30 Jul
2021
30 Jul
'21
10:56 p.m.
As some here know, I collect some dusty deck fortran graphics. We have MOVIE.BYU up and
running! (Thanks Douglas Taylor and Emanuel Steibler).
Ian built AMD 2901 bit slice hardware to run his graphics, it was called SuperSet, and was
very quick for the 1980s. Architecture was 48 bit, A=B op C, similar to DSPs. Compiler
processed fortran to this 48 bit 2900 hardware (he wrote the compiler too). Small
package, a dormitory size refrigerator with all I/O to drive plotters and graphics
terminals.
I went to look him up today, as he is not far from me in LA, San Diego, and a fellow R/C
flier, and chat about the old Superset days, we did SIGGRAPH many times together.
Well, he is dead I find out, killed last year in Mexico is what the news says, buried in a
well with his wife. They went often, many times a year.
Randy