PEX and PHIGS Version 4.1 for AIX

Industry standard 3D graphics rendering

Contents

• Highlights
• About the PEX API products
• About the PHIGS API
• PEX and PHIGS Version 4.1 for AIX operating environment at a glance

The PEX and PHIGS Version 4.1 for AIX^(r) product offering provides three-dimensional rendering capa- bilities for the RISC System/6000^(r) (RS/6000(tm)) workstation family. This includes support for PEX 5.1 and PHIGS on a wide variety of graphics accelerators through either software or hardware.

These application programming interfaces (APIs) provide a suite of advanced graphics functions that can be utilized to develop complex 3D applications in areas such as industrial design, computer-aided design and manufacturing, engineering analysis, and scientific visualization.

Highlights

PEX and PHIGS Version 4.1 for AIX provides a variety of benefits including:

• A wide range of graphics functions from drawing simple geometry to sophisticated rendering of complex surfaces
• Open API standards designed for portability and interoperability of applications across platforms
• Example programs, application development tools, and online hypertext information

About the PEX API products

The IBM^(r) PEX products provide interoperability for 3D graphics functions in networked heterogeneous environments. PEX supports immediate mode, as well as retained and mixed mode rendering, via a hierarchical graphical database manager called the structure store.

The PEX-Interoperability Center (PEX-IC) is a multi-vendor organization established to allow IBM and other PEX vendors to test early releases and verify conformance within a distributed environment. At the PEX-IC, vendors can ensure that application-generated protocol produces the same visual results on all PEX platforms. The PEX protocol offers distributed client-server support through APIs such as IBM graPHIGS(tm) or the X Consortium standard PEXlib.

IBM supports the Common Graphics Environment PEX 5.1 Extensions (CGE PEX 5.1). CGE offers users increased portability and early access to some PEX 5.2 functionality, including texture mapping, antialiasing, transparency, and new drafting primitives. CGE also requires several functions, which are optional on PEX 5.1.

PEXlib 5.1 is accelerated on the POWER Gt4e(tm), Gt4i(tm), Gt4xi(tm) and the GXT1000(tm). It also is supported on most entry-level RS/6000 graphics accelerators through Softgraphics. Softgraphics is a highly tuned software implementation of the geometry processing pipeline, the raster subsystem, and the pixel processing pipeline. The performance of Softgraphics scales with CPU processor performance.

IBM PEX products technical content

• Basic primitives:
  • 2D and 3D text
  • Markers
  • Lines
  • Polygons
• Extended drafting primitives:
  • Circles and circular arcs
  • Ellipses and elliptical arcs
• Advanced primitives:
  • Triangle strips
  • Quadrilateral meshes
  • Fill area sets (SOFAS)
  • Concave and multicontour polygons
  • Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) curves
  • Trimmed and untrimmed NURBS surfaces
• Hierarchical structure store including:
  • Object inheritance and attribute sharing
• A networking protocol including:
  • Server-side implementation of lighting, shading, modeling, and viewing transformations with retained structures
• User-defined clipping volumes
• Antialiasing of primitives
• Depth cueing and fog
• Transparency
• Texture mapping
  • Texture creation from array or window
  • Texturing of "with-data" primitives
  • Replacing or blending with the primitive's intrinsic color
  • Interpolation based on perspective correction criteria
• Utilities for creating colormaps, extended visuals, and windows

About the PHIGS API

The IBM PHIGS products include the graPHIGS API and PHIGS language bindings, based on the ISO/ANSI Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics System (PHIGS) standard. This offering also includes a number of PHIGS PLUS functions, such as independent lighting and shading controls, advanced primitives, and extended rendering attributes.

The PHIGS API is accelerated on the POWER Gt4e, Gt4i, Gt4xi, and the GXT1000. It is also supported on most entry-level RS/6000 graphics accelerators through Softgraphics.

PHIGS API technical content

• Basic primitives:
  • 2D and 3D text
  • Markers
  • Lines
  • Polygons
• Advanced primitives:
  • Triangle strips
  • Quadrilateral meshes
  • Concave and multicontour polygons
  • Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) curves
  • Trimmed and untrimmed NURBS surfaces
• Line-on-line highlighting
• User-defined clipping volumes
• Antialiasing of primitives
• Transparency
• Dithering
• Morphing
• Texture mapping (as a subset of PHIGS PLUS data mapping)
• Explicit traversal control (for immediate and mixed mode rendering)
• Archiving
• Conferencing
• National Language (font support):
  • Unicode standard
  • Traditional Chinese
  • Hanual (Korean)
  • Kanji (Japanese)

In addition, this offering also includes PHIGS example programs, application development tools (including a font editor, debugger, and tutorial), an installation verification program, and online hypertext information.

In summary

IBM's stand-alone offering of PEX and PHIGS Version 4.1 for AIX provides maximum flexibility in graphics API choice. These APIs support ad- vanced 3D graphics functions across IBM's graphics family, providing customers with a wide range of systems that can be configured to meet their specific workstation needs.

PEX and PHIGS Version 4.1 for AIX operating environment at a glance

Supported adapters

• POWER GXT100(tm)
• POWER GXT150(tm)
• POWER GXT150L(tm)
• POWER GXT155L(tm)
• POWER GXT150M(tm)
• POWER Gt3i(tm)
• POWER Gt4e
• POWER Gt4i
• POWER GT4xi
• POWER GXT1000 (Models 001 and 002)

Programming requirements

• IBM AIX Version 4.1

Options for 5696-907 PEX and PHIGs Version 4.1 for AIX

• Feature 4001 (basic license)
• Feature 4003 (upgrade from IBM AIXwindows^(r) 3D feature 5601-257)
• Feature 4500 (upgrade from IBM AIXwindows 3D feature 5601-257 when ordered in conjunction with 5696-939 OpenGL(tm) and GL 3.2 Version 4.1 for AIX)

You can also call 1 800 IBM-4FAX (1 800 426-4329) and more information will be faxed immediately to your location.

If you have access to the Internet, you can find additional information on IBM's Worldwide Web server at http://www.ibm.com

^(r)

AIX, IBM, and RISC System/6000 are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.

(tm)

POWER Gt3i, POWER Gt4e, POWER Gt4i, POWER Gt4xi, POWER GXT100, POWER GXT150, POWER GXT150L, POWER GXT155L, POWER GXT150M, POWER GXT1000, and RS/6000 are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation.

All other products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

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Photographs show engineering and design models. Changes may be incorporated in production models.

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G221-4281-00 / G2214281