4Sight, X or NeWS?

[Miq Millman]

In article <8810202336.AA03068 at ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, jim at THRUSH.STANFORD.EDU (Jim Helman) writes:
> 
> 
> I don't know if 4Sight's NeWS has better pixel performance, but
> normally I would expect X to be better than NeWS for raster image
> operations, since X is built around a raster imaging model.

The reason that X is so much slower on our machines is because of the way it
handles doing things like rubberbanding and highlighting.  X uses XOR to 
change colors on the screen which is just fine for a monochrome no grey scale
monitor, but it really sucks with color.  On the SGI workstations, overlay
planes are used for doing the same things that X tries to do with XOR.  The
graphics hardware is incredibly fast, so performace is not hurt.  On the 4D
series, pixel performance is about 8 million pixels per second.

Incidently, a new version of X for our machines is being worked on and it
should be released soon.

> 
> Jim Helman
> Department of Applied Physics
> Stanford University


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