As a member of the IRIS 4D workstation family, Indigo2 is binary-compatible with other IRIS 4D workstations; applications written for existing IRIS workstations run with little or no modification on Indigo2, and applications written on an Indigo2 also run on other IRIS 4D systems. Because an Indigo2 supports most of the advanced graphics features found on IRIS Advanced Graphics systems, you can use the less expensive Indigo2 to run advanced graphics applications or to develop applications for more expensive IRIS 4D systems.
Indigo2 workstations come with a rich set of system and application software installed on disk. They present end-users with an intuitive and visually pleasing graphical interface to the operating system, which makes desktop file operations and system configuration fast and simple.
The full hardware power of Indigo2 is made available through bundled end-user tools such as IRIS Showcase 3.2 and IRIS Media Mosaic. Several products for the developer are available, including CASEVision tools, programming and media libraries. The extensive set of software available with the Indigo2 workstation allows both developers and end-users to add interactive 3D, high-resolution images, audio, and video to applications and presentations.
Industry standards are utilized throughout Indigo2 software. From Unix to XII to standard image and audio file formats, Indigo2 provides a standards based environment that allows for easier integration into a heterogenous work environment as well as easier development and maintenance of applications.
All of the end user and developer software outlined in this section is available for IRIX 5.3. Table 1 outlines the availability of IRIX 6.0.1 versions of the software.
Some IRIX 6.0.1 software, most notably the developer tools, provides both 32-bit and 64-bit functionality. Other IRIX 6.0.1 software is fully functional in 32-bit mode and therefore has no 64-bit version. Still other IRIX 6.0.1 software is currently shipping with 32-bit functionality, but will not have the enhanced 64-bit functionality until the next release of the software.
Software Title 32-Bit 64-Bit Notes: Indigo2 Magic Yes N/A Fully functional in 32 Bit mode IRIS Insight Viewer Yes N/A Fully functional in 32 Bit mode Iris Showcase 3.0 Yes N/A Fully functional in 32 Bit mode Media Tools Yes No Digital Media Clip Library Yes No Iris Explorer Yes No 64-bit version TBD X-Winitow System Yes Yes Motif Yes Yes XII/R6 Window System Yes Yes Display Post Script Yes N/A Fully functional in 32 Bit mode Network File System Yes Yes* * 64-bit file access version TBD TCP 3270 No No TBD Network Visaalizer Yes N/A Fully functional in 32 Bit mode 4DWM Yes No CaseVision Workshop Yes Yes* *Debugger only - other features TBD CaseVision Tracker Yes N/A Fully functional in 32 Bit mode CaseVision ClearCase Yes No Power C Yes Yes Fortran Yes Yes Power Fortran Yes Yes ADA Yes No Pascal Yes No IrisGL Yes No Open GL Yes Yes Iris Inventor Yes No 64-bit version TBD Image Processing Library Yes No 64-bit version TBD Audio Library Yes No 64-bit version TBD Video Library Yes No Midi Library Yes No Compression Library Yes No
TABLE 1 IRIX 6.0.1 Software Availability
In addition to the BSD extensions, IRIX includes several enhancements to support the real-time requirements of 3D graphics and audio:
The Indigo2 operating system, IRIX 5.3, is a standards-rich user and programming environment, compliant with the following window system and operating system standards:
The R8000 CPU is currently the only processor that supports IRIX 6.0.1, and some existing drivers will not work with this enhanced operating system. See Table 1 above for a list of software currently supported by IRIX 6.0.1.
IRIX 6.0.1 allows:
4Dwm is an OSF/Motif-compliant window manager similar to the widely-used mwm, but offering enhanced usability and functionality for the end-user. 4Dwm, like most X-based window managers, is customizable to suit the individual user's taste.
IRIX/Motif
The IRIX/Motif toolkit offers an industry-standard API for constructing graphical interfaces. The Motif library is included as part of the Graphics Development Option for Indigo2 and other IRIS 4D workstations. Interactive user-interface builders are also available as an option.
Display PostScript
The Display PostScript (DPS) server from Adobe is shipped as part of the IRIX 5.3 window system. Silicon Graphics is the first company to offer full 24-bit color support in Display PostScript under X. The DPS library is included as part of the Graphics Development Option for Indigo2, and can be used in conjunction with X and Motif to create complete 2D applications.
X11 and the IRIS GL
IRIX 5.3 supports IRIS GL imaging and X-based graphics in separate subwindows of the same parent X window. To make this possible, Silicon Graphics provides a IRIS GL widget and several function calls for easy integration into X applications. This allows applications to use IRIX/Motif for a common, portable, and interoperable user interface and the IRIS Graphics Library for high-performance 3D rendering.
The Silicon Graphics implementation of X11/R6 fully supports GLX, the Open GL extension to the X Window System.
Indigo2 Magic lets you create multiple desktops containing all the applications, files, and tools you need to work on specific projects, or organize your desktops by functions; for example, creating one desktop for software development and another for computer aided design. Indigo2 Magic also includes an extensive collection of media tools including Media Mail (you can send electronic mail with video and audio) and IRIS Showcase 3.0 which provides all the features you need to create interactive multi-media presentations.
Indigo2 Magic provides supports for developer integration into the Media User Interface with support for standard Motif and a common set of resources such as file browsers, movie players, etc. The Indigo Magic Developers kit also offers cut and paste extensions to support all first-class Silicon Graphics data types.
Showcase 3.0 allows you to create, import, and edit Inventor-based 3D models. You can use your primary application to develop model data and then import the data into Showcase to take advantage of Showcase's editing and interactive presentation features. Showcase 3.0 3D editing capabilities include: a material editor, a material palette, a texture editor, and palette, an extrusion profile editor, and a light and shadow editor. Translators to the Inventor file format for DXF, IGES, and several applications are available.
Showcase Hyperscripts allow you lo create interactive documents that include scripted actions linked to objects on a page. Hyperscript actions include page turns, launching other applications, playing video, playing audio and many others.
Showcase also supports a wide selection of font families and point sizes. Fonts can he rotated, scaled interactively, and converted to 2D graphics.
For window management, it provides a full implementation of the X11/R6 Window System, Display PostScript, and 4Dwm, a Motif-based window manager. To resolve any potential color conflicts between X11 and 3D graphics applications, Indigo2 keeps completely separate color maps for both X11 and IRIS Graphics Library applications.
For graphics programming with the XL Graphics configuration (on the R4400SC), Indigo2 offers a software-based implementation of the IRIS Graphics Library (GL). It offers support for input devices such as the mouse, keyboard, spaceball, trackball, and digitizing tablet. It also provides calls for object modeling in 3D space for spatial transformations (providing perspective and viewpoint control, etc.), for lighting, rendering polygonal and spline surfaces, smooth animation, and many other graphics tasks. It provides the full set of IRIS Advanced Graphics graphics features (with the exception of stencil-plane and alpha source-blending functions), which include fogging and multiple arbitrary clipping planes. In addition, with IRIX 5.3, IRIS GL graphics can be displayed within subwindows of X applications, allowing IRIS GL programmers to take advantage of Motif and other Xll-based user interface toolkits, and X programmers to make use of high-performance graphics.
For image processing on an Indigo2, the Silicon Graphics ImageVision Library offers an object-oriented extensible toolkit for creating, processing, and displaying images. Its core set of over 70 routines provides general-purpose image operators which are easily augmented using abstract data types (objects) and access functions (methods). It also provides a general interface for image-processing applications, support for SGI, TIFF, and FIT formats, an optimal memory model for handling large images, and an architecture that supports general image types.
Premiere third-party CASE products supplement Silicon Graphics' solutions. The ToolTalk integration mechanism allows both Silicon Graphics' and third-party solutions to be tightly integrated so users can concentrate on the job at hand instead of managing the boundaries between the individual tools. The CASEVision environment is optional and composed of the following major components:
CASEVision/Workshop is an Interactive programming environment that consists of a Static Analyzer, a visual Debugger, a Performance Analyzer and a Build Analyzer.
CASEVision/ClearCase is an advanced Configuration Management, Version Control and Build Management system designed to support large-scale development.
CASEVision/Tracker is a flexible event tracking system that is tightly integrated with other CASEVision solutions.
IRIX 5.3 includes a set of profiling tools that can identify CPU-intensive code fragments to help focus optimization efforts. Prof and pixie provide detailed analyses of application performance. Grosview gives a view of system loading; users can see what percentages of the available CPU, I/O, and other resources are being used at any given time.
IRIX 5.3 also includes general and specialized debuggers. Dbx, a standard UNIX source-level debugger is included. In addition, IRIX 5.3 comes with gldebug, specifically designed for debugging graphics applications created using the IRIS Graphics Library. It includes a viewer which graphically displays the state of the IRIS GL as the application is running, and a controller, which lets you interactively set break points and change the level of debugging output.
IRIS GL programmers define object, world, and viewing coordinate systems, and apply orthographic or perspective projections to map them to any viewport on the screen. Objects can be translated, rotated, and scaled in real time, without flicker, by taking advantage of high-speed IRIS GL 3D rendering capabilities and double buffering. IRIS GL includes powerful primitives that allow programmers to create points, lines, arcs, circles, polygons, parametric curves, rational bicubic patches, and Gouraud shaded, Z-buffered solids. Complex objects can be quickly built by combining these primitives.
Advanced Graphics Features
Indigo2 supports most IRIS GL functions, including IRIS Advanced Graphics functions found on high-end IRIS workstations. All Indigo2 workstation configurations support the following Advanced Graphics features:
In IRIX 5.3, the IRIS GL is network-transparent; any IRIS GL program may be run remotely from another IRIS 4D workstation sharing the same network as the host workstation. Users can set the DISPLAY variable in their environment to the name of the workstation to which they want to send IRIS GL (and X11) applications to be imaged (the IRIS GL works remotely only on other IRIS workstations running IRIX 5.3).
The Digital Media Development Option offers a comprehensive and intelligent environment for digital media application development on the Indigo2 Workstation. Six library modules callable from C and C++ enable the rapid development of audio, video and MIDI applications that need to use the Indigo2 workstation's unique hardware features. DMDEV gives you the power to access the world of digital media.
The Audio Library and Audio File Library access the basic capabilities: reading and writing samples from the hardware and reading and writing disk files in AIFF and AIFF-C formats. The CD-ROM Audio Library and DAT Audio Library provide transport control and access the audio capabilities of the optional CD-ROM and DAT drives. The MIDI Library supports reading and writing of time-stamped MIDI messages through Indigo2 serial ports using a Macintosh serial port to MIDI converter, it also assists with the parsing of incoming MIDI messages.
Indigo2 workstations connect out of the box to Ethernet networks. In addition, several optional networking products are currently available: