ENHANCEMENT OF SIMULATION/ANIMATION GRAPHICS SYSTEMS

HIGH RESOLUTION SIMULATION/ANIMATION GRAPHICS SYSTEMS MUST INCORPORATE REAL-TIME HIDDEN SURFACE AND EXTERNAL LIGHTING ALGORITHMS FOR DISPLAY REALISM. EXISTING GRAPHICS SYSTEMS WHICH PROVIDE SUCH DISPLAY ALGORITHMS ARE COSTLY AND NOT ADAPTABLE TO A MULTI-USER ENVIRONMENT. THE COMPUTATIONAL TASKS REQUIRED ARE EXTREMELY COMPLEX AND NEED HARDWARE PROCESSORS THAT MUST BE DEVELOPED FOR THAT SPECIFIC PURPOSE. THIS EFFORT SEEKS TO DEVELOP A GRAPHICS SYSTEM WHICH WILL SUPPORT SIMULATION/ANIMATION APPLICATIONS BY PROVIDING THE MODELING AND SHADING CAPABILITIES OF RASTER SCAN TECHNOLOGY WITH THE DISPLAY RESOLUTION AND SPEED OF VECTOR DISPLAYS. THE SYSTEM WILL PROVIDE DATA BASE RESOLUTION NOT AVAILABLE IN ANY GRAPHICS SYSTEMS OTHER THAN SPECIALIZED MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR COMPLEXES. FOR THE PHASE I EFFORT, THE TECHNICAL QUESTIONS THAT WILL BE ADDRESSED TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE ENHANCED GRAPHICS HARDWARE SYSTEM INCLUDE USE OF FLOATING POINT AND ARRAY PROCESSORS; RASTER VERSUS VECTOR DISPLAYS FOR HIGH RESOLUTION SCENE DEFINITION; GENERAL PURPOSE GRAPHICS PROCESSORS; AND GRAPHIC SILICON ARCHITECTURES. AFTER A DEFINITION OF THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR THE GRAPHICS SYSTEM, A JOINT VENTURE WILL BE SOUGHT WITH A SELECTED MANUFACTURER TO DESIGN AND BUILD A PROTOTYPE GRAPHICS SYSTEM UTILIZING PHASE II FUNDING.