a U

*FSELECTIVE Selective Update Editor:U W1~~WS EVE Jerry Schneider

Dept. of Civil EngineeringUPD\a,l l._ ATE. - University of Washington

Mail Stop FX-10UPDATE ~ __Seattle,WA 98195

Automated system speeds up chip design

A new computer-aided system thatcan reduce the cost of designing VLSIcomputer logic chips by as much as 90percent was described by IBM engineersRichard Donze, Jacob Sanders, MichaelJenkins, and George Sporzynski in apaper presented at the 19th DesignAutomation Conference, held June14-16 in Las Vegas.The system, according to the authors,

provides the advantages of a customizedchip-high performance and high den-sity-through automated design. It facil-itates the design of chips containingover 7000 circuits and some 30,000transistors.A recent addition to IBM's com-

panywide Engineering Design System,the new system automates every stage ofthe design cycle, from the initial entryof the designer's ideas to the finalchecks before release of the chip designto manufacturing.The system is based on the "master

image," or "standard cell," approach,which, compared to the widely used"gate array" technique, allows thedesigner more flexibility in the choice ofdesign elements and makes it possible topack more circuits onto the chip. In a

gate array circuit, elements are fabri-cated in rectangular grids on the surfaceof a chip. Then, a design programautomatically determines which of theprepositioned elements should be inter-connected to carry out a desired logicfunction.The master image approach also

places logic circuits within a rectangularframework. In this case, however, thearray consists of empty cells that arefilled with circuits during the designprocess. Prototype chips designed andfabricated at IBM with the aid of thenew system contain 2508 cells in the in-terior of the chip and 103 cells on theperiphery for placement of input/out-put circuitry. The system's automaticplacement and wiring programs positioncircuits chosen by the designer inavailable cells and then connect themalong the shortest possible paths.

Designers choose from a systemlibrary, which includes circuits rangingfrom simple AND gates to more com-plex functions such as decoders andlatches. Designers can also select large,complex circuits, called macros-thekey to the system's ability to producecustomlike chips. Macros currently

available include eight static RAMs,ranging in size from 144 bits to 4608bits, and a variety of PLAs.

After the macros are manually placedon the chip image, the rest of the cir-cuits are placed automatically, using ahierarchical placement program. First,entire blocks of circuits are placed inrelatively large areas of the chip. Thecircuit blocks are then broken downinto smaller groups, which are distri-buted into still smaller areas until eachcell of the macro image contains two orthree circuits.The wiring program, too, proceeds by

stages. An approximate solution is ob-tained first, through trial and error,with a scoring technique that seeks tominimize the number of wire crossings.Then a detailed wiring program is usedto arrive at the most efficient layout.A delay calculator/optimizer assures

that the specified performance char-acteristics of the chip can be achieved.This effectively insulates the logicdesigner from the problems of physicaldesign. If a circuit block does not meetits required performance level, the delaycalculator/optimizer automaticallyreplaces it with one that does.

UK research team to explore human-computer interface

The Science and EngineeringResearch Council of Great Britain hasallocated £705,000 for a renewable four-year grant to provide support for amultidisciplinary research team underthe leadership of Ernest Edmonds atLeicester Polytechnic. The team willwork on user interfaces, paying par-ticular attention to speech input, imagehandling, dialogue implementation, andevaluation of human-computer systems.

Examples of some of the proposedprojects include introducing a touch

screen into the team's graphics work,using the same device to replace thekeyboard in dialogue implementationresearch, and investigating an integratedsystem that will incorporate results fromthe dialogue, graphics, and evaluationstreams.

Project researchers will be aided intheir efforts by three organizations-Marconi Radar Systems, the BBC, andUnilever Research. Marconi will providetechnicians for the hardware implemen-tation project; the BBC will give access

to special equipment for the speechproject; and Unilever will assist with theevaluation of dialogue implementationlanguages and provide some funds forthe group.

Researchers will be using a GEC 409032-bit minicomputer, which will func-tion as a node on SERC's InteractiveComputing Facility network. Otherequipment will include a PERQ per-sonal computer system and a SigmaArgs display with a 750K-byte framebuffer.

IEEE CG&A96

Pratt Center offers computergraphics seminars

The Pratt Center for ComputerGraphics in Design has announced itsfall seminar program."Computer Animation" (October I

at the Essex House in New York) willfeature presentations by six computeranimation houses, four of which pro-

duced the computer-generated imageryfor Walt Disney Productions' Tron.Speakers from Robert Abel andAssociates, Digital Effects, InformationInternational, Inc., Lucasfilm Ltd.,Magi, and NYIT will discuss their ap-

proaches to animation and scene

simulation and the use of computergraphics technology in film and video.

"Computer-Aided Product Design"(November 15 and 16 at the HyattRegency in Chicago) will focus on areas

of product design affected by computergraphics technology. Topics will includecomputer-aided simulated productdesign, rendering, model-making,ergonomics, CAD, and furniture andautomobile design.

"Computer-Aided Graphic Arts andVisual Communications" (December 13and 14 at the Essex House in New York)will include talks by a dozen experts on

computer-aided page makeup,computer-aided publication systems,video editing, the video paint system,personal videodisks, videotex, videogames, and computer slides.

Sessions are informal, and audience-speaker dialogue is encouraged by paneldiscussions. For more information, con-tact Perry Jeffe, Pratt Center, 505White Plains Rd., Tarrytown, NY10591; (914) 631-8772.

Graphics films demonstrateaircraft design

Two training films, Interactive Com-puter Graphics: An Exchange BetweenMan and Machine and ComputerizedAirplane Design and Manufacturing,both from Boeing, are now availablefrom the company.The first demonstrates the hardware

and processes of interactive computergraphics in a comparatively nontech-nical manner; the second shows howdata is passed from one design stage toanother, taking the viewer from pre-

liminary design to quality control.Information about the films, which

are also available in videotape format,can be obtained by writing Boeing Com-puter Services Company, Education andTraining Division, PO Box 24346, M/S9A-90, Seattle, WA 98124.

September 1982

Summer '83 graphicsconferences announced

The 1983 schedules of three majorsummer conferences have been set,perhaps posing some difficult choicesfor potential attendees.

The 20th Design Automation Con-ference, sponsored by the ACM andthe IEEE Computer Society, will beheld June 26-29 in Miami Beach, coin-ciding with the June 26-30 schedule ofNCGA '83, to be held in Chicago (seestory on page 99).

Siggraph '83, the 10th Annual Con-ference on Computer Graphics and In-teractive Techniques, has been set forJuly 25-29 in Detroit. In addition topaper and panel sessions, the con-ference will include tutorials, film andvideotape shows, and an exhibit ofcomputer equipment-200,000 squarefeet have been booked at Cobo Hallfor the show. (For further details see theProfessional Calendar on pages 102-103in this issue.)

Reader Service Number 35 >

PRINTED AND INTEGRATEDCIRCUIT CAD-1981

* This new comprehensive study,published December 1981, coversturnkey and software PC and ICCAD design systems. It comparesand evaluates functionalperformance, configurations,hardware, software, features, andcosts.

* More than 500 pages in length andthoroughly illustrated, the reportalso analyzes the status and trendsof design automation, artwork,generation, and fine linelithography.

* An industry reference standardessential to cost reduction andproductivity gains, the studycontains current product andmarket data and trend information.Price: $1075. For descriptivefolder, contact-

INTERNATIONALTECHNOLOGY MARKETING

120 Cedar StreetWellesley, MA 02181Tel: 617/237-2089

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN

[OMPUTER GRAPHICSCAD/CAM SystemsGraphic Peripherals

The Computer Graphics market is one of the most dynamic growth fieldsof all EDP Technologies and offers unsurpassed career opportunities to pro-fessional level personnel with experience in a wide range of engineering/technical/commercial applications.

C. J. Vincent Associates, the leading professional recruitment firm servic-ing this industry, is experiencing an unprecedented demand from our clientcompanies for qualified professional level candidates on a World-Wide basis.Multiple openings include:

* Sales/Marketing Management* Application/Systems Engineers* Sales Engineers* Field Service Engineers* Hardware and Software Engineers

Compensation for qualified candidates ranges from $20,000 (entree level)to over $60,000 (management positions) with realistic potential for higherincome in sales and sales management.

If you are interested in persuing a career in this dynamic growth industry,we can facilitate your search and evaluation. All fees are paid by client com-panies. Please send resume or call: Vincent J. Cucuzzella or Jack Cook.

C. J.VINCENT ASSOCIATES, INC.2000 Century Plaza, Columbia, Maryland 21044 (301) 997-8590

Fee Paid Agency for High Technology Professionals-NATIONWIDEI

.....

.....0

NCGA '82 Wrap-Up

An industry comes of age

Joe Schallan, Contributing Editor

Every new computer-based technologyrecapitulates the history of computingitself: Each moves from an emphasis ontechnique to an emphasis on use.Developers must work out basic hardwareand algorithms before they can turn todesign for ease of use. This seems to be anatural path of technical development,one that suggests that a technology hasmatured when the shift of emphasis tothe user takes place.

For computer graphics, the transitionseems to have occurred sometime be-tween last summer's conferences and thisyear's conference and exhibition of theNational Computer Graphics Associa-tion, held June 13-17 in Anaheim,California. Speakers at technical ses-sions-regardless of their special-ties-kept returning to the theme of easeof use. Vendors on the exhibit floorshowed products with more human-engineered features than ever before.Everywhere, as never before, the talk wasof human factors, ergonomics, menuingand prompting, the psychology ofgraphic representation, and the speed ofoperator training. Less was heard of bitplanes and refresh rates, more of learningcurves and user acceptance.

Perhaps another sign of maturity in theCG industry is its more pragmatic, world-ly outlook. Technical virtuosity stilldazzles, but it is no longer at the centerof everyone's attention. Commandingcenter stage now is a man in a three-piecesuit-probably a representative of a largeventure capital organization-asking hardquestions about the viability of a productin the marketplace: Who will buy it?Why? Will they get the kind of perform-

NCGA conference attendance andexhibitors, 1980-1982.

TOTALREGISTERED EXHIBITORS

1980,ARLINGTON, VA 1700 221981,BALTIMORE, MD 8700 1031982,ANAHEIM, CA 22,000 162

NCGA '82's attendance statistics mirrorthe health of the computer graphics in-dustry. Conference registrants totaled22,204, with 4486 attending the 85tutorials and technical sessions.

ance and support that will make themwant to buy again?

Design for ease of use will help providethe right answers to these ques-tions-especially the last one. Use hassuddenly become important because mostof the growth of the CG marketplace willbe provided by technically un-sophisticated customers. Industry analystspredict that the bulk of the market'sgrowth in the 1980's will occur in justtwo areas-computer-aided design andbusiness. Typical users-mechanicalengineers or marketing vice-presidents,for example-will not want to bebothered by technical detail. Industryanalyst and consultant Carl Machover,who chaired a technical session titled"Hardware Directions for the Future,"summed up the situation in his introduc-tory remarks: Despite ebullient predic-tions about the growth of the industry,there is a danger of losing the market ifgraphics products fail to meet the needsof users who don't know "what's in thebox." It now takes six months to oneyear for an unsophisticated user to learna new graphics system, Machover noted.This represents a considerable liability tothe buyer in addition to the cost of theequipment and software. "We must beable to do better," Machover said to the400 CG system designers and program-mers in his audience.

The CG market and the user.Machover described the size of the mar-ket to be won or lost: Today's $2.6 bil-lion computer graphics industry couldgrow to $10 billion by 1987 if the current30 to 35 percent per year growth rate canbe maintained. The demand for graphicssystems remains high, even in recession-ary times, partly because potential buyersview them as productivity-enhancing in-vestments. Confidence remainshigh-Machover estimated that 10 per-cent of the 162 NCGA '82 exhibitorswere new start-ups that did not exist ayear ago.The major technical trend in the in-

dustry is the continuing development ofhardware and software to provide morerealistic images, Machover said. Systemswill be faster (more pixels displayed persecond), easier for applications program-mers to use (more code developmenttools available in intelligent workstations),and cheaper. But as Machover cautioned,the market can only be captured if such

capability is combined with design forease of use. System developers must helpusers more quickly descend the learningcurve. In addition to faster and cheaperhardware, they must devise new ways forusers to communicate with machines,Machover emphasized.

Iconics. The research of one speaker inthe hardware directions session involvedone such new method of man-machinecommunication. Kenneth N. Lodding ofDigital Equipment Corporation describedhis work with icons-widely recognized,nonlexical images that carry informationto the viewer. Research shows that suchimages-a cigarette in a barred circle for"no smoking" is an example-are pro-cessed by the brain in parallel fashion anddirectly entered into long-term memory.Text, in contrast, is processed by thebrain in a strictly serial fashion. Iconic in-formation is more easily rememberedsimply because the brain can recall imagesmuch better than it can recall text. More-over, icons can more easily cross culturalbarriers, since they are language-independent.

But the graphics system desig,ner whowould use icons in a product to be inter-nationally marketed must be cautious,Lodding warned. Colors signify differentthings in different cultures. In India, forexample, white, not black, is associatedwith mourning, Lodding noted. Incultures in which text is read right-to-left,images are also scanned in right-to-leftfashion, a fact especially critical if an iconconsists of a row of images. Icons mustbe carefully designed so that they will notbe misinterpreted.The icon's significance may be that it

represents a leap out of traditional waysof thinking about man-machine commu-nication. As Lodding noted, the iconshows that graphics "can be used not on-ly to present the output of one's work,but also as a means to interface to adevice. "

Hardcopy. Multifunctionality of hard-copy output devices will be a major userconcern in the 80's, according to Ver-satec's Alan Dawes, another speaker inthe hardware directions session. Users willwant a single unit that can providevarious output on various media. A plot-ter will have to be able to draw on bothpaper and mylar, for example. Units willhave to cost even less than they do now if

98 IEEE CG&A98 IEEE CG&A

potential markets are to be captured, andthey will have to offer higher imagequality-greater resolution-at theselower prices. Finally, the widespread useof raster graphics will create a demandfor intelligent printer/plotters-rastergraphics involves many-megabit datatransfers and users will find it cost-effective to buy units that can offloadtheir CPUs.

The future. Users will demand colorgraphics because its use, in the properhands, enhances comprehension,Machover noted in closing the session.This demand, coupled with descendinglogic and memory costs, will favor rastergraphics technology in the 1980's. Indeed,the per-copy cost of color output isalready competitive with monochromaticoutput, Machover pointed out. The rastermarket-$400 million in 1981-will grow

at 40 percent per year, outstripping thegrowth rate of the CG industry as a

whole, he predicted.A raster graphics market having one of

the greatest potentials for growth is"business graphics'-the summarizationand presentation of management in-formation through automated chartmak-ing. Human factors will be of critical im-portance here, since most of the manypotential business users will be technicallyunsophisticated. Machover noted that theconsiderable growth in this area that hasalready occurred has been spurred by theIBM 3279 display, a character-orientedraster unit. Color character graphics arosefrom the need of the process control in-dustry for cheap color information dis-play, he pointed out, but character-oriented displays will be supplanted byeven cheaper bit-mapped raster displays.Videotex may also drive the growth ofbusiness graphics, according toMachover.

Also contributing to the upsurge inraster graphics is the elimination of thetechnology's original response-timelimitations. Pixel addressing times are

declining and refresh rates are improving,he noted.Adding to Dawes' observations on user

demand for multifunctionality, Machoverobserved that such demand may inducemore manufacturers to offer commonbaseline controllers for handling eitherstroke or raster output.High resolution-for greater image

quality-is critical to user acceptance of

raster graphics. Two approaches to highresolution will be taken-brute force, byincreasing the line count, and analytical,by employing techniques such as anti-aliasing. One-thousand-line displays arethe state of the art in 1982, Machoversaid, but 1500-line units should soon bewidely available. He foresees 2000-lineunits common by the late 1980's, with4000-line displays by 1990.As users become more graphically

sophisticated, more and more of themwill want systems able to process high-resolution, sophisticated pictures in realtime. That, said Machover, still requiresbig, expensive programs and hosts. But inthree to five years, he predicted, there willbe component-level solutions. As hard-ware becomes faster, smaller, andcheaper, many graphics devices will beable to incorporate such things as internalarray processors. One of the most signifi-cant trends in the industry, Machoverasserted, will be the migration of intelli-gence to the workstation level.

Other possible developments cited bythe session chairman include the com-bination in one CRT of stroke and raster

capability, full-color DVSTs, cheap color-mask stroke displays, flat-panel-basedportable CG terminals, and the use ofpersonal computers as workstations inCG environments.And the trend most likely to grow in

importance, Machover concluded, is theemphasis on human factors, on ease ofuse. Vendors and users will grow moreand more aware of health and safetyissues, operator psychology, andergonomic design, and of the effect thesefactors have on productivity.

NCGA '83 set for ChicagoThe Fourth Annual Conference and

Exposition of the National ComputerGraphics Association will be held June26-30 in McCormick Place, Chicago.Over 300,000 square feet of exhibit spacehas been reserved. For information aboutthe conference, including exhibitor boothreservations, contact the NCGA, 8401Arlington Blvd., Suite 601, Fairfax, VA22031; (703) 698-9600.

NCGA president Bill Howard, of Fairchild Industries, assesses the state of the CG in-dustry before the opening day press conference at NCGA '82. NCGA director MikeWozny, seated at right, also addressed the gathering. Wozny, director of the Interac-tive Computer Graphics Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, is editor-in-chiefof IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

September 1982 09September 1982 99

Qo SIGGRAPH '82 report

High-resolution graphics now widely available

Ware Myers, Contributing Editor

A few years ago a visitor to Siggraphcould find only one 1024 x 1024-pixelcolor display and it was attracting littleinterest. It was pushing the state of theart. This year in Boston a visitor hadtrouble just counting the number ofexhibitors who were announcing orshowing high-resolution graphicssystems. Of course, there is the matterof defining just what is to be counted.And in three short days a searcher mightnot find every example. But thisobserver did find at least 40 vendors ofhigh-resolution systems.Some of these systems appear to have

been designed primarily as word-processing workstations with some in-tegrated graphics capability; others areintended for more complex graphics ap-plications such as CAD/CAM. Someoffer monochrome displays; othersprovide various numbers of colors.

Elaine Sonderegger, Siggraph '82general chairman, shown here at theopening session, has announced an at-tendance count of over 18,000 persons,about double the attendance at lastyear's Dallas conference. The three-dayequipment exhibition featured the prod-ucts of 172 manufacturers. The con-ference included a total of 24 tutorialcourses and seminars and a technicalprogram of 35 paper presentations and10 panel sessions.

100

Word-oriented stations. Workstationsoriented to words but capable ofgraphic insertions are usually distin-guished by the fact that the display isplaced vertically to simulate an81/2 x 11-inch sheet of paper andis monochrome, like text onpaper.A low-resolution display is com-

parable to commercial television stan-dards-525 x 480 pixels (NTSC) orless. The pixels making up a characterare separately distinguishable, especiallyon angular or curved parts of letters. Ata refresh rate of 30 Hz interlaced, thereis some flicker. Consequently, there aretwo principal disadvantages of a low-resolution display: it causes unpleasantsensations in the viewer, felt as strain; itdoes not look at all like a printed page.At a higher resolution, on the order

of 1000 x 800, characters appear solid,similar to those produced by an electrictypewriter. The display is a close simula-tion of a typed page. A refresh rate in-creased to 40 Hz eliminates flicker.At Siggraph two new workstations

were attracting attention. One wasBitGraph from BBN Computer Corpor-ation. Its pixel display is 1024 x 768; therefresh rate is 40 Hz interlaced; and theprice is $4995.The second was the Sun workstation

from Sun Microsystems, Inc. The com-pany was formed last February to com-mercialize the work previously per-formed by its founders at StanfordUniversity and the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley. The resolution is1024 x 800, and the list price is $8900Graphics-oriented workstations. In

these systems the screen has a horizontalshape like a home TV, since that is thenormal form of engineering drawingsand many other graphics media. Thepredominant resolution among some 20vendors represented at Siggraph is1024 x 1024. A few companies offer1280x 1024, and single companies havepicked 1392x 1024, 1536x 1024, and1600 x 1200.

All the systems use a design techniquecalled the bit map; i.e., for each pixel inthe display, there is a bit in the imagememory. For a 1024 x 1024-pixel dis-play, there must be over one million bitsof memory. A single bit plane, shown as1024 x 1024 x 1, can operate a mono-

chrome display-each bit is either on oroff. To display shades of gray or color,two or more bit planes are needed.Thus, these systems may be designated1024 x 1024 x 3 (providing eight colors),1024 x 1024 x 4 (providing 16 colors),and so on. Eight planes provide 256 col-ors, exceeding the ability of the humaneye to distinguish one color fromanother.

Thus, as far as bit maps and bitplanes are concerned, there is no par-ticular limit to resolution or color varie-ty except the cost of RAM chips and theboards to mount them on. With the ap-pearance of 64K RAM chips, this costlimit has receded by a factor of nearlyfour over the 16K RAM predecessor.Similarly, the arrival of the 256K RAMwill push back the limits again.The characteristics of the cathode ray

tube used for the display, however, arenot so accommodating. Each pixel ispainted, so to speak, by the electronbeam scanning across the phosphor onthe interior of the tube. At commercial-television resolution (525 x 480), thebeam must activate 252,000 pixels 30times per second. Allowing for horizon-tal and vertical retrace time, the videoclock must operate at about 10 MHz.At that frequency the beam spendsabout 100 nanoseconds at each pixellocation.At a resolution of 1024 x 1024, the

beam must sweep over one million pix-els each time. If we select a 40 Hzrefresh rate to eliminate flicker, thevideo frequency comes out at about 55MHz. The beam time per pixel drops to18 nanoseconds.One of Matrox Electronic Systems'

standard display formats is 1600 x 1200pixels at a refresh rate of 60 Hz inter-laced, requiring an 80-MHz crystal, or12.5 ns per pixel. A more commonoperating frequency is 40 MHz, or 25 nsper pixel.

Regardless of the exact frequencyneeded to implement a particular resolu-tion, operating at these high frequenciesis costly. Since the frequency is essen-tially a product of the resolution andthe refresh rate, we cannot indefinitelycontinue to improve both. Fortunately,at the resolutions currently achieved,the result is about as good as the humaneye can utilize.

IEEE CG&A

ANSI X3H3 technical committee considers graphics standards

Ware Myers, Contributing Editor

The Technical Committee of theAmerican National Standards Instituteknown as X3H3 is working on five stan-dards development efforts in two areas,explained Peter R. Bono of AthenaSystems, X3H3 chairman, to a pressconference at Siggraph '82 in Boston.

Application programmer interface.The three proposals in this area are the"rich" graphics system, the Pro-grammer's Minimal Interface toGraphics (PMIG), and the GraphicalKernel System (GKS).The rich graphics system is the

responsibility of the ANSI X3H31 TaskGroup under the chairmanship of DavidM. Shuey of McAuto Corporation. Thegroup's intent is to address capabilitiesnot present in GKS or the ACM/Sig-graph Core system. The group hopes toachieve compatibility with GKS and theother ANSI efforts now in progress.The PMIG is being developed by

ANSI Task Group X3H35, withThomas Wright of ISSCO Graphics aschairman. It is intended for first-timeusers of systems with limited computingresources, such as standalone personalcomputers. The specification of thisstandard is expected to be available forpublic comment during the spring of1983.The Graphical Kernel System has

recently reached the status of a draft in-ternational standard under the aegis ofthe International Standards Organiza-tion. The X3H3 technical committeewill determine at its October meeting inBerkeley what recommendations onGKS it will make to its parent body, X3,said Bono. The X3 committee has ap-proval authority for standardization ofprogramming languages. Recommenda-tions from X3H3 may be modified byX3 on the basis of public comments.GKS is not new to X3H3; the committeehas been cooperating in its developmentall along. GKS is a 2-D system similar toCore but containing improvements inseveral important areas. For further in-formation, refer to the article by Bonoet al. in the July 1982 issue of IEEECG&A (pp. 9-23).

Graphics workstation interface. Inthis area two projects are underway: thevirtual device interface (VDI) and the

virtual device metafile (VDM). Bothstandards are in the province of theANSI X3H33 Virtual Device InterfaceTask Group chaired by Theodore N.Reed of Los Alamos NationalLaboratory.The goal of the VDI project is to

define the data and control informationthat needs to be exchanged between thedevice-independent portions of agraphics system and a device-dependentgraphics workstation. This protocol,which may be implemented in somecombination of hardware and software,will ease the development costs of bothgraphics hardware and graphics soft-ware, in Bono's opinion. End users willbenefit, too, he said, because they willbe able to upgrade their hardware andsoftware independently of each other,making it possible to configure systemsfrom components supplied by differentvendors. Reed expects to forward thedraft proposed standard to the X3 levelfor public review in late 1983.The VDM standard will specify the

data format for describing a picture in aform independent of the devices onwhich it is displayed, Reed explained.The VDM is to serve as a standard forthe exchange and archiving ofcomputer-generated pictures. Reed's

group is cooperating with the ISOWorking Group on Metafiles. He plansto submit a draft document to them bythe end of this year. It should be for-warded to X3 for public review in early1983.

Fifteen companies pledge coopera-tion. Led by Digital Equipment Cor-poration, Intel Corporation, andTektronix, Inc., 15 well-known firmshave joined forces behind two emerginggraphics standards, according to an an-nouncement at Siggraph '82. One is theNorth American Presentation LevelProtocol Syntax (NAPLPS), developedby the Canadian Department of Com-munication and subsequently adoptedand enhanced by the AmericanTelephone and Telegraph Company. Acommunications protocol to be used inthe transmission of graphics informa-tion, NAPLPS is being considered byANSI X3L2. The second proposed stan-dard is the VDI previously mentioned.The other companies joining in this

support are Digital Research, GraphicsSoftware Systems, Hazeltine, Interna-tional Computers, Ltd. (ICL), ISSCOGraphics, Mannesmann Tally,Microsoft, AEL Microtel Ltd., NorpakLtd., Westinghouse Electric, Xerox,and Precision Visuals.

As chairman of ANSI X3H3 since Theodore N. Reed's ANSI X3H33 Taskits formation in 1979 and as chief US Group is developing two standards: VDIdelegate to the ISO Working Group on will cover the interface between device-Graphics, Peter R. Bono has been dependent and device-independent soft-involved since 1974 in efforts to ware; VDM will specify the data formatdevelop standards for computer for describing a picture in a device-graphics. independent form.

September 1982 101