IEEE CG&A May 89 Benchmarking Issue

[michael zyda]

     Like David Ciemiewicz, I too was pretty furious about the
benchmarking article in IEEE CG&A. My main complaint is that
the article is so out of date. Unfortunately, the publication
process for IEEE CG&A (and other graphics pubs) takes a long time. 
In some ways, it is inappropriate to publish graphics workstation
performance measurements in such publications. It would be more
appropriate to publish such measurements in conference
proceedings, where the work is maybe only 6 months old.

     The major graphics conference for years, the summer
SIGGRAPH event, unfortunately does little or no coverage
of the important issue of graphics workstation performance
measurements, i.e. what can I do with say an IRIS 4D/70GT
for 3D visual simulation. It is probably not possible
or appropriate to change SIGGRAPH's broad focus.

     In an attempt to rectify this problem, I have volunteered
my time as the Symposium Chair for the "1990 Symposium on
Interactive 3D Graphics". One of the sessions planned for
that symposium is entitled "Performance Studies of Graphics
Workstations". We are looking for papers that tell how
many frames per second and how many polygons are in the
picture for specific applications. IRIS workstation users
are prime candidates for paper submission to this symposium
(as are Ardent, ATT Pixel machine, DEC, E&S, HP, NeXT, Pixar,
Stellar and Sun graphics workstation users).

     I have previously mailed out the symposium Call for Participation
electronically to info-iris but I attach it here again to remind
you that there is a faster forum for reporting your graphics
workstation results.

     Michael Zyda
     Symposium Chair
     1990 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics


********************************************************************************
Call for Participation

1990 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics

Sponsorship anticipated from the following organizations:
Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation
USA Ballisic Research Laboratory
Ardent Computer, ATT Pixel Machines
Digital Equipment Corporation, Evans & Sutherland, Hewlett-Packard
NeXT, Pixar  Silicon Graphics, Stellar Computer, Sun Microsystems

Symposium Specifics                                           Important Dates
18th - 21st of March 1990    Abstracts for contributed papers due: 15 Sep. 89
Snowbird, Utah USA                        Acceptance notification: 31 Oct. 89
(Proceedings at the symposium.)  Final papers for proceedings due: 10 Dec. 89

The focus of the symposium is on the topic:  Where is the frontier today in
real-time, interactive 3D graphics ?

The purpose of the symposium is to look at what research groups are doing with
their high-performance, real-time, interactive graphics systems, to find out
what special purpose architectures are on the drawing board, to discuss which
are the most user-friendly paradigms for interaction with such systems and to
learn what applications are still waiting for an appropriate 3D interactive
system.

The symposium will consist of technical sessions in which formal papers are
presented and discussed and of hands-on demonstrations where research groups
and vendors of equipment demonstrate the state-of-the-art in this field.
In these demonstrations, we want to look at displays on which objects move and
with which one can interact. We are particularly interested in such notions as:

-- moving through virtual worlds, i.e. visual simulation systems that move us
through buildings or cities, over terrain or over the sea at multiple updates
per second;

-- interactively shaping, building or sculpting objects, using low-level
operations to drill holes or cut slots as well as high-level operations making
global shape adjustments;

-- interactively assembling and manipulating systems of parts, using aids that
yield ease of operation without sacrificing precision and give feedback as to
real-world geometric constraints; 

-- interaction technologies and user interfaces for moving through 3D
virtual worlds.

The technical presentations at the symposium will focus on
innovative 3D graphics architectures and hardware, fast rendering algorithms,
new man-machine interface paradigms. Performance claims should be supported
by actual measurements of values such as polygons per second or updates
per second. Full explanations of any special techniques necessary to achieve
such real-time picture generation and display should be provided.

In addition, we want to discuss the real-time graphics requirements of special
applications that do not yet have satisfactory solutions, along with
recommendations for new architectures or future hardware additions to existing
graphics systems.

			   Symposium Chair
			   Michael J. Zyda
		      Naval Postgraduate School
				   
			Program Co-Chairs
	Rich Riesenfeld			Carlo Sequin
	U. of Utah			U. C. Berkeley

Program Committee Members

Norman Badler, U. of Pennsylvania
Al Barr, Caltech
Kellogg S. Booth, U. of Waterloo
Edwin Catmull, Pixar
Charles A. Csuri, Ohio State U.
Mark Cutter, Apple Computer
Tom DeFanti, U. of Illinois-Chicago
Tony DeRose, U. of Washington
Tom Ferrin, U. C. San Francisco
Scott S. Fisher, NASA/AMES Research Center
James D. Foley, George Washington U.
Alain Fournier, U. of Toronto
Henry Fuchs, UNC-Chapel Hill (Past Chair)
S. Kicha Ganapathy, AT&T Bell Labs
Don Greenberg, Cornell U.
Paul Haeberli, Silicon Graphics
Thomas Jensen, Evans & Sutherland
Fred Kitson, Hewlett-Packard
Jeff Lane, Digital Equipment Corporation
Robert McLeod, Tektronix
Cleve Moler, Ardent Computer
Michael Muuss, USA Ballisic Research Laboratory
Frederic I. Parke, NY Institute of Technology
Michael E. Pique, Scripps Clinic
Spencer Thomas, U. of Michigan
Guy L. Tribble, NeXT
Craig Upson, Stellar Computer
Andries van Dam, Brown U.
J. Turner Whitted, UNC-Chapel Hill/Numerical Design Ltd.
Mary C. Whitton, Sun Microsystems
Michael Wozny, RPI
David Zeltzer, MIT

Paper Submissions and Requests for Registration

Prospective authors should submit 5 copies of an extended abstract to the
address below before the 15th of September 1989.
The abstracts should be 3 to 5 pages long and reflect what will be
contained in the final 8 to 12 page paper in the proceedings and in the
25 minute presentation at the symposium. Abstracts should clearly state
what has been achieved and how this makes a contribution to the advancement
of the state-of-the-art in interactive 3D graphics. Requests for
registration forms should also be mailed to the following address.

		Rich Riesenfeld
		1990 Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics
		University of Utah
		Department of Computer Science
		3190 Merrill Engineering Building
		Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
		(801) 581-8224

The symposium is limited to 125 registrants. The registration fee for the
symposium is $250.   That fee includes the proceedings, reception, banquet
and two lunches.