VX(4S)

NAME
vx - Sun Visualization Accelerator and Multiprocessor Visualization Accelerator

CONFIG - SUN-4 SYSTEMS
device vx0 at vme32d32 3 csr 0x30000000 priority 4
					    vector vxintr 0xaa cgvxintr 0xab
device vx0 at vme32d32 4 csr 0x30000000 priority 4
					    vector vxintr 0xaa cgvxintr 0xab

The first line should be used to generate a kernel for Sun-4/370 and Sun-4/330 systems. The second line should be used to generate a kernel for Sun-4/470 systems.

AVAILABILITY

VX/MVX can only be used in Sun-4 VME-bus packages with 3 or more full size (9U) slots. An MVX can only be used in combination with a VX.

DESCRIPTION

The vx interface supports the optional VX/MVX Visualization Accelerator. The VX and MVX are visualization accelerators that provide high-speed computing power for such techniques as image processing, volume rendering, 3-D interactive graphics, and high quality rendering. Each of the devices, the VX and the MVX, is a full size (9U) VME board.

The VX is a single-board accelerator with a high-performance processing node, 4Mbytes of program/data memory, and an additional 16 Mbytes of image/data memory. It contains two frame buffers; a low-end graphics accelerator designed to enhance vector and polygon drawing performance, and a full color frame buffer accelerated by the processing node.

The low-end graphics accelerator is nearly identical to the cgsix or GX device. It has a 2 MByte 8-bit color frame buffer and provides the standard frame buffer interface as defined in fbio(4S). As with the cgsix, this part of the VX has registers and memory that may be mapped with mmap(2), using the offsets defined in <sundev/vxreg.h>.

The full color frame buffer is 16 MBytes of 32-bit image memory. See the VX/MVX Programming with the Graphics and Visualization Library for detailed information on accessing the full color frame buffer and the processing node.

The MVX is a multiprocessor accelerator with four parallel processing nodes. Each node is identical to the processing node on the VX board and each has 4 Mbytes of program/data memory.

Programs can be downloaded for execution on the VX/MVX directly, they can be executed by the host processor, or the host processor and the VX/MVX engine can be used in combination. See the VX/MVX Programming with the C Developer's Kit for detailed information on accessing the VX/MVX from the host. This manual also describes the C compiler, the programming tools, and the support libraries for the VX/MVX.

SEE ALSO
mmap(2), fbio(4S), cgsix(4)

Software Installation for the VX and MVX Visualization Accelerators

Hardware Installation for the VX and MVX Visualization Accelerators

VX/MVX Programming with the C Developer's Kit

VX/MVX Programming with the Graphics and Visualization Library