Nekochan Net

Ran across an interesting, if not slightly dated <circa 2001>, comparison between an Onyx2 with IR graphics and nVidia GEforce2, Quadro2MXR, and TNT graphics boards. The tests were done at the Electronic Visualization Lab <EVL> of the University of Illinois at Chicago.


Browsing around that site lead to another point of interest, EVL invented the CAVE virtual reality theater in 1992, a technology sometimes powered by SGI hardware. I'm not sure how much SGI hardware is still in use there, but I did find a student guide on the use of the editing suite with mention of using Orion/Sirius and VCP.

Any current/former students in the house who could offer any insights or comments?

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SGI still does new CAVE installations, even today.

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Very interesting, I like that benchmark, would like to know if there is something bit newer Fuel or Terzo vs. GF FX, 6800, etc. :->

When time permits I'll run a IR4 vs Quadro FX 5600. Mostly numbers problably won't favor the IR4, but there still might be a few surprises!

SGI just finished installing a CAVE for us this past month.

If it's permissible, I'd be interested to read what components are in a recent SGI Cave and how they're configured. While I'm asking, most of the photos you see of a cave are of the display(s) - it'd be nice to see some of the underlying hardware. There's a photos <and a brief slideshow> at EVL, but you really can't see very much detail.

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Ran across a few more cave links including some that might interest gamers. Paul Rajlich, a research programmer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications <NCSA> ported a virtual-reality version of Quake II to Cave powered by a twelve processor, four-pipe Onyx2.

Here's an interview with Paul Rajlich on Gamespot.com , and some additional info by Rajlich hosted on NCSA's site.

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