EVANS & SUTHERLAND (E&S) have launched the ESIG-4500 image-generator series to replace the present ESIG-2000 and -3000. Deliveries will begin in January 1996. The company has also moved to make it easier and quicker for customers to develop databases for its visual systems.
The new machine generates more surface polygons and moving models and introduces range buffering, a technique for determining which objects in a database are occulted by others. The pixel fill-rate (the speed with which images are drawn) has also been increased.
The ESIG-4500 has a peak performance of 8,300 polygons/channel at a 60Hz update rate, an increase of 40-60% over the -2000/3000. The first in the series from Evans & Sutherland are the -4520, a single-channel machine to replace the -2000, and the -4530, replacing the -3000 and expandable to multiple channels.
E&S says that the ESIG-4500 incorporates improved hardware and software, including memory chips with four times the previous capacity. Features developed for the high-performance ESIG-4000 are incorporated, including global texture - a technique for generating photo-specific or photo-typical images covering large areas.
Source: Flight International
