Graphics Workstation Standards Standards Writers Play a Game of Catch-Up in an Ever Changing Industry

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November 1988 niCDI DU ------.._- Vol. 4, No. 11 -----._ ------._.._._--- --

Workstation markets Non-Profit Organ ization Workstation displays U.S. Postage PAID Graphics standards Phillipsburg, N. J. Permit No. 187 =Official Monthly Publication of the Society for Information Display IIITUni•Jn I lUll

NOVEMBER 1988 niCDI DU VOL. 4, NO. 11 ~ =---==- =-:::::-- --=~== = --=-~ Cover: Engineering workstations are powerful design tools that can also pro 5 Editorial vide compelling design environments-as shown in this prize-winning photograph 8 Workstations-new environment, new market by Ken Gatherum of Boeing Computer The engineering workstation-possibly the most influential new Services Richland, fn c. Cheri Scott design tool of the decade-is still evolving in response to (in photo) worked with colleagues market needs and technical advances. Rick Gerald and Jennie DeVine a1 the Weslinghouse Hanford Company to Paul T. Breen design the displayed 3D graphics model of 11 Displays for workstations the Hanford 100-N nuclear reactor's graphite core stack so the reactor's chain Will the color shadow-mask CRT serve for the workstation of reaction can be optimally moderated when tomorrow? Or will some other technology supplant it? operating conditions change. Hugh C. Masterman 15 Graphics workstation standards Standards writers play a game of catch-up in an ever changing industry. Charles Hafemann 18 Sustaining Members 18 Index to Advertisers 19 Software Notes 20 ID Classified

Photo: Ken Gatherum

Next Month in Information Display

1988 Technology Roundup • CRTs • Flat displays: plasma, EL, LCD • Large displays • Printers

Information Display II 188 J : Ollictal Monthly Publtcatton of the Soctely lor Informal ton Otsplay iDrunl•ln 1 iuil ntc;p1 11'1

Editor: Kenneth I. Werner Pictures to the people-squared Managing Editor: Hildegarde Hammond Contributing Editor: Ronald Cohen Departments Editor: Lynne A. Henderson Cynics aside, the explosive growth of computing Art Director: Hildegarde Hammond with pictures stems not only from the tendency Advertising Manager: Jay Morreale of our universities to graduate students who are District Sales Managers: Ted Lucas both illiterate and innumerate. Even skilled (West), Tom Barron (Midwest), Becky wordsmiths and equation mongerers manipulate Akers (East) graphics interfaces and images with a remark able, intuitive proficiency. And well we should. Editorial Advisory Board As children, we manipulate mud pies, not the Dr. Ifay F. Chang, Chairman equations that describe their shapes. Put those Director of Research mud pies on a workstation display and provide Institute of Systems Science the tools to change their displayed shapes directly, and engineers can National University of Singapore have their childlike intuition restored to them. Dr. Frederic J. Kahn But graphical computing, and the overlapping displayed windows that Vice President Greyhawk Systems, Inc. have grown up with it, places heavy demands on display and graphics Koh-lchi Miyaji technology. In this issue, Paul Breen provides an overview of worksta Professor tion technology, and Hugh Masterman challenges the display industry to Shibaura Institute of Technology follow where that technology is leading. Despite the vitality of personal Jan Rajchman workstations, the market for them has barely been penetrated. One rea Consultant son, says Chuck Hafemann, is the lack of an adequate nonproprietary Aron Vecht graphics interface. In our third article, he sketches the history of graphics Consultant standards and tells us that the long-awaited solution is nearly at hand in the form of PHIGS +. Pictures to the people who compute may be a revolution still in its INFORMATION DISPLAY (ISSN 0362-0972) is published monthly for the Society for Information Di splay by Palisades In · early stages, but the broadcasting of pictures to people who wish to be stitute for Research Se rvices, Inc., 20 1 Varick Street, New York, NY I0014; David Slater, Chief Executive Officer; Leonard H. entertained and informed has already transformed the world. The major Klein, President ; Harold R. Su mm er, Vice President ; Hildegarde technical issue in broadcast television today is whether those pictures Hammond, Secretary; Laura Mangone, Treasurer. EDITORIAL AND BUSINESS OFFICES: Palisades Inst itute are of sufficiently high quality. If you are in the habit of viewing your fo r Research Services , Inc., 201 Varick Street, New Yo rk, NY 35-mm slides next to your television screen, the answer is obviously no. I0014; telephone 212/ 620-3371. Send manuscripts to the atten tion of the Editor, ID. "Near-35-mm quality" has become the rallying cry of those who feel DISTRICT SALES OFFICES: WEST-Ted Lucas, P .0. Box 852, Cedar Glen, CA 92321; telephone 714/ 337-6627. Tom Brokaw's warts should be seen more clearly. The result has been a MIDWEST-Tom Barron, Pattis/ 3M, 476 1 West Touhy variety of proposals for advanced television systems (ATV). On Septem A venue, Lincolnwood, IL 60646; telephone 3121679-1100. EAST -Becky Akers, Pattis/ 3M, 310 Madison Avenue, Suite ber 1, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission issued a "Tentative 1804, New York, NY 1001 7; telephone 212/ 953-2121. Decision and Further Notice of Inquiry'' concerning advanced television SID HEADQUA RTERS, fo r correspondence on subscriptions and membership: Society for Information Display, 8055 West systems in the United States. The FCC concluded that any ATV system Manchester Avenue, Suite 615, Playa del Rey, CA 90293; telephone 213/ 305-1502. adopted for terrestrial transmission (as opposed to direct satellite or cable SUBSCRIPTIONS: Information Display is di st ributed without distribution) must operate within the presently allocated TV transmission charge to those qualified and to SID members as a benefit of membership (annual dues $35.00 U.S. & Canada; $50 elsewhere) . frequency bands and must be compatible with existing sets. The FCC Subscriptions to others: U.S. & Canada: $36.00 one year, $64.00 two years, $90.00 three years, $3.00 single copy; elsewhere: said it wishes to encourage A TV systems and keep regulatory baggage to $72.00 one year, $128.00 two years, $180.00 three years, $6.00 a minimum. s in ~ l e copy. PRINTED by Sheridan Printing Company, 1425 Third Avenue, Thus, of the contending systems, only the Japanese NHK MUSE-E Alpha, NJ 08865. Third-class postage paid at Alpha, NJ. system, which uses a 9-MHz incompatible channel, is disqualified. This POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Society fo r Informa tion Di splay, 8055 West Manchester Avenue, Sui te 615, Playa del surprises nobody, least of all NHK, which also has compatible systems Rey, CA 90293. PERMISSIONS: Abstracting is permitted with credit to the under development. Nonetheless, the other proponents of compatible sys source. Libraries are permitted to photocopy beyond the limits of tems can take deep breaths because MUSE-E (after 17 years of work) is the U.S. copyright law for private use of patrons, providing a fee of $2.00 per article is paid to the Copyright Clearance Center, 21 the most highly developed of all the proposals. In fact, 200 selected Jap Congress Street, Salem, MA 01970 (reference serial code 0362-0972188/$2.00 + $0.00). Instructors are permitted to anese households viewed the Seoul Olympics on MUSE-E receivers-200 photocopy iso lated articles for noncommercial classroom use more than used any other advanced system. without fee. This permission does not apply to any special reports or li sts published in this magazine. For other copying, reprint or republication permission , write to Society for In fo rmation Di splay, 8055 West Manchester Avenue, Suite 615 , Playa del Rey, CA 90293 . continued on next page Copyright 0 1988 Society for Information Di splay. All rights reserved. Information Display 11 188 5 SID Executive Committee editorial President: L. E. Tannas, Jr. Vice President: W. F. Goede Treasurer: P. M. Heyman Secretary: A. I. Lakatos

Directors, Regional Representatives, continued from previous page and Past President Now comes the hard part: selecting from among the competing com Bay Area: H. Sherman patible systems. In addition, the FCC has tossed at least two jokers into Canada: J . Wright the deck by inquiring into the feasibility of (1) not setting any regulatory Dayton: R. Holmes standard, and (2) adopting an open-architecture-receiver approach (Para Delaware Valley: S. Filarsky graph 122). Detroit: Z. Yaniv Europe: C.J. Gerritsma Would an open-architecture receiver be digital? Would it use a VME Japan: M. Ashikawa bus? Will my PHIGS + graphics board fit into my Dumont advanced tel Los Angeles: P. Baron evision? My questions are not entirely serious, but the point is . If the Mid-Atlantic: H. Funk FCC is inclined to escape from its standards-setting responsibilities by us Minneapolis/ St. Paul: T. Werner ing open architecture as a getaway car, someone will still have to stan New England: D. Heller San Diego: R.E. Thoman dardize the bus that ties the open architecture together. U.K. & Ireland: A. Woodhead· However the technical issues confronting workstation and television Past President: J. A. van Raalte designers are resolved, makers of display, graphics, and video systems Committee Chairmen are not likely to face a shortage of new challenges or new opportunities. Academic: L. Weber, L. Todd, Jr. Archives/Historian: R.C. Knepper -Kenneth I. Werner Bylaws: A. Silzars Chapter Formation: J. Erskine Definitions & Standards: P. Keller Acknowledgement: I would like to thank Jack Fuhrer, director of television research at the Honors & Awards: W. Howard David Sarnoff Research Center, and William Glenn, director of the Science and Technol IDRC-P. Pleshko ogy Research Center of the New York Institute of Technology, for invaluable information Int'l. Symposium-T. Credelle and insights concerning advanced television systems. However, they should not be held re Intersociety: W. Hamilton sponsible for the opinions I've expressed. Membership: T . Nelson Nominations: J. A. van Raalte Publications: T . Curran Proceedings Editor: S. Sherr Information Display Editor: K. I. Werner Publicity: J. Price Group Formation Workstations-R. Schmahl Hard Copy-W. Lloyd

Chapter Chairmen Bay Area: C. Infante Canada: A. Moffat Dayton: W. Watkins Delaware Valley: R. Seifert Detroit: J. Erskine Japan: S. Kobayashi Los Angeles: P. Baron Mid-Atlantic: D. Ketchum Minneapolis/ St. Paul: V. Born New England: W. Hamilton San Diego: J. Lipscombe Total in-house design, manufacturing, U.K. & Ireland: N. Bartlett and testing capabilities Office Administration Magnetic shielding and shielding grade alloys Headquarters Office Manager: Bettye Burdett of all types ... Send for our latest product literature Society for Information Display 8055 W. Manchester Ave ., Suite 615 ,1;/fWf'I AA~/~~f RADIATION Playa Del Rey, CA 90293 U' fi~I~VV

Circle no. 5 6 Information Display 11/88 Workstations-new environment, new market

BY PAUL T. BREEN

WoRKSTATIONS are an integral part processing between two and ten million sharing via a network is assumed. These of today's industrial society. While the instructions per second (MIPS), extensive functions are typical of personal comput workstation industry itself is less than 10 mass storage, and access to remote com ers, and many workstation vendors are years old, its products have been cast into putational and storage services via a local now offering them through emulations of a broad array of tools that designers use area network complete the basic worksta specific popular personal computers. daily. A workstation enables its user to tion package [Fig. 1]. The second category involves the crea increase productivity in familiar tasks and U.S. Census figures show that three tion and manipulation of high-resolution to perform new tasks that could not even million professionals are potential work graphic pictures in either two or three di be contemplated prior to the introduction stations users. Market research indicates mensions. Generally, "3D capability" of this technology. that 62,000 workstations were installed in refers to 2D displays utilizing perspective The most dramatic of these is nothing 1986, and that just a year later the num to show 3D objects. But recent entries in Jess than a major change in the design ber of workstations had doubled. While the workstation market offer 3D stereo culture. A designer can now simulate, in some of the market will be serviced by displays. tegrate, and test potential designs for ma low-end personal computers, a significant chines, tools, and software before any number of professionals will require the The soul of the machine thing is actually produced. Going even power of a purpose-built engineering A workstation's hardware consists of a further, manufacturing processes can be workstation. graphics subsystem and a host computer integrated with design and testing. Here, Users generally expect their worksta subsystem. The graphics subsystem con the proposed design is placed within a tions to perform functions in two broad tains an image generation unit that con computer-accessible file that can be as but distinct categories. The first involves verts display commands from the host sessed by all members of the design, test, the generation of reports through word into the bit pattern stored in the refresh and manufacturing team. The integration processing and related support software, buffer memory array- a process called process often uncovers nonfunctional communication via electronic mail, and scan conversion or rasterization. The re manufacturing operations before any the running of spreadsheets. Resource- fresh buffer maintains the current content tooling has been ordered, before any metal has been cut, before any photoresist has been exposed. Table 1: Trendgram of 3D Graphics Picture Complexity What are they, and for whom? The most obvious feature of workstations Flat-shaded Gouraud-shaded is a stylized user interface incorporating non-Z-buffered Z-buffered push-down, pull-up menus and appropri Date CPU (MIPS) (polygons/ sec) (polygons/ sec) ate graphic symbols-called icons-to in dicate operator functions. High-resolution September 1987 2 SK IK color displays, 32-bit microprocessors January 1988 10 27.5K 5.5K

Paul T. Breen is a department head at April 1988 10 600K 120K The MITRE Corporation in Bedford, Massachusetts. He is well-known as a January 1989 40 2M 400K watcher of and commentator on the workstation industry. Source: M. Zyda, Naval Postgraduate School

8 Information Display 11188 of the display image, with one or more resolutions on the order of 1280 X 1000 bits of memory corresponding to each pixels with up to 24 bits/ pixel are rou picture element on the display surface. tinely available today in a variety of CRT The video generator unit triggers the peri sizes ranging up to 19 in. on the diagonal. odic readout of the refresh buffer's con Graphics system CRTs typically provide tent, thus refreshing the display surface. 60 Hz refresh rates (noninterlaced). The video generator also generates the Larger CRTs of up to 25 in. diagonal control signals needed to convert this data with the same performance are available. stream into a displayed image. An inter call Very-high-resolution graphics monitors action control section accepts operator in (2000 lines x 2000 pixels), some with sur 2 puts for processing by the application face areas of approximately 400 in. , are program. available from third parties. These moni The workstation's host computer sub tors should be available in workstations system can be a single microcomputer, a within the next few years, assuming an in cluster of supercomputers, or anything in creasing demand for this capability. between. The host subsystem generates The bus is the means by which infor appropriate display commands for the mation is passed internally between the graphics subsystem on behalf of applica various portions of the workstations. Photo: Tektronix, Inc. tion programs. It also processes interac Fig. 1: A typical workstation incorpo Three buses are in common use today: tion requests for operator inputs and rates a windowed icon-based interface, a VME, Multibus and the proprietary Qbus. forwards these requests to the application high-resolution color display, a 32-bit mi The two public buses support bandwidths program. croprocessor, and extensive mass storage. on the order of 10 Mbits/ sec, while the Each workstation contains a general Connection to other workstations and DEC Qbus supports bandwidths in the purpose central processing unit along with shared resources via a local area network range of 2 Mbits/ sec. associated support chips. The 32-bit Mo completes the package. Input devices range from mice and torola 68000 microprocessor family is one touch panels through keyboards, track of the more commonly implemented mi balls, and cursor controls. crocomputers employed in workstations in the relative performance (and price) of today. The quest for additional perform two workstations utilizing the same host Command, communication, and open ance fosters the development and adop processor. architecture tion of faster chips. The 68020 is Workstations are typically provided Users are finding that software and net currently popular, and the 68030 has re with random access memory ranging from work capabilities-including graphics cently been introduced. But not satisfied 2 to 32 Mbytes. Memory management and standards, operating systems, window with the pace of performance gains from caches- fast temporary memories for fre managers, networks, and network file sys new chips, workstation manufacturers quently used data-are employed to im tems-are increasingly important to a have introduced a variation on classic prove efficiency. Recognizing that workstation's function. Therefore, users computer architecture known as the Re memory demands in the mid-1990s may will increasingly need to plug new work duction Instruction Set Computer (RISC). well approach multiple gigabytes and that stations into their existing networks and This design provides for a much smaller application programs may exploit many run their existing software on them. set of instructions than are typical in con gigabytes of that memory, caching and As a result, three conditions are needed ventional mini- and microcomputers, and memory management will become increas for the development of a viable worksta it offers substantially greater computa ingly important vehicles for delaying a tion market. First, there is a need for tional speed. Four times the speed of con workstation's obsolescence. open architecture to provide for the ventional processor designs of the same Current workstations may contain local needed interfacing of workstation hard class has been claimed. fixed discs with storage capacities ranging ware and software by independent third A workstation's processing power is from 70 to 380 Mbytes. Discless configu parties using publicly defined interfaces. frequently characterized by the speed, in rations are also available for users who Second, there is a need for heterogeneous millions of operations per second (MOPS) wish to share discs located elsewhere on multivendor workstation networks that or millions of floating-point operations their networks. With optical discs now en can provide individuals with access to the per second (MFLOPS), with which it per tering the market, the data bases locally computational and storage assets within a forms certain benchmark programs. Be available at each workstation can be ex specific network. Third, the market cries cause of the large number of multipli pected to grow by one or two orders of out for reliable reusable software. cation operations needed to create a typi magnitude. Recent studies show that software engi cal workstation's graphic presentation, Ethernet and the Institute of Electrical neering resources within the United States floating-point performance is critical (and and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.3 are greatly overtaxed and likely to remain some benchmark programs are designed local area network interfaces dominate the so, despite the use of high-level languages. to be floating-point-calculation intensive). workstation market today. These systems Established graphics standards could aid Recognizing this, designers often incorpo support data bandwidths on the order of in resolving this problem because they rate within their workstations a special a few Mbits/ sec. would allow common application software processor known as a floating-point accel Workstation monitors are dominated by to be run on a number of workstation erator. The relative effectiveness of these CRT technology, and this is expected to platforms resulting in lower cost per ap accelerators can make a large difference continue for the next decade. Addressable plication. Even greater efficiency would

Information Display II / 88 9 result from an ad hoc standard operating of UNIX. Vendors of proprietary operat the past 18 months by a single worksta system that would allow access to UNIX ing systems for workstations are develop tion vendor [Table 1]. The polygons-per as well as proprietary operating systems. ing ways of accessing UNIX. second metric indicates a rapid growth in Three graphics standards are available The window manager presents a com graphics rendering capability. The growth today: Graphical Kernel System (GKS), prehensive view of the resources available of computational capability tracks this in Programmer's Hierarchical Graphics to the workstation user regardless of crease at a lower rate, with 10-MIPS Standard (PHIGS), and Computer Graph whether these resources are local or re workstations entering the market within ics Interface (CGI). PHIGS, which is just mote to the workstation itself. Two win the next few years. The next five years beginning its evolutionary cycle, is aimed dowing systems are commercially could bring us truly real-time heterogene at 3D applications, while GKS is focused supported-the X-Window system and ous networks. Combined with this, we on 2D. (CGI is an increasingly popular NEWS. There is a move in the industry to should also expect to see 100-Mbits/ sec ANSI low-level graphics standard inter merge the capabilities of both systems local area networks in the form of fiber face that supports basic graphics opera into one product. data distribution networks. With added tions.) Graphics standards have chiefly One of the benefits of a workstation improvements in processing capabilities, been developed by and for an industry network is the transparency of on-line re real-time animation will be possible using that has been developing CAD/CAE/ sources, enabling the user, for example, solid models with a graphics standard CAM applications. As a result, they are to execute an application program in a re layer to support software portability. not necessarily optimized for other appli mote workstation. Network standards and cations, such as real-time ones. Several network-transparent distributed file sys vendors offer extensions that provide the tems provide for file transfer across net required features, but the effect of these works of heterogeneous workstations Notes extensions is to obviate the portability im without requiring recompilation. This article is a condensed version of the plied by the term "graphics standard." workstation tutorial presented by the au The most popular operating systems for Trends thor at the 1988 Society for Information workstations are variations of UNIX. A short-term view of workstation trends Display International Symposium. A writ POSIX is an IEEE standard which is be is illustrated by the performance data for ten version of the tutorial appears in Vol. ing developed to deal with the variations four workstation products offered over 2 of the SID '88 Seminar Lecture Notes. 8

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Circle no. 7 10 Information Display 11/ 88 Displays for workstations

BY HUGH C. MASTERMAN

T.E DEVELOPMENT of personal work stations has radically altered the nature of human-computer interaction. And because graphics have become the preeminent mode of interaction for workstation ap plications, workstation evolution has been both fostered and constrained by display technology. The earliest workstations used the newly developed high-resolution raster CRT monitors to provide a radically new user interface. The later development of high-resolution shadow-mask color CRTs established the current standard fo r work station displays [Fig. 1]. But several application areas are chal lenging the adequacy of this standard. These new requirements are being satis fied by alternate display technologies, but at the expense of generality. The challenge to the display industry is to bridge these requirements with a single technology and thereby establish a new standard worksta tion display. The workstation concept In early batch-processing machines, the primary mode of man-machine interaction was paper-punched cards for input; cards and line printers for output. With the rise of interactive time sharing in the 1960s came alphanumeric terminals. The

Hugh C. Masterman is an associate de partment head at The MITRE Corpora tion, Bedford, Massachusetts, where his focus is in the areas of display technology 3 for U. S. Air Force C programs. He was Ph oto: Sun Microsystems, Inc. formerly vice president, engineering, for Fig. 1: Today 's de facto standard workstation display is based on a 19-in.-diagonal DISCOM, a manufacturer of display full-color shadow-mask CRT and has sufficient resolution for an effective windowed components and subsystems. user interface.

Information Display I 1188 I 1 This view had several implications for the display system that was to implement the interface. First, the display surface would have to be larger than that used for conventional alphanumeric terminals. Sec ond, the display technology should readily support area fill and masking to imple MAINFRAME DATA ment multiple objects or "windows" on the screen surface. Third, the display should have sufficient resolution to dis play multiple alphanumeric and graphical ---,-- objects concurrently. The area fill require 1 ,---r------+---1 ment, coupled with the rapid drop in the I I I cost of high-speed semiconductor mem I A/N GRAPHICS I ory, led to the adoption of bit-mapped I TERMINAL TERMINAL I I I graphics and matrix (or raster) display de I I vices as the standards for workstation use. I USER POSITION I CRT raster monitors offered the only L------~ viable solution to these requirements in the late 1970s, but presented several limi tations that had to be overcome. Magnetic deflection components were inefficient at the high deflection frequencies (over 50 kHz) required to achieve !-million-pixel Fig. 2: Interactive mainframe architectures are characterized by a low-bandwidth con (1000-line) resolution. Semiconductor de nection between the host processor and graphics generator. vices capable of implementing the re quired 100-MHz video rates were not available, nor were the high-speed digital first of these were based on teleprinters; sources situated at the user's station, it to-analog converters required to achieve later terminals utilized CRTs as display became possible to couple the graphics video gray shades. Color shadow-mask devices. These "video display terminals" generation function more tightly with the CRTs with sufficiently small spot size and forever changed the character of comput storage and processing functions via a sufficiently fine mask pitch to achieve ing. high-speed bus [Fig. 3]. The high-speed 1000-line resolution were still under devel Most early video display terminals em bus is essential to this workstation archi opment. For these reasons, the earliest ployed raster technology. The standard tecture, which is typified by a graphics workstation displays were monochrome, data load of 25 rows of 80 characters subsystem that becomes a real-time, inter offered slightly less than !-million-pixel evolved primarily because it could be ac active window into the application pro resolution, and provided only a single commodated at television scan rates using gram running on the general processor. pixel luminance level. This standard be components that were mass produced for A software development that has came the basis for the graphical system of the entertainment industry. As computer shaped the modern workstation is the Smalltalk, the object-oriented workstation graphics developed into an important in multitasking, single-user operating system. environment developed at Xerox P ARC teractive medium, a second type of termi Multiprogramming had been used since that subsequently became the basis of the nal device developed. These early graphics the early time-sharing era, but the concept Apple Macintosh computer. Smalltalk terminals employed stroke-written CRT of a single user interacting with multiple builds all of its graphical entities from a technology. concurrent applications was revolutionary. class of objects known as "forms," which A typical user's terminal in a time consist of rectangular matrices of ON or shared mainframe environment was linked Window to the soul OFF pixels. Shades of gray are created by to the host computer by a low-bandwidth If "the eye is the window to the soul" halftone techniques. 1 A 19-in. mono connection. This severely limited the and the display is the window to the soul chrome CRT affording a screen area of speed with which the user could modify of the machine, the display techniques approximately !50 in. 2 became the stan and interact with the displayed data that had served in early graphics and al dard workstation display device. [Fig. 2]. In graphics terminals, storage phanumeric terminals required rethinking CRTs were dominant because the images for the new workstations. Researchers at Developing a standard display they displayed did not require refreshing Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (P ARC) This single-level monochrome display con from data resident at the host. and elsewhere envisioned a new concept in tinues to meet the needs of several work Several concurrent developments in human-computer interaction. Application station applications, such as software computer technology engendered the programs and data were to be treated as development, schematic and mechanical modern workstation. An exponential de objects and the user's view of these ob drawing CAE, and halftone desktop pub crease in the cost and size of processing jects was to be analogous to his view of lishing. But the workstation's close cou elements, memory, and mass storage papers on a desk. Objects could overlay pling of application programs and made it practical to decentralize comput each other and be shuffled according to computer graphics soon stimulated a de ing resources. With more computer re- current needs. mand for more display capability. Specifi-

11 Information Display 11 / 88 cally, the ability of graphics processors to render a data model of an object forced workstation display technology in the di LAN rection of full color. To achieve full color with the size and resolution demanded by workstation applications required the ma ! turity of three display technologies: the COMM 64-kHz deflection system, 100-MHz linear video amplifier, and the 0.31-mm pitch • 19-in. color shadow-mask CRT. These technologies were in fact developed in the 1 early 1980s, and have combined to form HIGH BW BUS today's de facto standard for workstation display devices. Each of the major work 1 station suppliers provides a standard dis GRAPHICS play configuration using a 19-in. shadow PROCESSOR PROCESSOR~----~ D mask CRT with addressable resolutions ranging from 1024 x 864 to 1280 x 1024 DISPLAY pixels [Table 1, column 1].

Divergent requirements Fig. 3: Workstation architectures are characterized by a high level of connectivity be Although this de facto display standard tween the processing and graphics-generation junctions. satisfies a broad class of workstation ap plications, evolving applications are moti vating the development of display solutions that exploit alternative technolo - 1975 gies. Three such solutions are shown in the third row of blocks in Fig. 4 and in 1 MPIXEL the middle three columns of Table 1. MONO. CRT 2 Several evvlving applications require 1501N pixel resolution in excess of the 90 pixels/ in. provided by the current standard. Medical imaging, intelligence data analy - 1980 sis, and desktop publishing, for example, would drive addressable resolution to the 1 MPIXEL limits of human visual acuity to minimize COLOR CRT sampling artifacts. At normal viewing dis 1501N2 tances, this requires a resolution ap proaching 300 pixels/ in. 2 Solving this - 1985 problem has required a reversion to mon 1 MPIXEL ochrome CRT technology because of the 4 MPIXEL 4 MPIXEL MONO limitations of shadow-mask CRT mask MONO. CRT COLOR CRT FLAT PANEL 1501N2 4001N2 pitch. Several commercial implementa 2001N2 tions utilize ultra-high-resolution bipoten tial-focus CRTs and video bandwidths - 1990 ranging from 200 MHz to 1.5 GHz. A Tektronix monochrome CRT for such ap 1 MPIXEL plications utilizes internal dynamic astig 4 MPIXEL COLOR mation to maintain spot size at less than 5 COLOR CRT 2 FLAT PANEL mils over the CRT surface. 3 MegaScan of 1501N 2001N2 Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, has pushed ad - 1995 • dressable resolution to the limits of visual I acuity with a 3300-line (13-Mpixel) moni tor utilizing single-level video and a novel technique for cooling the deflection yoke ? at the 244-kHz horizontal scan rate.4 Workstation architectures are being in - 2000 creasingly applied to surveillance and command-and-control applications. Be cause of the extraordinary quantity of Fig. 4: The evolution of workstation displays may be represented as a tree. Alterna data presented to a user in these applica tive solutions driven by diverse applications may combine into a unified standard when tions, there is a demand for display sur- technology permits.

Information Display 11188 13 Table 1: Workstation Displays

Current High Large Standard Resolution Screen Portable Ideal

Screen Area 150 in. 2 150 in. 2 400 in. 2 150 in. 2 200 in. 2

Depth 22 in. 22 in. 30 in. 2 in. < 10 in.

Resolution Mpixel 13 Mpixel 4 Mpixel Mpixel 4 Mpixel

Luminance 20 fL 50 fL 15 fL 20 fL 20 fL

Color full-color monochrome full-color monochrome full-color

Power 150 w 140 w 450 w 60 w

Cost (unit) $3K $5K $40K $I OK <$5K

Technology SMCRT CRT SM CRT/ EL/Plasma ? Trinitron

face areas in excess of the !50 in. 2 Production volume and technical sim the current standard, its cost must ulti provided by the standard. A notable ex plicity of the standard 19-in. shadow mately be low enough to represent no ample is the Advanced Automation Sys mask monitor has reduced its cost to less more than 10-200Jo of the total cost for a tem (AAS) under development for the than $3000. In contrast, the cost of spe single operator's workstation. As the Federal Aviation Agency. This air-traffic cialized displays is significantly greater cost/ performance ratio of computing ele control application spawned development nearly an order of magnitude greater for ments continues to plummet, this may be of a 20-in.-square display by Sony that large-screen displays. the greatest challenge of all. utilizes Trinitron technology to achieve 2048 x 2048 pixel resolution in full color. The challenge Hitachi has developed a 25 -in.-diagonal Workstations are challenging the display Notes 1 1280 X 1024 monitor for surveillance and industry to provide color, very high reso A. Goldberg and D. Robson, Smalltalk- CAD workstation applications. lution, and portability in a single technol 80 (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison Business applications and tactical mili ogy. Such a technology would then lead Wesley, 1983), pp. 330-413. tary problems are also migrating to work to the ideal workstation display device 2G. Murch eta!., "Resolution and Ad stations, creating a requirement for port [Table I, last column]. The ideal device dressability: How Much is Enough?," ability and ruggedness in workstation dis would provide a surface area of approxi Proceedings of the SID, Vol. 26, No. 4 plays. Two flat-panel technologies are ca mately 200 in. 2, with the capability of ex (1985), pp. 305 - 308. pable of providing portable displays with panding to meet command-and-control 3C. Odenthal, "A 19-in. Very High Reso the required display area and resolution. requirements. It would be a matrix device lution Display CRT," SID Digest, Vol. 15 Planar Systems of Beaverton, Oregon, has with pixel resolution approaching the limit (1984), pp. 258-261. developed an 18-in.-diagonal thin-film of visual acuity. It would deliver suffi 4B. Rosen and S. Kriz, "Case Study: De electroluminescent (TFEL) device capable cient luminance to provide adequate con veloping a 3000-Line Interactive CRT Dis of displaying 1024 x 864 pixels. This de trast in a normal office environment. play," Information Display, Vol. 4, No. 1 vice occupies a package less than 1.5 in. Finally, it would present minimal thick (January 1988), pp. 12-15. deep and consumes less than 60 W of ness, low power consumption, and rea 5W. B. Barrow et a!., "Matrix-Addressed power. SAlT of San Diego, California, sonable weight. Full-Color TFEL Display, SID Digest, has developed a plasma monitor targeted Although such a technology is far from Vol. 19 (1988), pp. 284-286. at military workstation applications. realization, several developments point to 6M. Gay eta!., "Color Plasma Display Approximate specifications for each of its eventual feasibility. Dramatic break Panels with Simplified Structure and these special-purpose deviations from the throughs in flat-panel color have recently Drive," SID Digest, Vol. 19 (1988), pp. display standard appear in Table I. Com been reported. 5•6 Advances in electron-gun 157-159. 7 promises are required to achieve the spe and deflection yoke technology have ena S. Ashizaki eta!., "In-Line Gun with cial application requirements. In both the bled yet another quantum jump in color Dynamic Astigmatism and Focus Correc high-resolution and portable cases, color shadow-mask CRT performance.7•8 If de tion," Proceedings of Japan Display is sacrificed. Achieving large screen area signers can overcome the factors limiting (1986), pp. 44- 47. requires a heavy penalty in depth, weight, the reduction of mask pitch, the CRT 8T. Kuramoto et a!.' "The sse Deflection and power consumption. The most signif may remain a contender well into the next Yoke for In-Line Color CRTs," SID Di icant compromise is cost. decade. But for any technology to replace gest, Vol. 19 (1988), pp. 132- 135 . •

14 Information Display 11188 Graphics workstation standards

BY CHARLES HAFEMANN

IN OUR harshly competitive world, forms, such as those made by Sun and gramming practices among the software companies that buy computer-based sys Apollo; a UNIX operating system; the departments of the various manufactur tems often need state-of-the-art equip well-established VMEbus; a network ers. As a result, applications programmers ment. At the same time, these purchasers based on Ethernet; and the emerging have been forced to learn new methodolo of expensive hardware and software PHIGS + graphics standards. gies for each graphics system, dramati would like their systems to be based on When commercial high-performance cally extending the time it takes to bring standards, which would provide them graphics systems first appeared, they were new graphics software to market. with some confidence that they are invest heralded as a major productivity enhance Without accepted standards, competing ing in long-term, upgradeable compo ment. Yet the predicted potential of these companies waste valuable resources imple nents. Standards-based components also systems has not been fully realized, pri menting and reimplementing similar tech allow existing applications to be ported, marily because of the limited availability nologies. Suppliers to these companies can migrated, or upgraded with little or no of applications software. This, in turn, suffer similarly, trying to keep pace with additional investment on the part of the stems partly from a lack of common pro- each company as it develops new prod- computer-graphics workstation user. But in a dynamic technological environ ment, the state of the art can move at a faster pace than standards evolution can. Fortunately, workstation graphics stan dards are emerging that can answer to day's performance requirements and are expandable enough to meet tomorrow's demands. The benefits of standards Standards allow users to acquire cost effective hardware and software in a com petitive, multivendor marketplace. A modern computer-graphics workstation typically consists of a workstation plat form that includes a microprocessor, op erating system, language, network, window system, system bus, and graphics interface. In a standards-based system, each of these components will be· consist tent with an existing, emerging, or de facto standard. Typical choices are one of the open-architecture workstation plat- Fig. 1: The realistic rendering of complex objects such as this automobile model is easier with the extended set of "primitives" offered by the non-proprietary graphics Charles Hafemann is director of product interface system called PHIGS +. The extensions, which are not included in PHIGS marketing at Alliant Computer Systems, itself, include shading, lighting, and advanced curve and surface commands. PHIGS is Littleton, Massachusetts. about to become an ANSI standard. PRIGS+ is under development.

Information Display 11188 15 ucts, each with a different set of specifi posed 3D graphics standards. It was eralized drawing primitives (implementa cations. Graphics standards should help developed to specify a graphics system tion defined, non-standard primitives); bring high-performance graphics systems model that simulates the capabilities of • attribute selection to control the appear to more applications faster. 3D graphics terminals and pen plotters. ance of output primitives such as color Since then, certain drawbacks to the and thickness of lines; Originating and approving standards CORE graphics interface have become ap • modeling and viewing transformations Any given technical field will evolve ac parent. Among these is its support for describing the orientation of an object ceptable practices based on experience and only one output device, whereas many of with respect to a coordinate system; theory. It is productive for manufacturers today's applications use multiple output • structure editing, control, and display and users of a product to accept a consist devices. Also, CORE does not specify a functions; ent set of these practices as standards. standard language binding- a language • input device handling; Standards can be formally approved, or specific interface-between an applica • inquiry functions, which return to the de facto standards such as UNIX can tions program and the subroutine library applications program data contained in evolve from a broad-based popularity. A that implements the standard. Therefore, the state lists, description tables, or struc formally approved standard represents a an applications program often requires tures. combination of practices and technical extensive modification when it is moved PHIGS, as a graphics interface stan knowledge that has been put on paper, re from one CORE-based library to another. dard, is under development and review vised, modified, tested, and widely ac The 2D Graphical Kernel System (GKS) and has been approved by ANSI as a cepted-generally through a long and was developed jointly by ANSI and ISO Draft International Standard. It was de laborious process. There are several or and formally adopted by these organiza veloped specifically to support highly dy ganizations involved in the preparation of tions in 1985 as a U.S. and international namic, highly interactive application areas graphics standards. standard. While only a 2D standard, GKS such as scientific visualization, CAD/ ANSI, the American National Stan goes beyond CORE by specifying support CAM/ CAE, command and control, mo dards Institute, was founded in 1918 to for multiple workstations and by defining lecular modeling, and simulation, and it coordinate the federated standards system standard language bindings for major seems well on its way to becoming the of the United States. ANSI is not respon high-level languages including FORTRAN dominant nonproprietary interface for sible for developing standards, but rather and C. these applications. Major computer man for identifying what standards are needed GKS allows an application programmer ufacturers, including IBM and DEC, have and providing a set of procedures for to send graphics output to and accept introduced PHIGS-based products. And standards-writing organizations to follow . graphics input from a variety of inde Carl Machover of Machover Associates ISO is the International Organization pendent devices. These devices include Corp. has predicted that, because users for Standardization, for which ANSI is monochrome and color displays utilizing want to remain as device independent as the U.S. representative. ANSI is responsi either vector or raster technology, prin possible, "PHIGS is probably going to be ble for managing, coordinating, financ ters, plotters, mice, data tablets, joysticks, the dominant graphics standard over the ing, and supporting U.S. participation in and digitizers. Over two dozen commer next few years." ISO. cial implementations of GKS are available Extending PHIGS X3 is the standards development com from American and European suppliers. Although it is by general agreement the mittee accredited by ANSI for informa The Programmer's Hierarchical Interac most advanced graphics standard cur tion processing. Within X3 is a technical tive Graphics System (PHIGS), goes be rently available, PHIGS in its current committee labeled X3H3, responsible for yond the older CORE and GKS standards form lacks the sophisticated shading and all computer-graphics standards. X3 / to provide 3D primitives such as polyline lighting capabilities now common in high SPARC, the Standards Planning andRe and fill area, as well as hierarchical data end graphics systems. A consortium of quirements Committee, oversees all X3 structures. PHIGS offers many of the graphics professionals from major system technical committees and approves new same graphical input and output primi manufacturers and universities have there project proposals before these proposals tives and attributes as GKS, but it differs fore proposed extensions to PHIGS, are given to the X3 technical group. from GKS by building and managing a called PHIGS + . The new standard is X3 draft standards undergo a lengthy graphical data base that is hierarchically now under consideration by X3H3. public review process and are not adopted structured. Extensions to the PHIGS standard al by ANSI until all public comments have For example, in the hierarchy, low for realistic rendering of complex ob been incorporated. programmers define structures to PHIGS, jects through shading and lighting, and and these structures may invoke other The road to PHIGS advanced curve and surface primitives. structures in several different ways. The The computer-graphics industry has been Until the PHIGS + additions, these capa manipulations on structures (e .g., scale, moving toward standardization since the bilities were available only in the proprie rotate, translate, change element, change early 1970s when the Association for tary command sets of high-end graphics view) may be specified. PHIGS capabili Computing Machinery's Special Interest terminals and workstations. PHIGS + al ties include: Group on Graphics (SIGGRAPH), and lows applications developers to deliver re subsequently ANSI and ISO, developed • control functions for workstation prop alistic models without committing standards to define logical workstation erties; themselves to a single platform [Fig. 1] . capabilities and high-level language bind • output primitives such as polyline, sym PHIGS + is intended as an extension to ings . bol marker, text, fill area (or polygon), PlUGS, so it uses PHIGS features and Developed in the late 1970s by SIG fill area set (complex polygons with mechanisms wherever possible. PHIGS GRAPH, CORE was one of the first pro- edges), cell array (or color grid), and gen- continued on page 20

16 Information Display 11188 Ad-Vance Magnetics, Inc. Magnavox Government & Industrial Page Page AEG Corp. Electronics Co. AEG Corp. . . . .C2 Magnetic Radiation Laboratories. . . 6 Alphasil, Inc. Magnetic Radiation Laboratories Appli ed Image, Inc...... 17 Microvision...... 10 Amuneal Manufacturing Corp. Microphase Laboratories CELCO (Constantine Engineering Photo Research ...... C4 Applied Films Lab, Inc. Microvision Labs. Co.)...... 20 Quantex ...... 19 Minolta Corp. Connector Corp ...... 4 Quantum Data...... 2 Mitsubishi Electronics America, Inc. Babcock Display Products Gerome Manufacturing Co. .17 Southwest Vacuum Devices, Inc .... 17 BDH Ltd. Mitsubishi Kasei America, Inc. Hughes Aircraft Co .. TSD Display Products, Inc ... . . 18 Bell-Northern Research, Ltd. Monitronix Corp. Visual Information Institute, Inc.. C3 Bendix Corp. MRS Technology, Inc. Imaging and Sensing Brewer Science, Inc. Murata-Erie North America, Ltd. Technology Corp ...... Burle Industries, Inc. NEC Home Electronics (USA), Inc. Canon, Inc. Norden Div. United Technologies Capetronic USA (HK), Inc. Corp. NYNEX Science & Technology Business and Editorial Offices District Sales Office-Midwest CELCO Recruitment Advertising Tom Barron Cherry Electrical Products Corp. Palisades Institute for Research OK! Electric Industry Co., Ltd. Pattis/ 3M Chomerics, Inc. Services, Inc. Optical Coating Lab., Inc. 4761 West Touhy Avenue Clifton Precision/ Special Devices 201 Varick Street Optical Radiation Corp. Lincolnwood, IL 60646 Clinton Electronics Corp. New York, NY 10014 Orwin Associates, Inc. 312/ 679-1100 Computing Devices Co. Jay Morreale, Advertising Manager Ovonic Imaging Systems, Inc. Connector Corp. 212/620-3371 Corning Glass Works Particle Data, Inc. District Sales Office-East CR Technology, Inc. District Sales Office-West Penn-Tran Corp. Becky Akers Ted Lucas Philips Electronics, Ltd. Pattis/3M Dale Electronics P.O. Box 852 Phosphor Products Co., Ltd. 310 Madison Avenue, Suite 1804 Data Images Cedar Glen, CA 92321 Photonics Technology New York, NY 10017 David Sarnoff Research Center, Inc. 714/ 337-6627 212/ 953-2121 Digital Electronics Corp. Planar Systems, Inc. Plasmaco, Inc. Displays Inc. Plessey Naval Systems DISCOM/ Display Components, Inc. Precision Electronic Glass, Inc. PTK/ Rantec Div. Emerson Electric Co. EEV, Inc. Quantum Data Inc. EG&G Gamma Scientific Electro-Plasma, Inc. Rank-Brimar, Ltd. (2) Endicott Research Group, Inc. Raytheon Co. Regisbrook Group, Ltd. Ferranti-Packard Electronics, Ltd. Ricoh Co., Ltd. Futaba Corp. Rogerson Kratos Corp.

GEC Avionics, Inc. SAl Technology Co. General Electric Co. Sanders Associates, Inc. GML Information Services Schott America- Glass & Scientific GTE Products, Inc. Sigmatron Nova, Inc. George D. Harris Assoc., Inc. Singer-Librascope Hartman Systems Sony Corp. Hazeltine Corp. Stanford Resources, Inc. Hercules Aerospace Display Systems Supertex, Inc. Hewlett-Packard Co. Syntronic Instruments, Inc. Hitachi, Ltd . F. Hoffmann La-Roche & Co., Ltd. Taliq Corp. Hoya Optics, Inc. Tektronix, Inc. Hughes Aircraft Co. Test & Measurement Systems, Inc. Hycom, Inc. Texas Instruments, Inc. Thomas Electronics, Inc. IBM Corp. Thomson Electron Tubes & Devices Imaging & Sensing Technology Corp. Corp. Toshiba America, Inc. Soft to the touch ... gentle toyourwallet. Imapro Corp./lmaprint Design, Inc. TSD, the leader in Touch Screen Technology, does it again! Incom, Inc. UCE Liquid Crystal Displays Industrial Electronic Engineers, Inc. United Enclosures, Inc. From home computer user to OEM, our 9-, 12-, 13-, 15- and 19-inch Infodex, Inc. Digitizers now put a Touch Screen within your reach. Interstate Electronics Corp. Venus Scientific, Inc. And, of course, all models include the features and the quality that ISC Cardion Electronics, Inc. Video Monitors, Inc. you have come to expect from TSD-ease of operation, high resolu ISE Electronics Corp. Villa Precision, Inc. tion, troublefree long life. Viratec Thin Films Inc. Easily mounted on existing displays, the excellent resolution of all K&R Engineering Sales Corp. Visual Information Institute, Inc. Kollmorgen Corp. Photo Research models even permits the entry of graphic data. Div. World Products, Inc. Don't be caught short-enhance your system by including a Touch Screen display. Call or write for more information. Yamaha Corp. of America Litton Panelvision Corp. Litton Systems Canada Ltd. (2) Zenith Electronics Corp. ~ ~- TSD DISPLAY PRODUCTS, INC. Litton Systems, Inc. ~r_t. n 35 ORVILLE DRIVE • BOHEMIA, NY 11718·25118 ~u ==TEL (518) 589·8800 • INT'L sALEs TEL (813) 512·1n4 Los Alamos National Laboratory -==- , --TELEX 14·4659 • FAX (518) 588·8858 Lucas Corp. Circle no. 11 18 Information Display II 188 Tornado, Version 1.80 The program strikes me as being most hunt for previously recorded information. useful when used in its memory-resident Obvious uses are explaining a spreadsheet by Micro Logic Corporation, 100 Second or "pop-up" mode. It is then possible to cell or recording the source of an equa Street, P. 0. Box 70, Hackensack, NJ "hot-key" out of your main applications tion in that article you're writing. You 07062. $99.95 plus $3.50 shipping ($10.00 program to make a note or comment, or continued on next page outside the United States and Canada).

Reviewed by KENNETH I. WERNER

Information Display's software reviews normally focus on programs that perform technically oriented tasks-the kind of programs that are not extensively re viewed in general publications. Tornado is an exception. Though extensively advertised and fa vorably reviewed in the general personal computing press, Tornado does not seem to be widely known in the technical com munity. And that's a pity, because this program is not only a remarkable "pro ductivity enhancer" for technical profes sionals, it can also enhance the effective ness of many programs that professionals use. Micro Logic calls Tornado a "random information processor." Using it, you can quickly type random notes having no common format or style. The notes ap pear on screen as overlapping windows that emulate overlapping memos on a desktop. Using cursor keys, you can flip your way through the pile. Each pile can have as many as 500 notes, and 50 piles are possible-a maximum of 25,000 notes. The key feature that makes Tornado ef fective is its ability to search through all of its stored notes for any character string you type in. If you've been using the pro gram for design notes on a focus coil, and remember only that the note you want contained a reference to "ellipsoidal spots," type "G" for get, " ellipso," and a carriage return. All the notes containing the character string "ellipso" will pop up on the screen, with virtually no delay. I keep my "to do" memos on Tornado and preface each one with "TO DO." "G," "TO DO" brings up the "to do" list. I call up the program in my AUTO EXEC.BAT file so my "to do" list stares at me whenever I turn on the computer.

Kenneth I. Werner is the editor of Infor mation Display. Circle no . 12 Information Display 11 188 19 graphics standards

continued from page 16 programs should run unchanged in the PHI OS+ environment and should be eas ily modified to incorporate the PHI OS + extensions. Future expansions to PHI OS+ are expected to address addi tional surface properties, global environ mental effects (shadows and reflections, for example), primitive solids, and con structive solid geometry. Raster Technologies, convinced that PHI OS+ is fated to be an influential standard, recently introduced the first workstation to use PHI OS+ as its native command set. The GX4000 is a board set designed to provide PHI OS+ acceleration on the Sun Microsystems Sun-3 and Sun-4 workstations, and has also been tightly in tegrated into the Alliant Computer Sys tems family of mini-supercomputers.

Notes The following publications treat some of the subjects presented in this article in more detail, and are available without charge from Raster Technologies, An Al liant Computer Company, Monarch Circle no. 13 Drive, Littleton, MA 01460. Telephone: 5081486-4950. PHIGS/ PHIGS+ Func tional Description (PHI OS+ 187-SR6, 1987); Extending PHIGS for Lighting and Shading- PRIGS+ (1987); Computer software notes Graphics Workstations: A Look at Emerging Standards (1988). • continued from previous page and "flashcards" of Japanese phrases and can keep a list of the articles you cite their translations are all possibilities. most frequently, and almost instantly call I am not generally a software enthusi up those having any given author or any ast. If a piece of software does its job given character string in their titles or any reasonably well, I'm willing to adapt my given year of publication. (Combined self to its deficiencies- just so long as I searches are possible, too, such as for any can get my job done and avoid learning citation including both "C. Infante" and another program. But Tornado is one " 1988 . ") computer tool I'm glad I don't have to There are a variety of special features, work without. id classified including the ability to "grab" the last Tornado requires an IBM PCI XT I AT I screen from the program you've just hot PS2 or fully compatible computer running keyed out of and make it a new note. But under MS-DOS version 2.0 or later; what makes Tornado so useful is its di MDA, CGA, EGA, or Hercules display; consultants rectness, flexibility, and utter naturalness 54K RAM plus what is required for data of use. Used in the most obvious way, it storage (6K minimum). The program is Howard W. Gro ssbohlin can clean up most of the odd bits of pa supplied on either a single 5 V. -in. or 3 V2 - CONSULTANT per lyi ng around a desk. Organizing larger in. disc. It was tested on a Leading Edge Cathode Ray Tubes tasks around the program's strengths is a Model D with 640K, hard drive, and Her Cathode Ray Tube Di splays later step. Maintaining an easily accessible cules graphics, and on a Sanyo MBC 775 805-581-1467 "rolodex," a glossary of technical terms, with 265K, 5 V. -in. floppy drives, and a record of components and suppliers, CGA graphics. •

20 Information Display 11188 Decisions. Decisions. Decisions. PR-900 makes them for you.

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AUSTRALIA LASEAEX INTERNATIONAL Ph 08-2717966 • CANADA OPTIKON CORPORATION Ph 51g.885-2551 FRANC E IN$TAUMAT SA Ph 1-69 28 27 34 • HOLLAND INTECHMIJ BV Pn 020-56-96-611 WEST GERMANY OPTEEMA ENGINEERING GmbH Ph (0212) 67352 · JAPAN KYOKKO TRADING COMPANY Ph 03-586-5251 U.K. MICRON TECHNIQUES LTD Ph. 0202-841261 · INDIA PHOTONICS INTERNATIONAL Pn 366665 ISRAEL DELTA FILM LTD Ph 052-521874 · ITALY ELETIAONUCLEONICA Pn 2-4982451 • SWEDEN SAVEN AB Ph 08-7921100 EUROPEAN HEADQUARTERS LUZERN SWITZERLAND PHOTO RESEARCH Ph 041-31-6194 Circle no. 15