The Very Unofficial IrisVison Home Page   By Roger Brown
IrisGL Application Programming Interface  (Same as below, but HTML) 
Graphics Library Programming Guide, Volume I 
Graphics Library Programming Guide, Volume II 

IrisVision drivers and related software:
    * Here are copies of the IrisVision software, 24-bit color demos, and IrisView DXF file viewer:
          o The SGI v2.00 disk images - 5.6MB pkzip archive.
          o The Pellucid 2.10 (beta) disk images (w/o IrisView) - 2.9MB pkzip archive.  [ivs210.zip]
                + Copy of the GL.386 file for the above (86KB). 
    * Autodesk ADI Combined Display/Rendering driver:
          o Click here to download the ISA version of the driver (550Kb)
          o Click here to download the MCA version of the driver (550Kb) 
    * Windows 3.x display driver disk image.
    * IrisVision GL Software Developer's Kit v 2.10 disk image (1 Mb).
          o You'll need to set a few environment variables, this file has some example settings
          o Here's a link to on-line version for all the IrisGL API.[outdated]

Note to PS/2 MicroChannel Users:
    * The Windows display driver (above) are for the ISA IRISVISION card, only. Unfortunately, it seems when Pellucid developed this driver, they did not include support for the MCA version of the board set. 

IrisVision Technical Reference. About 700 pages.
irisvision_technical_reference_toc.pdf   393,985
irisvision_technical_reference_1.pdf      30,153
irisvision_technical_reference_2.pdf     130,719
irisvision_technical_reference_3.pdf     894,054
irisvision_technical_reference_4.pdf    2,819,748
irisvision_technical_reference_5.pdf    7,749,509
irisvision_technical_reference_6.pdf   12,319,323
irisvision_technical_reference_7.pdf    7,216,138

IrisVision Cards
MEV2 Card
MZB1 Card
MGE2 Card
MRV2 Card
IrisVision Block Diagram
Product Description
Timing Parameters
ADF Sections 

MZB1 24 Bit Video Buffer FRU: 42F6889

P8 Z Buffer Utility Bus  U16-U45 TI TMS44C256DJ -10       or Toshiba TC514256AJ-10

U60 MZB 7923

   This is the optional 24-bit hardware z-buffer card. The function of the z-buffer is to perform hidden surface removal via a depth test mechanism. In the traditional application, each pixel's "Z" coordinate value is tested against the value already present in that location in the z-buffer. If it is smaller (i.e. closer to the eye) the pixel is updated with the current value and the z-buffer is updated. By controlling the z-buffer operation, a number of other useful operations can performed. 
   For non-3D applications, the z-buffer can be used as an off-screen memory buffer for saving the contents of the normal framebuffer. As no host to adapter memory transfer takes place, this operation is very fast. The z-buffer is implemented in dynamic RAM (DRAM) and consists of 3.75 MB of DRAM.

MGE2 Geometry Engine FRU: 42F6842

P2 Geometry Engine Bus P3 Utility Bus U15 SGI L1A5205 U17 40.000 MHz U25 SGI L1A3578

U47-51 IDT 7201 U62 Weitek XL-3132 100-GCD U64 MGE 7951 U67 SGI L1A4252 U26-29,36,38,40,42,44 IDT 7164

   This is the MicroChannel Geometry Engine. It is based upon the HQ integer processor from SGI (rated at 10 MIPS) and the Weitek XL-3132 floating point processor (rated at 20 MFLOPS). The geometry engine provides the host interface, handles DMA operations, and handles all the matrix operations, lighting and coordinate transformations.

MRV2 Raster Video FRU: 71F1151

   This is the MicroChannel Raster Video Engine. It is based upon the RE 2.1 raster engine chip from SGI. The raster engine provides all the per-fragment and -pixel operations. It also contains the raster scanning hardware and video signal generation circuitry. It only obtains power and ground from the bus, no other bus signals are used. In addition to the two ribbon cables from the Geometry Engine, a third connection services the Genlock features of the Raster Engine. 
   On the card edge connector, are the VGA passthrough connector and the HiRes video output connector. The Raster Video card contains the basic 8-bitplanes of framebuffer memory as well as 2 bitplanes of overlay framebuffer and 2 bits of window ID bitplanes, for a total of 12 bpp.
   This card features an RGB video output connector (large w/plug-style connectors) and a genlock input/output connector (15-pin DSUB). If you happen to find an IBM-style card set and need the RGB video cable, let me know. (I'll pass it on to Roger).
   The MZB1 plugs onto the back (circuitboard side) of this card (use the short screws). The MEV2 plugs on to the front side (component side) of the card (use long screws).

Removing Connector Cable
   Squeeze the metal clips on the ends of the connectors and pull the connector off the header. 

Plugging Connector Cables Back On
   Sqeeze the metal clips so that the loose ends of the clip enter the catch on the header. 

  The following block diagram is derived from the IrisVision Block Diagram on The Very Unofficial IrisVison Home Page

Stolen from Roger Brown's The Very Unofficial IrisVison Home Page

Hardware:
   The IrisVision  hardware is nearly identical to the graphics sub-system in the SGI Personal Iris workstation introduced in 1988. The hardware supports a 5th generation geometry processing pipeline, the GE5, an 8 or 24 bit per pixel frame buffer, and a 24-bit per pixel z-buffer for hidden surface removal. The card set implements in hardware, the entire IrisGL graphics Application Programming Interface (API). 

Notable differences from the Personal Iris graphics are: 
     Uses 256K VRAM instead of 64K VRAM for reduced size 
     Has a 3 color cursor instead of 1 color for increased visibility 
     Has VGA pass-through capability for PC compatibility 

The card has a rich set of video and rendering modes consistent with the Personal Iris. 

Origins of the IrisVision
   The product came to life originally as an OEM graphics board set based upon the VME bus in the Personal IRIS . Later, IBM approached SGI to develop a Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) version of the card for use in their newly introduced RS-6000 Unix workstation. IBM licensed the MCA card design as well as the IrisGL graphics library from SGI. 
   In the process of testing the product, it was discovered that an IBM PS/2 model 70 personal computer running OS/2 could be used to run diagnostics and test programs on the card much easier than using the RS-6000. So a minimal device driver was written for the card and soon IBM was shipping product.  (Ed. Roger Brown can't find the "minimal OS/2 drivers" and he works for SGI.) 

   At some point, the light went off in someone's head; "Why don't we sell this board set for use in PCs?". IrisVision was born. Initially, the MCA card was re-designed to offer some features critical for the PC market, including standard 15-pin VGA-style video output and a 15-pin VGA passthrough input connector. The IBM genlock connector was moved to the top of the card, and stereo display signals were also brought out to the VGA passthrough connector. The card occupied 1 32-bit MCA slot and an adjacent 16/32 bit slot. One or two daughter boards provided framebuffer and z-buffer memory. 
   Work then began on the design of an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA or AT-bus) version of the card. It would occupy 2 16-bit ISA slots and use the identical daughter cards as the MCA (and IBM) versions of the board set. 

Software:
   The IrisGL API is implemented in a C-language library developed with the Metaware High-C 32-bit C compiler and the PharLap 32-bit DOS-Extender. It was designed to run in a full screen DOS environment. At the time, M/S Windows did not offer a 32-bit programming environment, so the PharLap DOS-Extender technology was the most sophisticated solution available. It features full 32-bit virtual addressing (2 GB application space), virtual memory support, and seamless integration of real and protected mode programs. The MetaWare High-C compiler is ANSI compatible and is just the ticket for compiling Unix source code to run under DOS-Extender on the IrisVision card. 

Original HERE

Video Resolution
Parameter	High	Stereo	Medium	NTSC	PAL
Pixel Clock (MHz)	107.3	107.3	64.00	12.27	15.00
Horizontal Freq (KHz)	63.9	63.9	48.78	15.73	15.63
Frame Rate (Hz)	60.0	120.0	60.00	29.97	25.00
Field Rate (Hz)	60.0	120.0	60.00	59.94	50.00
HORIZONTAL
Visible Pixels	1280	1280	1024	640	768
Line Period (uS)	15.70		20.63	63.56	64.00
Blanking (uS)	3.73		4.69	11.00	12.00
Front Porch (uS)	0.28		1.10	1.63	1.67
Sync Width (uS)	1.12		1.25	4.89	4.67
Back Porch (uS)	2.34		2.34	4.48	5.67
VERTICAL
Visible Lines	1024	492	768	480	576
Front Porch (mS)	0.047		0.062	0.191	0.160
Sync Width (mS)	0.047		0.062	0.191	0.160
Back Porch (mS)	0.450		0.804	0.890	1.280

Interrupt Level
   Determines the interrupt level used by IRISVISION Adapter.
    <" Level 2 " >, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12

Memory Mapped I/O Address Range
   Determines the range of Memory Mapped I/O addresses used by the IRISVISION Adapter.  The addresses in this range cannot be used by any other installed device.
   <" 0C0000 to 0C7FFF " >, 0C8000 to 0CFFFF, 0D0000 to 0D7FFF, 0D8000 to 0DFFFF

Arbitration Level
   Determines the bus arbitration level used.
  <" Arb Level 1 ">, 0, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

  I usually don't mess with Trademarks, but that of SGI is very classy Trademark Info just was too damn good. Class act, SGI! I wish M$ and their bloodsucking shark team was only a tenth as smooth as you! Sorry, SGI, Netscape makes them durned TM's and Registered marks look like ASCII. 

   SGI does not endorse any of the information on this page. They retain all rights to their trademarks. Further, this information is furnished on an "As Is" basis. If you fry your monitor or card, that's your problem.