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Computer peripherals industry

HP Unveils Freedom Series Graphics Accelerators, Revolutionizing 3D Graphics Performance

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

The Hewlett-Packard Company has announced the worldwide commercial shipment of the Freedom Series of high-performance graphics accelerators for its HP 9000 Series 700 workstations. Developed in collaboration with Evans & Sutherland (E&S) Computer Corp., the Freedom Series graphics accelerators deliver industry-leading 3D graphics performance, targeting automotive and industrial designers, and engineers. The accelerators support OpenGL graphics APIs and are available on the Models 715/80 and 715/100 workstations, with future high-performance HP workstations also to be supported.

Key Takeaways:

  • The Freedom Series graphics accelerators from HP deliver industry-leading 3D graphics performance, with up to 4 million 3D vectors per second, 800,000 polygons per second, and 2 million trimesh 3D polygons per second.
  • The accelerators are based on Evans & Sutherland's Velocity technology and support the OpenGL graphics application programming interfaces (APIs).
  • HP is the only workstation vendor to support the eight-module 3400 graphics accelerator, providing the highest OpenGL graphics throughput in the industry.
  • The Freedom Series graphics accelerators are available on the Models 715/80 and 715/100 workstations, with future high-performance HP workstations also to be supported.
  • The accelerators are targeted at automotive and industrial designers, and engineers, with key application areas including mechanical computer-aided design (MCAD), oil and gas, and scientific visualization.
  • HP is working with independent software vendors to optimize their applications for HP's graphics workstations.
  • The Freedom Series graphics accelerators feature sophisticated 3D graphics capabilities, including full X Window System support, hardware-accelerated texture mapping, and anti-aliased lines, points, and polygons.

Statistics:

  • Industry-leading 3D graphics performance of up to 4 million 3D vectors per second.
  • 800,000 polygons per second and 2 million trimesh 3D polygons per second.
  • 64MB RAM, 2GB hard disk, 1MB texture memory, and 20-inch high-resolution color monitor on the HP Model 715/100.
  • $84,355 (U.S.) for the HP Model 715/100 featuring the Freedom Series 3150 system.
  • $124,000 (U.S.) for the HP Model 715/100 featuring the Freedom Series 3250 system.
  • $171,700 (U.S.) for a similarly configured HP Model 715/100 with the Freedom Series 3400 system.
  • 16.7 million concurrent colors with the 24-bit multibuffered frame buffer.

Sources:

  • Hewlett-Packard Company
  • Evans & Sutherland (E&S) Computer Corp.
  • Graphics Performance Characterization (GPC) Committee's OpenGL Characterization Performance (OCP) subcommittee
  • HP Press Release, "HP Unveils Freedom Series Graphics Accelerators"

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