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Hardware graphics acceleration started on Unix and was largely used professionally.

nine_k 2y ago
I had access to a DEC Alpha desktop workstation with a hardware OpenGL and X accelerator. It was in 1995, before the first 3dfx Voodoo was even released. I bet high-end Unix graphics workstations (CAD, video processing, etc) had it many years before that. The first graphics accelerator was offered by Silicon Graphics in 1983, yes, forty two years ago. It was supported by IRIX, a Unix variant.
duskwuff 2y ago
For applications which displayed 3D graphics, sure. But using graphics acceleration as a more general tool on the desktop took a while longer - the first, experimental window compositors for X11 showed up around 2006.
- kalleboo 2y ago
  > the first, experimental window compositors for X11 showed up around 2006 Although Apple already started using compositing in 2002 with Quartz Extreme in Mac OS X 10.2, which also had X11 support.
  - foobiekr 2y ago
    Nextstep used compositing in the late 1980s.
    - lproven 2y ago
      [[citation needed]] NeXTstep used Display Postscript. AFAIK this has no concept of 3D acceleration or anything akin to it, and was almost entirely unaccelerated.
      - foobiekr 2y ago
        compositing has nothing to do with 3d acceleration. NeXT slabs and cubes did have a low-function blitter used to composite the main display.
        lproven 2y ago
        In this direct context, I absolutely think it does and it's integral to the definition. What do you understand by "display compositing" that doesn't involve 3D hardware?
        foobiekr 2y ago
        What the hell does 3D hardware have to do with the block copies compositing window managers like MacOS are doing?
        foobiekr 2y ago
        Edit: this was the Turbo units, which did have a bus-assisted block copy. Before that, just well-tuned 68030 burst block copy - they rendered to backing store and did block copies with a special case of vram to vram block copies (used for window compositing).

I had access to a DEC Alpha desktop workstation with a hardware OpenGL and X accelerator. It was in 1995, before the first 3dfx Voodoo was even released. I bet high-end Unix graphics workstations (CAD, video processing, etc) had it many years before that. The first graphics accelerator was offered by Silicon Graphics in 1983, yes, forty two years ago. It was supported by IRIX, a Unix variant.

duskwuff 2y ago

For applications which displayed 3D graphics, sure. But using graphics acceleration as a more general tool on the desktop took a while longer - the first, experimental window compositors for X11 showed up around 2006.

kalleboo 2y ago
> the first, experimental window compositors for X11 showed up around 2006 Although Apple already started using compositing in 2002 with Quartz Extreme in Mac OS X 10.2, which also had X11 support.
- foobiekr 2y ago
  Nextstep used compositing in the late 1980s.
  - lproven 2y ago
    [[citation needed]] NeXTstep used Display Postscript. AFAIK this has no concept of 3D acceleration or anything akin to it, and was almost entirely unaccelerated.
    - foobiekr 2y ago
      compositing has nothing to do with 3d acceleration. NeXT slabs and cubes did have a low-function blitter used to composite the main display.
      - lproven 2y ago
        In this direct context, I absolutely think it does and it's integral to the definition. What do you understand by "display compositing" that doesn't involve 3D hardware?
        foobiekr 2y ago
        What the hell does 3D hardware have to do with the block copies compositing window managers like MacOS are doing?
      - foobiekr 2y ago
        Edit: this was the Turbo units, which did have a bus-assisted block copy. Before that, just well-tuned 68030 burst block copy - they rendered to backing store and did block copies with a special case of vram to vram block copies (used for window compositing).