#Weitek Boards?
9 messages in this thread
Maybe a dumb question here, but nobody here even seems to have heard of
Weitek boards for use with Autocad. I always thought that Weitek boards
were gave Cadd apps a big performance boost, above and beyond an 80×87
chip.
If these boards do help, anybody know how much they would increase
performace relative to and 80×87 and what sort of street prices the boards
go for?
Thanks
Allan
Allan:
Weitek makes actual coprocessor integrated circuits – not boards. AutoCAD
uses rather random mathematics, and then only about 15% of the time. Turns
out that a Weitek would not improve the program's performance much, and
because of this, AutoCAD does not include the necessary code to use one.
In the future, some extensions to AutoCAD, such as AME, might use a Weitek
chip. But don't buy one in anticipation of that.
Evan
Evan,
Let's not all be one-track regarding Weitek. They are also
manufacturing display accelerator chips and are probably going to offer
their own board based on this. Perhaps the gentleman was referring to
these.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Evan,
Actually, Weitek is into graphics controllers these days. We even did their
Acad drivers. Their 5086 and 5186 are VGAs with hardware bitblt and
linedraw. They are marketing them just like everyone else these days, as
"Windows Accelerators".
Brad Ek [Panacea Inc.]
Actually, to add to Brad's comment, Weitek announced the "Weitek Power For
Windows" graphics board at COMDEX. It's based on the W5086 controller, and
should be available shortly.
Jake
Allan:
AutoCAD doesn't even support the Weitek, so it would be money down the
drain. According to the programmers, AutoCAD doesn't spend that much of
its time doing floating point operations, so there's no compelling reason to
support special coprocessors like the Weitek.
3D Studio is another story entirely, though.
– Mark M.
Thanks to both of you!
And now for the next question – can you tell us more about 3D Studio?
Allan
Allan:
I can't tell you much about 3D Studio, but if you saunter over to the ASOFT
forum, you'll meet plenty of people there who can.
– Mark M.
OK, will check it out
Thanks
Allan