VPro, also known as Odyssey, is a computer graphics architecture for

Silicon Graphics Silicon Graphics, Inc. (stylized as SiliconGraphics before 1999, later rebranded SGI, historically known as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems or SGCS) was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and soft ...

workstations A workstation is a special computer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by a single user, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems. The term ''workstat ...

. First released on the Octane2, it was subsequently used on the

Fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work (physics), work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chem ...

and Tezro workstations and the

Onyx Onyx is a typically black-and-white banded variety of agate, a silicate mineral. The bands can also be monochromatic with alternating light and dark bands. ''Sardonyx'' is a variety with red to brown bands alternated with black or white bands. ...

visualization systems, where it was branded InfinitePerformance. VPro provides some very advanced capabilities such as per-pixel lighting, also known as "

phong shading In 3D computer graphics, Phong shading, Phong interpolation, or normal-vector interpolation shading is an interpolation technique for surface shading invented by computer graphics pioneer Bui Tuong Phong. Phong shading interpolates surface no ...

", (through the SGIX_fragment_lighting extension) and 48-bit RGBA color. On the other hand, later designs suffered from constrained bandwidth and poorer texture mapping performance compared to competing GPU solutions, which rapidly caught up to SGI in the market. Four different Odyssey-based VPro graphics board revisions existed, designated V6, V8, V10 and V12. The first series were the V6 and V8, with 32MB and 128MB of RAM respectively; the V10 and V12 had double the geometry performance of the older V6/V8, but were otherwise similar. The V6 and V10 can have up to 8MB RAM allocated to textures, while V8 and V12 can have up to 108MB RAM used for textures. The V10 and V12 boards used in Fuel, Tezro and Onyx 3000 computers use a different XIO connector than the cards used in Octane2 workstations. The VPro graphics subsystem consists of an SGI proprietary chip set and associated software. The chip set consists of the buzz

ASIC An application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC ) is an integrated circuit (IC) chip customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use, such as a chip designed to run in a digital voice recorder or a high-efficien ...

, the pixel blaster and jammer (PB&J) ASIC, and associated

SDRAM Synchronous dynamic random-access memory (synchronous dynamic RAM or SDRAM) is any DRAM where the operation of its external pin interface is coordinated by an externally supplied clock signal. DRAM integrated circuits (ICs) produced from the ...

. The buzz ASIC is a single-chip graphics pipeline. It operates at 251 MHz and contains on-chip SRAM. The buzz ASIC has three interfaces: * Host (16-bit, 400-MHz peer-to-peer XIO link) * SDRAM (The SDRAM is 32 MB (V6 or V10) or 128 MB (V8 or V12); the memory bus operates at half the speed of the buzz ASIC.) * PB&J ASIC As a result of a patent infringement settlement, SGI acquired rights to some of the

Nvidia Quadro Quadro was Nvidia's brand for graphics cards intended for use in workstations running professional computer-aided design (CAD), computer-generated imagery (CGI), digital content creation (DCC) applications, scientific calculations and machine l ...

GPUs and released VPro-branded products (the V3, VR3, V7 and VR7) based on these (the GeForce 256, Quadro, Quadro 2 MXR, and Quadro 2 Pro, respectively). These cards share nothing with the original Odyssey line and could not be used in SGI MIPS workstations. All VPro boards support the OpenGL ARB imaging extensions, allowing for hardware acceleration of numerous imaging operations at real-time rates.

VPro Series (Odyssey-based)

References

External links

* {{Silicon Graphics Graphics chips

VPro The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for ''Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep'', lit. 'Liberal Protestant Radio Broadcaster', nowadays known as ''Omroepvereniging VPRO'') is a Netherlands, Dutch Public broadcasting, public broadca ...