Hewlett-Packard Co says it and Silicon Graphics Inc are close to burying the hatchet and combining technologies from their respective high-end 3D graphics libraries into a common set of interfaces which CAD/CAM ISVs will be able to use to write a single application that will run on any supported platform after recompiling. The API, one of three sets of graphics programming toolkits being created as part of Microsoft Corp’s next- generation Fahrenheit graphics architecture (CI No 3,314), will combine elements of HP’s DirectModel 3D rendering technology plus SGI’s high-end 3D OpenGL interfaces as well as other technology Microsoft claims to have under development. The large model visualization extension is one of three APIs being developed under the Fahrenheit project. It will plug into a scene graph API based upon SGI’s OpenGL Inventor, Optimizer and OpenGL++ interfaces – plus vertical industry and other work contributed by partners – which in turn rests upon a low-level interface. HP claims DirectModel and the SGI technologies both describe the way data structures are held in memory but have complimentary algorithms, surface shading and other rendering techniques. The resulting large model visualization extension APIs will be given a name and made available for HP and SGI Unix operating systems in addition to Windows NT. Each company will be able to differentiate and optimize their individual implementations. HP says it will use the API to develop new high-end graphics products with which it will make another attempt to take on SGI in the high-end graphics market. Some commentators wonder why it is bothering, asking if it wouldn’t be easier to just buy SGI, a move which would also leapfrog it back over Compaq Computer Corp as the world’s second biggest computer maker.
API battle
Fahrenheit will also incorporate Microsoft’s DirectX graphics APIs, new versions of which were previewed yesterday – see separate story. Microsoft ISVs currently write applications using DirectX or OpenGL toolkits. In teaming with SGI on Fahrenheit last December, Microsoft appeared to be snubbing a previous deal to include HP’s DirectModel in new versions of its DirectX graphics (CI No 3,161). Instead, HP says, SGI’s simultaneous conversion to the WinTel architecture provided a hitherto unavailable opportunity to end the API battle, for which ISVs writing complicated engineering applications had pressing. DirectModel – a mechanism for rendering 3D images up to 100 times faster than current technology – was to have debuted in DirectX 6.0. HP said it decided to hold back productization of DirectModel at the same time as it canned its high-end Visualize PxFl graphics hardware following SGI’s deal with Microsoft. It says it will wait until the new API is agreed before settling on a product plan. It’s a big enough opportunity to step back and wait for a couple of months, HP said. HP which developed DirectModel in conjunction with Engineering Animation Inc, of Ames, Iowa, through 1996 said it had two partnership options for the technology, SGI or Microsoft. A no-brainer at the time (early 1997) given HP’s newly-forged relationship with Microsoft on NT and SGI’s pre-Redmond anti-NT livery. Despite HP’s participation at the higher-end of Fahrenheit it’s clear that SGI technology will become the prevailing architecture for general Microsoft graphics tasks in future.
