Chapter 1 Introduction to Graphics on the SPARCstation 10SX and SPARCstation 20

The SPARCstation 10SX is a variant of the SPARCstation 10. The critical architectural difference between the SPARCstation 10 and the SPARCstation 10SX is the video subsystem. The SPARCstation 10SX integrates the graphics/imaging accelerator into the system memory controller. This assembly is referred to as the Scalable Memory Controller (SMC). SMC is an integer vector processor which is used for graphics and imaging acceleration. The accelerator renders directly into DRAM or video RAM. The Sun Microsystems Computer Systems official product name for the graphics/imaging accelerator is SX.

All SPARCstation 20 machines have the SX graphics/imaging accelerator.

The video RAM (here referred to as the frame buffer) for the SPARCstation 10SX is integrated into the system main memory address space. It is available on a video SIMM card (VSIMM) in two configurations:

• With 4 MBytes of video RAM

• With 8 MBytes of video RAM.

This frame buffer offers true color functionality.

The video SIMM by itself functions as a dumb frame buffer. The acceleration when rendering to the video memory is provided by the SX imaging and graphics accelerator. The Sun Microsystems Computer Systems official product name for the frame buffer in SPARCstation 10SX and SPARCstation 20 workstations is cgfourteen.