Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!columbia!sylvester.columbia.edu!beshers From: beshers@sylvester.columbia.edu (Clifford Beshers) Newsgroups: comp.graphics Subject: Re: Mega-Monitor Message-ID: <4801@columbia.UUCP> Date: Fri, 10-Jul-87 13:13:47 EDT Article-I.D.: columbia.4801 Posted: Fri Jul 10 13:13:47 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jul-87 11:30:54 EDT References: <165@asci.UUCP> <102300005@datacube> Sender: nobody@columbia.UUCP Reply-To: beshers@sylvester.columbia.edu.UUCP (Clifford Beshers) Organization: Columbia University CS Department Lines: 70 In article <102300005@datacube> rick@datacube.UUCP writes: > >/* Written 11:50 am Jun 26, 1987 by brian@asci.UUCP in datacube:comp.graphics */ >/* ---------- "Mega-Monitor" ---------- */ >I've been asked by a friend to research information about a super-size >monitor. Essentially, what I am looking for is a color monitor that is 10 >feet by 10 feet with a resolution of say 13,000 by 13,000--don't ask me what >for because I don't know what for, I'm just the gumshoe--and any necessary >equipment to drive it. (can you imagine what kind of equipment is necessary >to drive 169 million pixels!) Basically, my friend needs to generate some very >large images with extremely fine details. Color is preferable, but not >absolute. Money is not really a concern at this moment, so lets hear anything >you got. Also, if it means building it custom, that is what my friend wants >to know. So IBM, RCA, Tektronik, HP, etc, if you're listening and have any >experience in a monitor this large I would like to hear from you, as well as >if you have any "off-the-top-of-you-head" price estimates send those along. I >fully expect to hear in the millions, but that's okay. Right now, my friend >needs to know if anybody has done this, or if anybody can do this. >/* from UUCP: ihnp4!datacube!rick */ > Interesting. I'm no expert in this sort of thing, but I will take some wild stabs. The first stab is that you are trying to do something too soon. Wait five years and it might be feasible. Okay, you can't wait. Do you need real time response? Will slides do? You can use a digital film recorder to make 4kx4k images (e.g. Matrix QCR) and then make a special slide projector to paste all the pieces together. Or perhaps get Matrix to handle higher resolution. 13Kx13K is high enough I think to go beyond the resolution of a standard slide, so you would need to handle larger film frames. This seems like a reasonable bet; it would probably cost less than a million, you would get high resolution, good colors, etc. It would just take a while to make a slide. Now that seems nice, but considering that your friend doesn't think much of a few million and has 13kx13k, it could be your friend is Uncle Sam playing with satellite photographs, so you probably already have them on film. So say you need a real monitor. I sincerely doubt that anybody can build something at that resolution using the standard raster architecture with a video controller and a phosphor screen, though the might say they could if you paid them enough. What you would have to do is look for a frame buffer that displays it's image on color lcd's through a direct connection. If you read in SIGGRAPH '86 about the Pixel Planes machine (Fuchs, et. al.) at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, you will find an architecture that has these possiblities. I believe they tried manufacturing chips with LCD's built right on top and had a low success rate. Theoretically, there is no limit to the resolution of this machine; it would just require a *lot* of custom VLSI chips and a *lot* of power to drive it. Some special busses too, probably. I've forgotten the actual hardware specs. My guess would be that 13kx13k would run you several hundred thousand a month in power alone. But hey, you could make one kick ass flight simulator. I suppose there is one more alternative; make a frame buffer controller that can handle many small frame buffers, each of say 2kx2k. Shouldn't be too hard to build. You could probably do it with a microcoded microprocessor or ten or twenty. Then use existing video controllers to create the proper video signal, and build a setup with a projector for each segment 14kx14k would give you 49 projectors which would be a real bitch to calibrate, but it would come close. Neat problem. Wait five years. Cliff Beshers Columbia University Computer Science Department beshers@sylvester.columbia.edu