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This page is dedicated to articulating HOT RECOMMENDS
from the janitor's tricorder
based on the DT universe as it manifested in April, 1996
(This third list is the work of ratmandu alone and reflects his absolute
biases about
what he considers to be most boss. Obviously others will
disagreed with this ordering.)
The following topical-prioritizations are included herein:
- OpenGL
- IRIX
- Optimization/Performance
- Silicon Graphics Freeware 1.0 & 2.0 Releases
- Documentation
- Volume Rendering
- Java
- Performer2.0
- OpenGL: FROM THE EXTENSIONS TO THE SOLUTIONS Training Course materials, 2/96
The "OpenGL: from the EXTensions to the SOLutions" WEB Document's
structure follows the path diagram of OpenGL on IMPACT. This diagram
can be first divided into two separate graphic operations:
- Pixel Operations (2D)
- Pixel Transfers
- Imaging Operations (colormatrix, convolution, histogram, ... )
- Texture Transfer
- Primitive Operations (3D) which render 3D geometry
These distinct data-flows then merge into the Rasterization stage,
which generates Fragments data to be transformed into actual pixel
information, which in turn are stored into the Frame Buffer.
Every stage of this data flow, and associated OpenGL state, is
presented with all the relevant OpenGL commands. For the major
industry segments, example code illustrating a given market solution
are also presented, making use of the latest OpenGL EXTensions.
Finally, the OpenGL EXTensions/Specifications/ManPages section wraps
up all of the OpenGL accelerators available on IMPACT.
- OpenGL on Silicon Graphics Systems 3/96 Manual discusses these advanced topics:
- Integrating OpenGL programs with the X Window System
- Using OpenGL extensions
- Debugging OpenGL Programs
- Achieving maximum performance
- The OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT) 3.0 distribution (with API manual), PLUS
- OpenGL and GLX Extensions Specifications, current as of 3/28/96
- GLR, an OpenGL render server facility documentation and source
- IRIX(TM) Device Driver Programming Guide for IRIX 5.3, 3/96,
provides information and procedures for developing,
installing, and testing UNIX® device drivers
for IRIX(TM)
5.2, 5.3, and 6.0. Based on Writing Device Drivers for Silicon
Graphics Workstations (007-0910-010), first published in 1989,
the current version contains numerous corrections and updates as
well as information for new platforms and operating systems.
- IRIX 6.2-based ESSENTIAL READING:
- IRIX 6.2 New Features List document
- IRIX 6.2 64-Bit Architecture and Standards Technical Report, January 22, 1996,
- Controlling a Program's Layout with ELSPEC, 11/95
describes how programmers can use the ELF Layout Specification language,
ELSPEC, to override the default layout of text and data sections within
a program.
- Documentation Catalog for IRIX 6.2
- IRIX 6.2 Execution/Compilation Table for o32, n32, n64 with MIPS{I,II,III,IV},
- IRIX(TM) Device Driver Programming Guide for IRIX 6.2, 3/96,
describes the ways in which hardware devices are integrated into and
controlled from a Silicon Graphics computer system running the IRIX
operating system version 6.2 and above. Three general classes of
device-control software exist in an IRIX system: process-level drivers,
kernel-level drivers, and STREAMS drivers. All three classes are
discussed in this guide, although the greatest amount of attention is
given to kernel-level drivers.
- MIPSpro 64-Bit Porting and Transition Guide, 3/96,
describes porting and transitioning to the MIPSpro 32-bit, 64-bit and high
performance 32-bit (N32) compilers, and how to employ them with IRIX 6.2,
as well as providing techniques for tuning the performance of your R8000
applications.
- MIPSpro(TM) N32 ABI Handbook and an N32 overview, 3/96,
describes the N32 High Performance 32-bit Application Binary Interface
(ABI) for the MIPS architecture including: N32 ABI Overview, Calling
Convention Implementations, N32 Compatibility, Porting, and Assembly
Language Programming Issues, and N32 Examples and Case Studies.
- IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems, 3/96,
discusses important concepts and administration procedures for disks,
filesystems, logical volumes, and guaranteed-rate I/O. These procedures
apply to all Silicon Graphics systems running the IRIX 6.2 release or
later.
- REACT(TM) Real-Time Programmer's Guide, 3/96.
A real-time program is one that must maintain a fixed timing relationship
to external hardware. In order to respond to the hardware quickly and
reliably, a real-time program must have special support from the system
software and hardware. This guide describes the support that IRIX and the
Silicon Graphics CHALLENGE, Onyx, and POWERCHALLENGE computers provide to
real-time programs. The support bundled with all versions of IRIX is
called REACT. A set of extra-cost features is called REACT/Pro. This
guide covers REACT for IRIX 6.2, and REACT/Pro 3.0.
- General IRIX -- non release-specific
- Automating and Scheduling Jobs with Cron, 1/96,
discusses how to use cron(1M) to schedule and manage repetitive jobs that
users and system administrators need to accomplish, or are best done
during off hours when the system load is lighter.
- Caching and Locality discusses issues surrounding computer memory, 11/94
- Getting and Setting User Context Within a Process, 7/95,
provides an example of using the getcontext(2), setcontext(2) and
makecontext(3C) functions introduced in IRIX 5.x. These functions are
useful for implementing user level context switching between multiple
threads of control within a single IRIX process.
- Getting Started With Socket Programming, 5/95,
present an introduction to sockets, an application programming interface
(API) for network applications in a UNIX environment. Sockets are a UNIX
interface to the TCP/IP protocol and were developed at the University of
California at Berkeley.
- Installing and Running IRIX on a Drive Other Than Drive 1, 11/95,
describes two techniques: installing IRIX on a disk drive other than the
one configured as SCSI device 1, and booting from a disk drive other
than the system disk. In addition, this article documents related features
of the PROM monitor, sash, and the miniroot.
- Local and Remote File Locking, 3/96,
discusses how file locking can be utilized in an application, describes
how this type of locking works locally and remotely, and provides some
example code to test data locking on local and remote systems. This
article assumes that the reader is familiar with C programming and has
a basic understanding of NFS.
- Restarting Sendmail, 3/96,
is intended to assist system administrators in recognizing when
sendmail(1M) has encountered a problem and is no longer processing
mail. In addition, information is provided to assist system administrators
in correctly stopping the mail system, recovering messages queued to be
sent, and restarting sendmail. This article does not cover configuring
or debugging the mail system.
- IRIX Admin Manual Set:
new with IRIX 6.2, this manual set is intended for system administrators:
those people who are responsible for servers, multiple systems, and file
structures outside the user's home directory and immediate working
directories.
- IRIX Admin: System Configuration and Operation, 3/96,
lists good general system administration practices and describes system
administration tasks, including configuring the operating system; managing
user accounts, user processes, and disk resources; interacting with the
system while in the PROM monitor; and tuning system performance.
- IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems, 3/96,
discusses important concepts and administration procedures for disks,
filesystems, logical volumes, and guaranteed-rate I/O. These procedures
apply to all Silicon Graphics systems running the IRIX 6.2 release or
later.
- IRIX Admin: Peripheral Devices, 3/96,
explains how to use the system-level IRIX utilities available with IRIS
workstations and servers to set up and maintain peripheral devices, such
as terminals, modems, printers, and CD-ROM and tape drives. Also includes
specifications for the associated cables for these devices.
- IRIX Admin: Networking and Mail, 3/96,
explains how to set up and maintain a network of IRIS workstations and
servers with information on TCP/IP networking, including SLIP and PPP,
UUCP networking, and configuring the sendmail mail transfer agent.
- IRIX Admin: Backup, Security, and Accounting, 3/96,
describes how to back up and restore files, how to protect your system's
and network's security, and how to track system usage on a per-user basis.
- IRIX Admin: Software Installation and Licensing, 3/96,
explains how to install Silicon Graphics software products using Inst, the
command line interface to the IRIX installation utility, inst (see the
inst(1M) reference page). It introduces readers to Silicon Graphics
software release conventions and explains how to plan, execute, and
maintain a software installation on Silicon Graphics workstations and
servers.
- Programming on Silicon Graphics Systems: An Overview, 3/96,
this book is for you if your goal is to write application programs that
run on Silicon Graphics computer, and you know quite a bit about UNIX but
not much about the IRIX operating system; an overview of IRIX and the
tools and libraries it provides is presented, and it tells you where to
go to learn more.
- Topics in IRIX Programming , 3/96,
discusses several topics of interest to programmers writing applications
for the IRIX operating system on Silicon Graphics computers, including
memory management, interprocess communication, models of parallel
computation, file and record locking, font access, and
internationalization.
- Optimization for Real-Time Graphics Applications, 2/96,
examines
- typical application requirements for graphics workstations
- multi-processing issues for graphics subsytems
- graphics workstation pipelines and performance trade-offs
- strategies for diagnosing pipeline bottlenecks
- database structure for traversal
- designing and tuning a real-time application
- run-time diagnostics and load-management strategies
- tools for debugging graphics performance
- MIPSpro(TM) Compiling and Performance Tuning Guide, 3/96,
discusses a variety of issues and tools involved in programming under the
IRIX operating system. It describes the components of MIPSpro compiler
system, other programming tools and interfaces, and dynamic shared
objects. It also explains ways to improve program performance.
- Caching and Locality discusses issues surrounding computer memory, 11/94
- Kernel Processes in IRIX 5.3 and IRIX 6.1, 3/96,
provides a brief description of some of the most commonly asked about
IRIX kernel processes in IRIX 5.3 and IRIX 6.1: shaked, bdflush,
vfs_sync, pdflush, bpqueue and xfsd; none of which have man pages, and
all of which deal with freeing up dynamically allocated kernel memory.
- IRIX Dynamically Loadable Kernel Modules, 3/95,
focuses on what dynamic loadable kernel modules are, which versions of
IRIX support dynamic loadable kernel modules, which IRIX modules are
dynamic loadable kernel modules, when is it appropriate to use dynamic
loadable kernel modules, performance related issues, how to tell if a
dynamic loadable kernel module functions properly, and debugging a
dynamic loadable kernel module.
- Kernel Tuning in IRIX 5.x and IRIX 6.0.x, 7/95,
presents a general discussion on tuning IRIX kernels as well as the
preparation for, and recovery from, an unbootable kernel.
- REACT(TM) Real-Time Programmer's Guide, 3/96.
A real-time program is one that must maintain a fixed timing relationship
to external hardware. In order to respond to the hardware quickly and
reliably, a real-time program must have special support from the system
software and hardware. This guide describes the support that IRIX and the
Silicon Graphics CHALLENGE, Onyx, and POWERCHALLENGE computers provide to
real-time programs. The support bundled with all versions of IRIX is
called REACT. A set of extra-cost features is called REACT/Pro. This
guide covers REACT for IRIX 6.2, and REACT/Pro 3.0.
- Is your X code ready for 64-bit?, 9/95,
focuses on how the coming transition to 64-bit in the workstation world
affects X programmers coding in C or C++. The transition to 64-bit will
be much easier if you are aware of how 64-bit systems affect the X
Window System and the X code you write.
- IRIX Kernel Tunable Parameters, (Appendix A, from IRIX Admin: System Configuration and Operation, 3/96)
- Performance, (Chapter 1, from R10000 Microprocessor User's Manual-Version 1.1, 1/96)
- Performance Tuning for the R8000 (Chapter 6 from MIPSpro(TM) 64-Bit Porting and Transition Guide, 3/96)
- Performance Tuning Tools (Chapter 5, from Programming on Silicon Graphics Systems: An Overview, 3/96)
- System Administration for Guaranteed-Rate I/O (Chapter 9, from IRIX Admin: Disks and Filesystems, 3/96)
- System Performance Tuning (Chapter 11, from IRIX Admin: System Configuration and Operation, 3/96)
- System-Specific Tuning (Chapter 14, from OpenGL on Silicon Graphics Systems, 3/96)
- Tuning Graphics Applications: Examples (Chapter 13, from OpenGL on Silicon Graphics Systems, 3/96)
- Tuning Graphics Applications: Fundamentals (Chapter 11, from OpenGL on Silicon Graphics Systems, 3/96)
- Tuning the Pipeline (Chapter 12, from OpenGL on Silicon Graphics Systems, 3/96)
- Benchmarking Libraries: libpdb and libisfast (Appendix C, from OpenGL on Silicon Graphics Systems, 3/96)
- Models of Parallel Computation, (Chapter 3, from Topics in IRIX Programming, 3/96)
- Multiprocessing Support (Chapter 1, from MIPSpro(TM) 64-Bit Porting and Transition Guide, 3/96)
- KAP's Optimization Flags (-o, -r, -so) (Chapter 1, from MIPSpro(TM) 64-Bit Porting and Transition Guide, 3/96)
- Opimization Levels Passed to KAP (Chapter 1, from MIPSpro(TM) 64-Bit Porting and Transition Guide, 3/96)
- Optimization Switches of the 64-Bit Compilers (Chapter 4, from MIPSpro(TM) 64-Bit Porting and Transition Guide, 3/96)
The list from both these releases -- more than 85 software packages built
on IRIX 5.3 and/or IRIX 6.2 -- is so vast we have elected for the
moment to "cheap out" and simply include the above pointer to the entry point in the
public parent directory to
send those with an interest in these burnin' items
on to that threshold.
--> DON'T FORGET TO INSTALL THE
tardist PROGRAM!!!
- networking:
- Scalability in the XFS File System, 1/96,
describes the architecture and design of a new file system, XFS, for Silicon Graphics' IRIX operating system
- Using Automount, 9/95,
whereby a method is described to share systems among users without requiring a system "belong" to a specific user
- Configuration and Use of PPP 9/95,
addresses the setup and operation of PPP over serial connections. It is assumed that the reader is a system administrator familiar with modems and TCP/IP
- Configuring Multiple Network Interfaces on SGI Systems, 11/95,
provides information to allow the system or network administrator to configure the system properly including: naming the network interfaces, address assignment for the interfaces, and configuring specific parameters for the interface
- R10000
- ELF
- hardware
- (Almost) All About SCSI, 3/95
covers a number of frequent questions about and problems with SCSI (Small
Computer System Interface) devices on the various SGI platforms and
releases, as well as some background information about SCSI. It is not
intended as a general SCSI tutorial. Unfortunately, there are very few
books available on the market that discuss SCSI, and the existing documents
tend to be more implementors' notes than tutorials.
- Mac
- Perl
- approximately 20 Java applets
- a collection of java snippet code
with categories including language, applets, awt, games,
applications, input/output, coding tricks, and tools
- Making Sense of Java
There is as much misinformation about Java as there is information. This
paper lists some common claims and beliefs about Java, along with a
description of how accurate the claims are and where they go astray.
Copyright © 1995-96,
Silicon Graphics, Inc.