograph of the board set is included.

Sprites, bit-mapped tables of shapes stored as planes in memory, are used for graphics animation where speed and simple programming are required. Sprites come in different sizes, different scales of expansion, and vary in the number of planes depending on the computer. They are plotted on the screen according to an x and y coordinate. A low level plane takes precedence over higher planes making the lowest sprite shape a foreground object which will move on top of the higher level sprite. Screen displays show animation with sprites, diagrams of a sprite table and images broken down into sprite planes. A video chip capable of supporting thirty-two different sprites, the Texas Instruments TMS9918, is described in an insert.

The Macintosh personal computer (PC) is unique for its high- resolution graphics and other state-of-the-art sophisticated capabilities. The Motorola 68000 32-bit microprocessor-based PC boasts monochrome graphics display of 512 by 342 dots and mouse control. The list price of Macintosh is $2,495, and a photograph is shown.

The move into bit-mapped graphics came about after the introduction of the 7220 Graphics Display Controller (GDC) in 1981. Devices such as the TMS9918 from Texas Instruments are expected to replace these less sophisticated devices. Features that the TMS device offers include 256x192 pixel resolution, 15 color display, animation, and 3-D simulation. Other companies, such as Lexidata and Jupiter, have gone to custom ICs with their 8100 color graphics terminal and their Graphics Engine respectively.

RING accelerates PostScript processing speed for newspapers SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Hoping to accelerate the acceptance of PostScript in the newspaper business by increasing the processing speed of the sometimes sluggish […]