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Silicon Graphics Geometry Engine

Silicon Graphics Geometry Engine

Image creditDave Fischer
CC BY-SA 3.0 ↗

Silicon Graphics Geometry Engine

Year
1982
Creator
James Clark
Company
Stanford University; Silicon Graphics
Location
Stanford University, California

Description

The Geometry Engine is a custom VLSI chip that does the geometric math for three-dimensional computer graphics. Stanford professor James Clark described it in 1982, and the chip shown came from a later Silicon Graphics IRIS computer.

Importance

Clark founded Silicon Graphics in 1982 with seven Stanford graduate students and staff, and the company released its first graphics terminal in 1984. Designers, scientists, and film studios used Silicon Graphics machines in the 1980s and 1990s. The NVIDIA GeForce 256 later put a dedicated graphics processor into home computers.

Interesting fact

In 1994 Clark and Marc Andreessen started Mosaic Communications, the company that later became Netscape.

Sources

  1. Silicon Graphics (CHM Revolution exhibition) ↗Computer History Museum
  2. The Geometry Engine: A VLSI Geometry System for Graphics ↗James H. Clark, Stanford University · 1982
  3. This Day in History: Marc Andreessen Founds Netscape with Jim Clark ↗Computer History Museum · 1994-04-04