IRIX 3.2 Release Notes (Part 1 of 3)
Jim Barton
jmb at maddog.sgi.com
Mon Nov 20 05:38:54 AEST 1989
Enclosed as a copy of the relevant portions of the 3.2 release notes which
come with every 3.2 release (you can get these with the "relnotes" command).
It is broken in three parts, because of the size. Glue them together
before using.
I've taken the liberty of compressing the output by removing extraneous
empty lines. These are chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. One thing unmentioned
in the release notes is a development caveat that we follow that I believe
you will find out when running the system: the next release has to be at
least as fast as the last one (and it had damn well better be faster!).
These release notes are:
Copyright (c) 1989 Silicon Graphics Computer Systems
All Rights Reserved
-- Jim Barton
Silicon Graphics Computer Systems "UNIX: Live Free Or Die!"
jmb at sgi.com, sgi!jmb at decwrl.dec.com, ...{decwrl,sun}!sgi!jmb
------------------- cut here ---------------------
IRIX 3.2 Release Notes, as posted to USENET in comp.sys.sgi (Part 1 of 3)
Copyright (c) 1989 Silicon Graphics Computer Systems
All Rights Reserved
>>>>>>>>>>
3.2 Release notes, Chapter 3
>>>>>>>>>>
- 1 -
3. Major_Enhancements_and_Compatibility
This chapter describes the major enhancements of the 4D1-3.2
software release, summarizes compatibility issues for the
program development tools, and provides a description of the
subsystems provided with this release.
This chapter is divided into the following sections:
o Major Enhancements
o Compatibility of Program Development Tools
o Description of 4D1-3.2 Subsystems
- 2 -
3.1 Major_Enhancements
3.1.1 Software_Enhancements The 4D1-3.2 release provides
these major software enhancements:
o The IRIS WorkspaceTM
The Workspace is a graphically organized iconic
interface to UNIXTM that allows quick and easy access
to the file system. System administration tasks are
greatly simplified via the System Manager, which is
included in the Workspace package.
o Visual Login
The console login now is visual by default. See
pandora(1) and the
IRIS-4D System Administrator's Guide for information
about configuring the console login.
o Visual Administration/System Manager
The System Manager offers a suite of icon-driven tools
for administering the UNIX system under the IRIX
Workspace. The System Manager is built on top of
standard UNIX commands and file formats. Using those
standard commands directly will not interfere with the
System Manager.
o QuickPaintTM (by Alias Research)
QuickPaint is a color paint program employing a rich
variety of brush types, sizes, and shapes, as well as
many brush functions.
o QuickModelTM (by Alias Research)
QuickModel is a 3-D modeling package that gives the
user the ability to quickly create solid objects,
render them, and interactively view them in real time.
o Personal VisualizerTM (Wavefront's renderer)
The Personal Visualizer is a rendering package that
allows the user to import 3-D models and create
photorealistic renditions of them under different
lighting, material, and other scene characteristics.
The Personal Visualizer features ray tracing
capabilities.
- 3 -
o NURBS
NURBS is a major new GL feature that allows direct
rendering of Trimmed Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline
Surfaces. This new feature is offered through a
combination of software, firmware, and hardware on all
4D platforms.
o Logical Operations (Personal IRIS only)
Logical operations (logicop) is a new GL feature that
allows GL application to perform boolean pixel
operations.
o User-level SCSI devices drivers. See ds(7M) in the
IRIS-4D Programmer's Reference Manual for more
information.
o Support for the use of all serial ports on Power Series
systems.
3.1.2 Hardware_Enhancements The 4D1-3.2 release provides
support for the following hardware and firmware:
o 4D/210GTX 4D/210S
A new member of the Power Series. It has a single
processor MIPS R3000/R3010 running 25 MHz.
o Personal IRIS Turbo
New 20 Mhz CPU board with higher performance. Two
surface mount daughter boards added to GR1 to increase
the graphics performance.
o RE2
New Raster Engine chip is supported on Personal Iris
models including Turbo. It has the following new
features: logical operations on a Personal IRIS, pixel
unpacking, screen mask, better antialiased lines.
o Diskless
Workstations without hard disks. The 4D/20 and 4D/25
can both operate as diskless workstations. Diskless
workstations require special installation.
o SCSI 1/2" Tape - (Personal IRIS only).
o Industry Standard (IBM compatible) floppy disk drive -
Personal IRIS only.
- 4 -
3.2 Compatibility_of_Program_Development_Tools
The following tables describe compatibility between software
releases 4D1-3.1 and 4D1-3.2 and between releases 4D1-2.0
and 4D1-3.2. In these tables, source means source files,
whether FORTRAN, C, or another language. Application
libraries means not only archive libraries of object files
(.o files), but also individual object files. Executables
means executable binaries (not shell command files).
Release 4D1-3.2 is compatible with release 4D1-3.1 with one
exception: programs linked under release 4D1-3.1 using the
shared library /usr/lib/libfm_s.a which were not also linked
with the shared library /usr/lib/libgl_s.a must be relinked
to run under release 4D1-3.2.
Binaries linked with the non-shared versions of libfm.a or
libgl must be relinked.
3.2.1 Upwards_Compatibility
_______________________________________________________
| |_________________________________________|
|4D1-3.1 | Compilation | Tools | Execution |
|Generated | Environment | Environment | Environment |
| | (cc, f77, | (nm, | |
| | ar, ld) | strip, | |
| | | dbx, edge, | |
| | | lint, | |
| | | stdump, | |
| | | size, dis) | |
_______________________________________________________|
|____________|_____________|_____________|_____________|
|application | yes | yes | yes |
|libraries | | | |
| | | | |
|____________|_____________|_____________|_____________|
|executables | NA | yes | yes, |
| | | | unless the |
| | | | non-shared |
| | | | versions |
| | | | of libgl.a |
| | | | or libfm.a |
|____________|_____________|_____________|_____________|
- 5 -
_______________________________________________________
| |_________________________________________|
|4D1-3.0 | Compilation | Tools | Execution |
|Generated | Environment | Environment | Environment |
| | (cc, f77, | (nm, | |
| | ar, ld) | strip, | |
| | | dbx, edge, | |
| | | lint, | |
| | | stdump, | |
| | | size, dis) | |
_______________________________________________________|
|____________|_____________|_____________|_____________|
|application | yes | No for nm, | yes |
|libraries | | dbx, edge, | |
| | | stdump, | |
| | | dis. Yes | |
| | | for strip, | |
| | | size | |
| | | | |
|____________|_____________|_____________|_____________|
|executables | NA | No for nm, | yes, |
| | | dbx, edge, | unless the |
| | | stdump, | non-shared |
| | | dis. Yes | versions |
| | | for strip, | of libgl.a |
| | | size | or libfm.a |
|____________|_____________|_____________|_____________|
- 6 -
_______________________________________________________
| |_________________________________________|
|4D1-2.0 | Compilation | Tools | Execution |
|Generated | Environment | Environment | Environment |
| | (cc, f77, | (nm, | |
| | ar, ld) | strip, | |
| | | dbx, edge, | |
| | | lint, | |
| | | stdump, | |
| | | size, dis) | |
_______________________________________________________|
|____________|_____________|_____________|_____________|
|application | yes | No for nm, | yes |
|libraries | | dbx, edge, | |
| | | stdump, | |
| | | dis. Yes | |
| | | for strip, | |
| | | size | |
| | | | |
|____________|_____________|_____________|_____________|
|executables | NA | No for nm, | No if |
| | | dbx, edge, | graphics. |
| | | stdump, | Yes |
| | | dis. Yes | otherwise. |
| | | for strip, | |
|____________|_____________|_____________|_____________|
3.2.2 Backwards_Compatibility You can safely assume that
software generated in 4D1-3.2 will not work with previous
system software releases.
- 7 -
3.3 Description_of_4D1-3.2_Subsystems
3.3.0.1 Execution_Only_Environment_Tape_1
eoe1.sw.acct This is the System V Process Accounting
package. It is used to monitor system
resource usage on a per-user basis. When
Process Accounting is installed and turned
on, a record is kept of every command that
is executed along with data on the
resources the command used. Report
generating scripts are then run which
produce periodic reports of system
utilization. This package is useful when
it is desired to monitor usage patterns in
systems with large numbers of users.
eoe1.sw.cdsio This is the driver for the VME Serial
Expansion board. It is required for
systems with that option installed.
eoe1.sw.crypt This subsystem contains the crypt and
makekey programs which, along with the
editors ed and vi, implement a simple text
encryption system.
eoe1.sw.dfm This is a subset of IRIX utilities dealing
with directory and file management. It is
generally required in all systems.
eoe1.sw.editors This subsystem contains the standard IRIX
text editors and is generally required on
all systems.
eoe1.sw.hyper This is the driver for the HyperNet VME
interface and is required only on systems
with that option installed.
eoe1.sw.ikc This is the driver for the VME Parallel
Expansion interface and is required only
by systems with that option installed.
- 8 -
eoe1.sw.ipc This subsystem contains utilities useful
in controlling the System V Inter Process
Communications facility. It consists of
two utilities: ipcrm and ipcs.
eoe1.sw.lp This subsystem contains the Line Printer
Spooling package and is required on any
system that will be used with printers,
either locally or over a network.
eoe1.sw.mast This subsystem contains vital graphics
software and is generally required on
workstations. On some systems, this
subsystem will be empty however.
eoe1.sw.perf This subsystem contains the System
Activity Reporting (SAR) package. This
facility is useful for monitoring
processor activity and IRIX system
performance.
It may be used in either an interactive
mode or as a background data
collector/report generator. This
subsystem is not required, but may be
useful in diagnosing system performance
problems.
eoe1.sw.spell This subsystem contains a dictionary and
command that checks spelling.
eoe1.sw.tcp This subsystem contains programs and files
that implement the TCP/IP family of
networking facilities. It is generally
required on all systems even if they will
be used in a stand-alone environment.
eoe1.sw.terminf This is the Terminfo terminal database.
It contains files describing the
capabilities of hundreds of different
types of terminals and is used by the vi
editor as well as many common terminal-
oriented applications. A few common
terminals may be used without this
subsystem.
eoe1.sw.ts This is the driver for the ISI VME
quarter-inch cartridge tape controller.
It is required on systems with that option
installed.
- 9 -
eoe1.sw.unix This subsystem contains the core IRIX
commands and files and is required on all
systems.
- 10 -
eoe1.sw.usrenv This subsystem contains a subset of the
standard IRIX commands and is generally
required on all systems.
eoe1.sw.uucp This is the traditional UUCP
communications package which implements a
point-to-point networking facility. This
is only required for sites where UUCP is
used but it also contains facilities that
may be useful for systems with modems.
eoe1.sw.xm This is the driver for the Xylogics VME
1/2" tape controller and is required only
on systems with the controller installed.
eoe1.man.relnotes This is an on-line readable copy of the
IRIX release notes.
eoe1.man.unix This is an on-line copy of the IRIX user's
manual. Entries may be viewed with the
``man'' command.
3.3.0.2 Execution_Only_Environment_Tape_2
eoe2.sw.NeWS This is the 4Sight window manager and is
required by all workstations. This
subsystem contains the ``standard'' NeWS
fonts.
Courier Icon
Courier-Bold Iris
Courier-BoldOblique Screen
Courier-Oblique Screen-Bold
Cursor Times-Bold
Helvetica !Times-BoldItalic
Helvetica-Bold Times-Italic
Helvetica-BoldOblique Times-Roman
Helvetica-Oblique type
eoe2.sw.NeWSimg This is an image database for the 4Sight
image demonstration programs.
- 11 -
eoe2.sw.X11 This is the run-time X11 windowing
package. It is required to run X11
applications. This subsystem includes the
following fonts that are required to run
X, along with some terminal emulator fonts
expected by xterm users:
6x10 cursor
6x12 Terminal
6x13 Terminal-Bold
8x13 Terminal-BoldNormal
8x13b TerminalNormal
9x15
eoe2.sw.Xdemos These are demonstration programs that make
use of the X windowing system. You must
install eoe2.sw.X11 in order for these
programs to work.
eoe2.sw.Xfonts These are a set of fonts which were
shipped with X11 Release 2. They are no
longer a part of X, but some older X
programs require these fonts to be in
place.
apl German sup
arrow Greek supsup
chess Hebrew swd
chp ipa sym
cyr krivo vbee
Cyrillic lat vctl
dancer met vg
fcor micro vgb
fg mit vgbc
fg-Bold oldera vgh
fg-Oblique plunk vgi
fgone rot vgvb
fgone-Bold runlen vgl
fgone-Oblique sansserif vmic
fgs sansserif-Bold vply
fqxb sansserif-Oblique vr
fr serif vrb
fr-Bold serifb vri
fr-Oblique serifi vsg
frone stan vsgn
frone-Oblique stempl vshd
frthree sub vxms
frtwo subsub xif
- 12 -
eoe2.sw.demos This is the standard SGI demonstration
package. It has been enhanced and
expanded with this release and features a
new menu driven front end called
``buttonfly''. Some programs may not
image properly on machines with eight
bit-planes or without a Z-buffer.
eoe2.sw.envm This is the IRIX Workspace package, a
user-friendly alternative to the standard
IRIX command shell.
eoe2.sw.gltools This subsystem contains a collection of
simple tools that perform a variety of
graphics related functions on a
workstation. Complete source code for
these tools is contained in the
dev.sw.gifts subsystem described in the
next section. These tools include:
blanktime ipaste
cedit istat
clock loadmap
dialwarp mag
gamcal mousewarp
gamma savemap
ical scrsave
icut showmap
imgexp snapshot
interp textcolors
eoe2.sw.moredemos This is an extension of the eoe2.sw.demos
subsytem and contains more demonstration
programs. These programs are segregated
here due to disk space requirements.
eoe2.sw.moregltools This is an extension of the
eoe2.sw.gltools subsystem and contains
commands that implement simple image
processing functions. The complete source
to these commands is contained in the
def.sw.gifts subsystem described in the
next section.
- 13 -
eoe2.sw.optfonts These are additional fonts that are not
required by the base system but may be
desirable for some applications.
Boston NewCenturySchoolbook-Bold
Charter-Black NewCenturySchoolbook-BoldItalic
Charter-BlackItalic NewCenturySchoolbook-Italic
Charter-Italic NewCenturySchoolbook-Roman
Charter-Roman Symbol
Kanji
eoe2.sw.sysadm This is a system administration package
that does not require graphics and is
intended for use primarily on server
machines.
eoe2.sw.vadmin This is a graphical interface to the
standard IRIX administration utilities.
It provides user-friendly tools for
managing printers, users, disks, networks
and other common administrative functions.
eoe2.man.X11 This is an on-line version of the IRIX
user's manual entries that describe the
commands in the eoe2.sw.X11 subsystem.
eoe2.man.demos This is an on-line version of the IRIX
user's manual section 6, which describes
the demonstration programs.
3.3.0.3 Development_Option
dev.sw.G0libraries This subsystem contains versions of all
of the standard programming libraries
compiled with the -G 0 option. These
versions of the libraries are generally
not required.
dev.sw.cc This subsystem is contains all of the
standard IRIX commands and files for
compiling and debugging C programs.
- 14 -
dev.sw.cedgetut This contains files that accompany
documentation on how to use Edge the IRIX
window-based debugger, when programming in
C.
dev.sw.crypt This subsystem contains the file
libcrypt.a for use by programs that
perform data encryption.
dev.sw.debug This contains the IRIX kernel debugger and
is useful only to those developing kernel
device drivers.
dev.sw.giftssrc This subsystem contains a multitude of
sample programs in source code form
including the source for all of the
eoe2.sw.gltools and eoe2.sw.moregltools
subsystems described in the previous
section. While the installation of this
subsystem is not required, many developers
have found the example programs to be
extremely useful in learning about the GL,
TCP/IP, and Generic SCSI interfacing.
dev.sw.rcs This contains the Revision Control System
(RCS) which is a set of programs that may
be used to control a source code
development project. With RCS, changes to
source files are kept in a database with
comments such that previous versions of a
particular file may be retrieved.
dev.sw.sccs This contains the Source Code Control
System which is identical in purpose
although different in use to RCS described
above.
dev.man.cc This contains all of the programmer's
reference manual in an on-line readable
format.
- 15 -
3.4 Subsystem_Sizes
This is a list of all the subsystems and their sizes.
Default Install indicates subsystems that are are installed
by default when you install using automatic mode, or you
select default. To install subsystems that are not installed
by default, you must select them with manual installation
features.
___________________________________________________________________
subsystem Personal IRIS 4D Data Power Default
IRIS & Station Series
Power Server
___________________________________________________________________
eoe1.sw.acct 896 896 896 896 no
eoe1.sw.cdsio 50 50 50 50 yes
eoe1.sw.crypt 52 52 52 52 yes
eoe1.sw.dfm 1053 1053 1053 1053 yes
eoe1.sw.editors 619 619 619 619 yes
eoe1.sw.hyper 194 194 194 194 no
eoe1.sw.ikc 36 36 36 36 yes
eoe1.sw.ipc 214 214 214 214 yes
eoe1.sw.lp 1386 1386 1386 1386 yes
eoe1.sw.mast 0 312 0 0 yes
eoe1.sw.perf 1090 1090 1090 1090 yes
eoe1.sw.spell 867 867 867 867 no
eoe1.sw.tcp 7601 7601 7601 7601 yes
eoe1.sw.terminf 1637 1637 1637 1637 no
eoe1.sw.ts 31 31 31 31 no
eoe1.sw.unix 26894 23455 25612 24531 yes
eoe1.sw.usrenv 990 990 990 990 yes
eoe1.sw.uucp 2088 2088 2088 2088 no
eoe1.sw.xm 67 67 67 67 no
eoe1.man.relnotes 284 284 284 284 yes
eoe1.man.unix 4003 4003 4003 4003 yes
___________________________________________________________________
TABLE 1. S4-EOE1-3.2
- 16 -
_____________________________________________________________________
subsystem Personal IRIS 4D Data Power Default
IRIS & Station Series
Power Server
_____________________________________________________________________
eoe2.sw.NeWS 12791 11911 11493 11493 yes
eoe2.sw.NeWSimg 12879 12879 12879 12879 no
eoe2.sw.X11 17628 17628 17628 17628 no
eoe2.sw.Xdemos 2143 2143 2143 2143 no
eoe2.sw.Xfonts 3072 3072 3072 3072 no
eoe2.sw.demos 4047 4569 2013 2013 yes
eoe2.sw.envm 6828 6828 6828 6828 yes
eoe2.sw.gltools 1048 3144 0 0 yes
eoe2.sw.moredemos 4981 4733 4378 4378 no
eoe2.sw.moregltools 2718 7778 188 188 no
eoe2.sw.optfonts 4617 4617 4617 4617 no
eoe2.sw.sysadm 533 533 533 533 yes
eoe2.sw.vadmin 7875 7875 7875 7875 yes
eoe2.man.X11 663 663 663 663 no
eoe2.man.demos 378 378 378 378 yes
_____________________________________________________________________
TABLE 2. S4-EOE2-3.2
____________________________________________________________________
subsystem Personal IRIS 4D Data Power Default
IRIS & Station Series
Power Server
____________________________________________________________________
dev.sw.G0libraries 15097 13692 15097 15097 no
dev.sw.cc 19308 17452 19222 19222 yes
dev.sw.cedgetut 16 16 16 16 no
dev.sw.crypt 32 32 32 32 yes
dev.sw.debug 848 556 848 556 no
dev.sw.giftssrc 4486 4486 4486 4486 no
dev.sw.rcs 1846 1846 1846 1846 no
dev.sw.sccs 1496 1496 1496 1496 no
dev.man.cc 3121 3121 3121 3121 yes
____________________________________________________________________
TABLE 3. S5-DV01-3.2
>>>>>>>>>>
3.2 Release notes, Chapter 4
>>>>>>>>>>
- 1 -
4. Additions
This chapter describes additions to IRIX, the Graphics
Library, 4Sight, and networking in the 4D1-3.2 software
release. Also, it describes a new command for reading these
release notes on-line.
4.1 On-Line_Release_Notes
Release notes have been added to the on-line documentation.
When you install the on-line documentation for a product,
you will be able to view the release notes on your screen as
you would an on-line manual page. However, unlike the on-
line manual pages, the printed hard copy of these release
notes is more up to date than the on-line version.
The relnotes command accepts the following argments:
-h describes how to use relnotes
-p product displays the chapters or chapter numbers for
a given product
-c chapter displays a given chapter
To see a description of how to use the on-line release notes
tool, type: relnotes -h
To see which product have on-line release notes installed,
type: relnotes
To see which chapters of a product are installed, enter the
command below, but replace the word product with a product
name generated when you type the previous command. renotes
-p product
To see a specific chapter of product, replace the words
product and chapter in the next command: relnotes -p
product -c chapter
To page through a chapter, press <enter> and to quit, press
<del> or <Ctrl-C>. See relnotes(1) for more information.
4.2 Additions_to_IRIX
The 4D1-3.2 software release provides these additions to the
IRIX operating system.
o The IRIS-4D Series Owner's Guide and these release
notes document a new way to back up and restore your
system. This new system supports incremental backup and
- 2 -
recovery across multiple tapes.
o pmake(1) and smake(1) are enhanced versions of make
that create targets in parallel.
o As of the system software release 4D1-3.2, on the
Personal IRIS computers, the SCSI disk driver attempts
to negotiate synchronous SCSI mode with the drive when
it is opened. When supported by the drive, this results
in greater disk throughput, and better SCSI bus
utilization when multiple devices are attached to the
SCSI bus. If problems occur because of this (due to
use of unsupported drives that don't properly handle
this negotiation), you may disable this negotiation by
changing the scsi_syncenable variable in the file
/usr/sysgen/master.d/scsi as described by the comments
in that file, and linking a new kernel with lboot(7M).
Of currently supported drives, the Imprimis 94171 (Wren
IV 344 MB), 94221 (Wren V 190 MB half high), and 94191
(Wren VI 760 MB) drives all support synchronous mode.
The Toshiba MK156FB (156 MB) and Imprimis 94161 (Wren
III 155 MB) do not support synchronous mode, but do
handle the negotiation correctly.
o IRIX now has the capability to force a user process to
run only on a particular CPU on a Power Series
multiprocessor system. This facility is provided at
the IRIX command level by the new command runon, which
can be used as a prefix to a command at the shell
level. For example, you can run vi on CPU 1 by using
the following command: runon 1 vi myfile
This facility is also available as a system call from
within a user program: #include <sys/sysmp.h>
main() {
int cpunumber = 1;
sysmp(MP_MUSTRUN, cpunumber);
/*
* At this point, this process will run only on
* cpu 1 except when it needs to run on another
* cpu to access hardware that only exists on
* the other cpu.
*/
/*
* To revert to normal behavior (the process
runs
- 3 -
* on whatever cpu is available), make the
following
* call:
*/
sysmp(MP_RUNANYWHERE,);
... } Refer to the manual pages runon(1) and
sysmp(2) for further information.
4.2.1 System_Configuration_Files The 4D1-3.2 software
release contains some enhancements to /etc/passwd. When you
install your new software, a file called /etc/passwd.N is
installed. Use diff to compare the two files. Then use a
text editor, such as vi, to edit /etc/passwd.N to include
the pertinent login/password information so users can login.
Rename /etc/passwd.N to /etc/passwd. See Section 2.4,
``Finishing Up the Installation'', for more information
about dealing with ``.N'' and ``.O'' files.
4.3 Additions_to_Documentation
o Administrator's Guide for Diskless Workstations
explains how to be the system administrator for one or
more IRIS-4D/20 diskless workstations. It includes
instructions for setting up a server for diskless
workstations, common changes to the diskless tree, and
configuring a disk upgrade.
o STREAMS Primer and STREAMS Programmer's Guides provide
comprehensive reference documentation for using
STREAMS. The primer provides a high level, technical
overview of STREAMS. The programmer's guide contains
information on the use of the STREAMS mechanism at user
and kernel levels.
o Modeling on the IRIS-4D accompanies the Graphics
Library Programming Guide and contains color plates
that illustrate some of the features and capabilities
of the IRIS-4D for 3-D modeling.
o Silicon Graphics Server Owner's Guide is the new
owner's guide for all Silicon Graphics servers. It
explains how to set up the server, back up and restore
data, recover from a system crash, maintain hardware
and software, and perform the first few administrative
tasks. This information used to be combined with
information on Silicon Graphics workstations, in the
IRIS-4D Series Owner's Guide. With the new server
guide, you no longer need to sort through material
intended for workstations.
- 4 -
4.4 Additions_to_Demos
Several demos, which used to be shipped with the GT, have
been added for Personal IRIS and Power Series (GTX) systems:
_______________________________________________________________
buttonfly 3D graphical interface to other demos
solidview display and interact with finite element data
lathe interactive simulation of a lathe
flip interactive rotation of lit objects (replaces spin)
boing a ``rubber planets'' simulation
New demos for the Personal IRIS, GT, and GTX:
______________________________________________________
Demo Description
______________________________________________________
flyray an interactive ray-tracer
logo watch a Silicon Graphics logo being grown
newton enhanced version of jello (more polyhedra)
gview display the results of radiosity calculations
Demos installed on the Personal IRIS only:
_____________________________________
house interactively display a house
Demos installed on GT and Power Series only (need alpha
bitplanes):
___________________________________________________________
Demo Description
___________________________________________________________
mir mirrored objects using z- and alpha-buffer tricks
shadows objects casting shadows on each other
4.5 Additions_to_Networking
The 4D1-3.2 release provides these additions to networking:
o On Power Series multiprocessor systems, the processor
which receives network interrupts can be reassigned.
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The variable network_processor in the file
/usr/sysgen/master.d/kernel defines this processor.
Processor numbering begins at 0. On multiprocessor
systems, the default is to use processor 1. To reassign
the network processor, change this value and use
lboot(1M) to create a new kernel. On single processor
systems, the default value of 0 must not be changed.
The specified processor receives all interrupt levels
which are generated by networking devices, including
all Ethernet and HyperNET VME boards. Currently, this
is only IRQ4. If any unsupported VME boards which
generate IRQ4 are installed in a multiprocessor system,
the network processor should be reassigned to 0 to
insure compatibility with the software driver.
4.6 Additions_to_the_Graphics_Library
4.6.1 NURBS
With the IRIX 3.2 software release comes a major new GL
feature: direct rendering of Trimmed Non-Uniform Rational
B-Spline Surfaces. This new feature is offered through a
combination of software, firmware, and hardware on all
IRIS-4D platforms. NURBS surfaces and trimming curves of up
to 8th order are supported (except for the Personal IRIS
which supports up to 4th order surfaces). Tessellation of
trimmed NURBS surfaces is based not only of the shape and
the view, but also on a user-settable parameter which
controls the size of polygons generated. This gives a
smooth speed/quality tradeoff that the user may adjust
adaptively. Routines supporting this new feature may be
used in both immedate mode and display-list mode. This
interface is compliant with the PHIGS+ specification.
The new routines are:
bgnsurface
bgntrim
endsurface
endtrim
getnurbsproperty
setnurbsproperty
nurbscurve
nurbssurface
pwlcurve
See the Graphics Library Programmer's Guide for more
information.
- 6 -
4.6.2 Rendering
o colorf is a new GL routine to specify fractional
colorindex values using floating point arguments. Use
it to draw shaded colorindex images.
o logicop (only on the Personal IRIS with RE2) is a new
GL routine to specify logical operations to be
performed on pixels drawn by graphic primitives.
4.6.3 Anti-Aliasing Release 4D1-3.2 expands drawing of
antialiased primitives and includes the new feature of
subpixel positioning for point, line and polygon vertices.
Certain capabilities may not exist on all hardware
configurations (see manual pages for details).
o pntsmooth is a new GL routine to cause all points to be
drawn with antialiasing.
o linesmooth allows you to set antialiasing of lines on
or off. New development should use linesmooth instead
of smoothline.
o subpixel is a new GL routine to invoke subpixel
positioning of all lines and points, typically used
with linesmooth and pntsmooth for highest quality of
line and point drawing.
4.6.4 Lighting lmcolor (Personal IRIS and GT) provides a
quick way to change the properties of the current material.
4.6.5 Event_Queue There is a new device, called QFULL.
When it is queued, a QFULL event will be inserted in the
event queue of a GL program at the point at which a queue
overflow occurred. The QFULL event will be returned by
qread(3G) at the point in the input queue at which data was
lost.
4.6.6 Menus
o setpup is a new routine that allows you to affect the
display characteristics of a pop up menu. It allows you
to grey out entries that you don't want to be active,
then later re-enable them without recreating the whole
menu.
o defpup and addtopup calls now understand a %l option
for an entry. It will place a seperating line between
entries in the menu.
- 7 -
4.6.7 Windows swinopen is a new GL routine which creates a
subwindow, or a window within another window (called the
parent of the subwindow). Subwindows maintain a fixed
geometrical relationship with their parent window, that is,
the subwindow moves as the parent window is moved.
4.6.8 Graphics_Peripherals
o videocmd is a new GL routine which initiates command
transfers to video peripherals. Use this to initialize
and request frame transfers from the Live Video
Digitizer option board on the GTX
o IRISphere devices have been added to <gl/device.h>
o STR_RECT is a sybol definded <gl/get.h> for use in
setmonitor/getmonitor to support StereoGraphics stereo
hardware. This new video mode allows 1280x492x2
resolution.
4.6.9 Configuration/Compatibiltiy
o getgdesc is a new GL routine that allows a program to
inquire about characteristics of the graphics system
upon which it is running. Use this to configure your
software at run time based upon the capabilities of the
current graphics system.
o glcompat: A new compatibility mode has been added:
GLC_ZRANGEMAP. It controls whether the domain of the
z-range arguments to lsetdepth, lRGBrange, and
lshaderange is graphics system dependent or
independent.
o gversion now recognizes the RE2 and Turbo Graphics on
the Personal IRIS.
>>>>>>>>>>
3.2 Release notes, Chapter 5
>>>>>>>>>>
- 1 -
5. Changes
This chapter describes changes to IRIX, graphics,
networking, 4Sight, and Program Development tools in system
software release 4D1-3.2.
5.1 Changes_to_IRIX
The 4D1-3.2 release includes these changes to IRIX:
o The sysadm versions of backup and restore are no longer
supported. These utilities have been replaced with new
tools, which are documented in Appendix A, ``Backing Up
and Restoring Your System'' and Appendix B,
``Recovering From a System Crash''
o The beer backup utility is no longer supported.
o Printer device support has been modified for software
release 4D1-3.2 to comply more closely with System V
rules for printer drivers. Some of the lp commands now
have different pathnames and might have additional
options.
When you update to software release 4D1-3.2, remove
your old printer definitions. Then re-install the
printer definitions using the Printer Administration
tool, which is included with the System Manager. See
the IRIS-4D System Administrator's Guide for more
information about using the System Manager.
Old printers will still work even if you don't perform
this procedure. However, administering printer
definitions in the future will be more difficult.
o snapshot(6D), a tool to save a portion of the screen in
an image file, replaces snap(1G). snapshot is much
easier to use.
o Several changes have been made to the libmalloc
routines that are available when a program is linked
with the -lmalloc or -lmpc (the multiprocessing
library) directives.
Two options have been added to the mallopt(3X) routine,
which allows user control of malloc's allocation
algorithm. When malloc(3X) requires additional space
it uses the sbrk(2) system call. It always requests
enough memory for the current malloc request rounded up
to a minimum block size: that size can now be specified
via an M_BLKSZ argument to mallopt.
- 2 -
Additionally, malloc will now abort its search for a
free block of memory and call sbrk(2) for memory to
satisfy a request after it has searched 100 blocks to
no avail. The number of blocks to search can be
changed by calling mallopt to change the M_MXCHK
parameter.
Along with the above change, various algorithmic
changes were made to reduce fragmentation and to speed
up memory coalesing when memory is returned via
free(3X). The changes now ensure that memory allocated
to the user will always be (minimally) double-word
aligned.
o The Extent File System code in IRIX has been enhanced
in software release 4D1-3.2 to support files bigger
than 256 megabytes. In the new software, files are
limited by the size of the disk (the largest Silicon
Graphics currently ships has 1.2 Gbytes unformatted
capacity) and the fact that offsets into the file are
represented by 32-bit integers. The 32-bit limitation
puts the ceiling at 2 Gbytes.
o The IRIX kernel has been enhanced to allow pages of
page table entries and user structures in the kernel to
be pageable. This means fewer pages are wired down by
the kernel, so that in situations where the system is
short on physical memory, more memory is available to
hold user program text and data.
o The graphical system monitor, gr_osview(1), has been
significantly enhanced. It provides additional
information, much more flexible display modes
(including strip charts) and is configurable from a
command file to make the greater flexibility easy to
use. Refer to the gr_osview(1) manual entry for a
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