13 Apr
2006
13 Apr
'06
2:59 p.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
I do have a video hard disk in my collection. This is a head-per-track
hard disk rotating at 3000 rpm, such that 1 frame of TV video can be
recorded on each track. It uses FM (analogue) modulation to do this.
There are 3 indentical read/write circuits to handle RGB colour.
Back in the old days they were also used for computer animation.
You could record one frame at a time. At that time an 11/780 was the
single user workstation of choice and a single frame could take a while,
depending on what algorithms you were using. At least it had floating
point.
Once you (finally) got all the frames recorded you could see the result
in real time. Very nice for pencil tests. But rather expensive.
I am still floored everytime I watch someone playing WOW. So many
polygons, and shaded too.
-brad