Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/77744
Trends & Technologies ■ ■ ■ ■ Attendees 50,000 45,000 40,000 35,000 30,000 25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Many years and successful SIGGRAPH conferences later, the "Pro- ceedings of the Conference" remains an accepted scholarly journal for the publication of technical contributions—and in which budding computer graphics scientists compete for acceptance. Counting Boulder in '74 as the fi rst, then the 40th SIGGRAPH will be in 2013. Since its inception, SIGGRAPH has been the launching platform for memorable companies, products, ideas, and people—too numerous to mention them all (to list them even briefl y would fi ll two or more issues of Computer Graphics World). One of the things not introduced at SIGGRAPH, but which has been a part of it for 20-plus years, has been OpenGL. It's safe to say not many things have been so important, long lasting, or as broadly signifi cant to the industry as OpenGL. OpenGL, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, has its own rich history. OpenGL Turns 20 By the early 1990s, Silicon Graphics (SGI) was a leader in 3D graph- ics for workstations. Part of its success was due to the IRIS GL API, designed in 1985 by a group led by Jim Clark (the founder of SGI). By 1987, Kurt Akeley was deeply involved and extended IRIS GL to sup- port the upcoming GT and GTX graphics systems. It was considered state-of-the-art and became the de facto industry standard, overshad- owing the open-standards-based PHIGS. Th is was because IRIS GL was easier to use, and because it supported immediate mode rendering, which gave it a considerable speed advantage. Until the second generation of SGI's Onyx Reality Engine machines, the company only off ered access to its high-performance 3D graphics subsystems through its proprietary API, IRIS GL. However, as more features were added over the years, IRIS GL became harder to maintain and awkward to use. Akeley and Mark Segal actually started developing what would be- and ANSI/ISO "standards," such as Core, PHIGS, PHIGS+ (which van Dam convened and chaired), and GKS, the European derivative of Core. Th e ARB agreement was unique but straightforward: SGI would develop the initial specifi cation of OpenGL with input from the other ARB members, and then turn the specifi cation over to the ARB for ongoing development, empowering each of the members representing the graphics community at the time with an equal vote. Th e idea was to avoid slowing things down with "design by committee" for the ini- tial specifi cation, then to move to design with ongoing input from the community. Th e OpenGL ARB governs the future of OpenGL, proposing and ap- proving changes to the specifi cation, new releases, and conformance test- ing. Th is was a breakthrough in thinking, and SGI has been praised by the industry ever since for its enlightened (if somewhat self-serving) move. Looking back, it worked quite well, as OpenGL went on to become the most widely adopted 2D and 3D graphics API in the industry, bringing thousands of applications to a wide variety of computer platforms. On September 6, 2006, the ARB transferred responsibility for the development and maintenances of OpenGL to the Khronos Group, the open-standards organization started in 2000. Th e members attend- ing the meeting and agreeing to that transfer were: Apple, ATI, Dell, Giquile, HI Corp., IBM, Intel, Matrox, Nvidia, Sony, Sun, and Jon Leech, who used to be the SGI representative. Th is year at SIGGRAPH, the Khronos Group is celebrating OpenGL's 20th anniversary. Akeley, considered by most to be the father of OpenGL, is talking on these subjects at the SIGGRAPH Pioneer's reception and at the Khronos gathering. When you walk around SIGGRAPH today, you can see that what was come OpenGL within the company in 1989. Later, SGI removed its proprietary code, reworked various system calls, and partnered with Mi- crosoft to co-develop (what became) OpenGL in 1990 to early 1991. Th e ARB (the OpenGL Architecture Review Board) was organized in early 1992. Th e original ARB members were: Compaq, DEC, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, and SGI. Later, Evans & Sutherland, Intergraph, Sun, and HP joined. (Microsoft, an original voting member, left in March 2003.) On June 30, 1992, the ARB released Version 1.0 of OpenGL, and a specifi cation and industry standard was born. OpenGL was a derivative of GL, SGI's initially proprietary library. It was created independently from, and in competition with, SIGGRAPH true then is still true now—any visual computing application can exploit high-quality, high-performance OpenGL capabilities. Th ese capabilities enable developers globally and in diverse markets, such as broadcasting, CAD/CAM/CAE, entertainment, medical imaging, and virtual reality, to produce and display incredibly compelling 2D and 3D graphics. In- deed, where would computer graphics be without OpenGL? So what's the hottest thing at SIGGRAPH? Well it' very fair Penelope Cruz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Amber Valletta, and at age 39, we think the mother of our little village is aging very well. ■ s SIGGRAPH herself, of course! She shares a birthday with the Jon Peddie is president of Jon Peddie Research, a Tiburon-CA-based consultancy special- izing in graphics and multimedia that also publishes JPR's "TechWatch." He can be reached at jon@jonpeddie.com. 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