#PAR vs MAX
>> It seems they could go one step further, and simply distribure the
fields/frame across the array, and have them stream back. <<
Not quite so simple. The problem is still the through put of the hard drives
which is a determining factor in how much compression is necessary to stream a
24/32 bit image in real time. There's several other factors like BUS speed
which is why the PAR communicates directly to its IDE for faster transfer. The
new drives coming out are reported to have transfer rates of 15 Mb sec which in
terms of compression will be essentially lossless. I know IDE's are being
developed and Micropolis has been able to achieve similar transfer rates with
IDE's and SCSI's, so its a fairly reasonable assumption that an array of the
kind you'd like to see will also be possible in the near future. Just keeps
getting better, don't it?! <g>
-JE