Engineering:Timeline of early 3D computer graphics hardware

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This is a timeline of dedicated 3D computer graphics hardware that uses something other than the main CPU of a computer to draw graphics in three dimensions, usually on a two-dimensional standard display, although sometimes on a three-dimensional display like VR goggles. This is a form of hardware acceleration.

In other words, the basic feature is that 3D graphics hardware handles the 3D projection - but possibly for output on a regular display. This is related to the modern term graphics processing unit (GPU) where all the hallmark features of modern 3D hardware appear on a single chip.

The list stops with the release of mainstream 3D graphics cards and the Sony PlayStation and its Toshiba-designed GPU[1] in 1994. Less notable examples are omitted. Much of this information is not readily collected and available so there were probably many more instances than listed.

"Matrix multiplier", "vector processor", "tensor processor", "3D accelerator", "Geometry Engine", and "geometry pipeline" all have related meanings.

Timeline

  • 1963 – MIT's TX-2 computer used to showcase primitive wireframe 3D and hidden line capability with Sketchpad III by Ivan Sutherland.
  • 1963 – RMS Associates, later Information Displays Inc., introduces the Computer Controlled Display. Light pen offered as a peripheral.
  • 1966 – Information Displays Inc. introduces the IDI IDIIOM. Gordon Romney of the University of Utah uses the terminal to produce the first shaded 3D renders that fall.
  • 1967 – Adage graphics terminals such as the AGT/30 with dedicated analog matrix multipliers[2]
  • 1969 – Evans & Sutherland (E&S) Line Drawing System-1 (LDS-1) introduced. First all-digital system to provide matrix multiplication.
  • 1969 – Low-cost graphics terminal IMLAC PDS-1 introduced. Later saw use as an early 3D gaming machine with the likes of Maze War.
  • 1972 – PLATO IV system becomes operational at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Between around 1973 and 1978, several networked multiplayer wireframe 3D games are implemented and popularized by users of the system.
  • 1972 – E&S Continuous Tone 1 (CT1) "Watkins box" system (consisting of an E&S LDS-2 and Shaded Picture System) delivered to Case Western Reserve University. First real-time Gouraud shading machine.
  • 1973 – E&S Picture System 1 (along with optional Shaded Picture System) offered in August issue of Datamation.
  • 1974 – A practical shaded 3D graphics algorithm implemented in software on low-cost, general purpose computers becomes operational at John Staudhammer's Graphics Lab at North Carolina State University.
  • 1975 – A joint effort between Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation and the University of Utah's computer graphics department results in the first ever MOSFET video framebuffer, capable of color and smooth shading.
  • 1977 – E&S Continuous Tone 3 (CT3) system delivered to Lufthansa for pilot training using computer simulation. First graphics system capable of real-time texture mapping.
  • 1979 – Ikonas graphics systems with 8- and 24-bit graphics and 3D acceleration[3]
  • 1981 – Pixel Planes experimental design with very large scale (VLSI) application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs)[4]
  • 1981 – The Geometry Engine, a VLSI ASIC vector processor intended for 3D graphics, was designed by Jim Clark and Marc Hannah at Stanford University under ARPA contract.[5] It was capable of approximately 6 million operations per second.[6]
  • 1983 – Silicon Graphics's IRIS 1000, a terminal with hardware 3D graphics based on the Geometry Engine
  • 1985 – IBM Professional Graphics Controller (PGC)[7]
  • 1985 – IBM 3250 graphics terminal with 3D acceleration
  • 1985 – SGI IRIS Unix workstation with Geometry Engine[8]
  • 1986 – PGC derivatives from Everex, Matrox, NEC, Orchid, Paradise, Vermont Microsystems
  • 1987 – MAGIC VLSI design with transform and lighting[9]
  • 1987 – Raster Technologies Vertex Processor[10]
  • 1987 – Matrox SM-640 incorporates Geometry Engine licensed from SGI in PC 3D accelerator[11]
  • 1988 – SGI IRIS with 10-12 Geometry Engines[12]
  • 1988 – SGI IrisVision AIB (add-in board, expansion card) for IBM MicroChannel bus (RS/6000)[13]
  • 1989 – ShoGraphics, a division of Atari formed after the creation of I, Robot and later spun out into a separate company, plans to release an IBM PC-compatible add-on enabling real-time Gouraud shading and texture mapping, advertised as a "very low-cost CAD system or a very high-cost game console", making it about as capable as consoles released half a decade later. Despite a showing at SIGGRAPH 1989 and promises of delivery by last quarter that year, a commercial product never materialized.
  • 1990 – Intergraph EDGE-2
  • 1991 – SGI Indigo Unix workstation with Elan Graphics
  • 1992 – SGI releases OpenGL an API for controlling 3D hardware which is available to other hardware vendors
  • 1992 – Sun Graphics Tower 3D accelerator
  • 1992 – Intergraph GT
  • 1993 – Sun SPARCstation ZX with Leo VLSI 24-bit 3D accelerator
  • 1993 – HP Artist
  • 1993 – Matrox Millennium
  • 1993 – Panasonic releases the FZ-1 console based on the 3DO system specification, ushering in the 3D era of fifth-generation consoles, later supplemented by the likes of the Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation 1.
  • 1994 – Matrox Impression 3D accelerator board[14]
  • 1994 – VideoLogic introduces PowerVR architecture[15]
  • 1994 – Sony PlayStation with 3D texture mapping on Toshiba-designed GPU[16]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Is it Time to Rename the GPU? | IEEE Computer Society". https://www.computer.org/publications/tech-news/chasing-pixels/is-it-time-to-rename-the-gpu. 
  2. ↑ Peddie (2022), p. 34
  3. ↑ Peddie (2022), p. 34
  4. ↑ Peddie (2022), p. 39
  5. ↑ Clark, James H. (July 1982). "The Geometry Engine: A VLSI Geometry System for Graphics" (PDF). Computer Graphics 16 (3): 127–133. https://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs148-10-summer/docs/1982--clark--geometry_engine.pdf. 
  6. ↑ Template:Cite pdf
  7. ↑ Peddie (2022), p. 113
  8. ↑ Peddie (2022), p. 69
  9. ↑ Peddie (2022), p. 85
  10. ↑ Peddie (2022), p. 87
  11. ↑ Peddie (2022), p. 67
  12. ↑ Peddie (2022), p. 67
  13. ↑ Peddie (2022), p. 69
  14. ↑ Peddie (2022), p. 185
  15. ↑ Peddie (2022), p. 188
  16. ↑ Peddie (2022), p. 235

References

  • Jon Peddie (2022). The History of the GPU - Steps to Invention (1st ed.). Springer. pp. 424. ISBN 978-3031109676. 



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