Acorn and Silicon Graphics

[paulb]

I'm not sure where to post this odd piece of ephemera, but I was surfing around historical computing materials when I found this Silicon Graphics brochure:

"Focus on the Goal", Silicon Graphics, 11 July 1998.

What intrigues me is what Acorn Computers Limited are doing there in the "server apps" section. Might this have been something to do with network computing?

[baz4096]

Weren't they using SGI machines to capture and encode Replay videos?

[paulb]

Weren't they using SGI machines to capture and encode Replay videos?

At what point in time? I guess people like Paul Middleton might know, given that in the early days the encoding was done by a "bureau" like Uniqueway. Later on, there were products that allowed people to use their own machines for the encoding, and I think that even Eidos' products ran the encoding software on Acorn hardware.

[baz4096]

Sorry Paul I’ve tried to track down a written source to back my comment up and unfortunately I’m coming up short. I did find where I heard about SGI/Replay but it was a conversation over on Discord with @philpem and @DarkLord both recalling it happened. It made a lot of sense at the time as SGI machines had high quality video capture and editing built in, but as I mentioned I can’t find a decent source to back that up. Acorn did work with SGI later on for their NC product using SGI’s webforce media servers, but I’m unsure if anything came from that, and it wasn’t Replay format at that point. Phil might be able to remember more about it as video is definitely his thing.

[paulb]

Sorry Paul I’ve tried to track down a written source to back my comment up and unfortunately I’m coming up short. I did find where I heard about SGI/Replay but it was a conversation over on Discord with @philpem and @DarkLord both recalling it happened. It made a lot of sense at the time as SGI machines had high quality video capture and editing built in, but as I mentioned I can’t find a decent source to back that up.

SGI equipment would definitely have been a candidate for video capture and processing, edging lower and lower in price as the 1990s got underway.

Acorn did work with SGI later on for their NC product using SGI’s webforce media servers, but I’m unsure if anything came from that, and it wasn’t Replay format at that point. Phil might be able to remember more about it as video is definitely his thing.

That "webforce" remark rings some bells. I guess I should have reviewed my notes:

Acorn's set-top box (STB) technology will be used in conjunction with Silicon Graphics WebFORCER MediaBase servers as part of OEM-targeted, video-on-demand solution aimed at customers in the corporate, training, education and consumer markets.

"Acorn and SGI collaboration", Acorn User, December 1997.

I guess the original mystery might be solved, at least.

[philpem]

Sorry Paul I’ve tried to track down a written source to back my comment up and unfortunately I’m coming up short. I did find where I heard about SGI/Replay but it was a conversation over on Discord with @philpem and @DarkLord both recalling it happened. It made a lot of sense at the time as SGI machines had high quality video capture and editing built in, but as I mentioned I can’t find a decent source to back that up. Acorn did work with SGI later on for their NC product using SGI’s webforce media servers, but I’m unsure if anything came from that, and it wasn’t Replay format at that point. Phil might be able to remember more about it as video is definitely his thing.

My recollection is that someone told me SGIs were used by Uniqueway for Replay capture and encoding - I can't remember who.
As you say, it makes sense given the Indy (released July 1993) had full-PAL (768x576) video capture built-in, and the Indigo2 (released 1992) had it available on an expansion card (the Indigo2 Video). Indy seems like the more likely candidate.
I'd heard someone had some ex-Acorn SGIs, but they didn't say what (if anything) was on the drives.

It could well be that the video was captured on the SGI then passed to a fast A5000 for compression (bear in mind Replay came out in 1993, so the RISC PC didn't exist). This would be a pretty slow way of doing things, but definitely possible if the Replay compressors hadn't been ported to SGI.

The first practical RISC OS capture device seems to have been the ReplayDIY by Irlam/Uniqueway, which tops out at 160x128 pixels at 12.5fps (1993, see https://archive.org/details/AcornUser12 ... 4/mode/1up ). I've got an Eagle M2 (Computer Concepts / Wild Vision) which can pull off 25fps at the same resolution. That's on an ARM610 RISC PC, capturing to RAM (a Memphis RAM drive). The bottleneck is the Podule bus, and the lack of bus-master and device-to-device DMA...

I imagine the authorities on "how this was done" would be Paul or Simon Middleton, the two gentlemen who ran Uniqueway. I'd ask, but I don't have current contact details for them. If anyone does ask, please let me know what they say

[paulb]

My recollection is that someone told me SGIs were used by Uniqueway for Replay capture and encoding - I can't remember who.
As you say, it makes sense given the Indy (released July 1993) had full-PAL (768x576) video capture built-in, and the Indigo2 (released 1992) had it available on an expansion card (the Indigo2 Video). Indy seems like the more likely candidate.
I'd heard someone had some ex-Acorn SGIs, but they didn't say what (if anything) was on the drives.

Hopefully, people who have acquired such systems take preservation seriously enough to image the drives. A defunct hard drive from the most special of systems has only marginal additional value over some random defunct hard drive from the e-waste bin, at least for everyone but the most deluded collector.

It could well be that the video was captured on the SGI then passed to a fast A5000 for compression (bear in mind Replay came out in 1993, so the RISC PC didn't exist). This would be a pretty slow way of doing things, but definitely possible if the Replay compressors hadn't been ported to SGI.

Yes, you'd have to be a masochist to leave it to an A5000 or even a Risc PC when you have an R4000-series machine on the same desk. I probably mentioned before that in the Amiga universe with all the hype around the Video Toaster (with which we were all bored senseless back in the day - yes, Babylon 5, again), there was a product brought to market by DeskStation Technology, originally intended for a "Video Toaster Screamer" product by NewTek, that was based on R4400 processors.

The first practical RISC OS capture device seems to have been the ReplayDIY by Irlam/Uniqueway, which tops out at 160x128 pixels at 12.5fps (1993, see https://archive.org/details/AcornUser12 ... 4/mode/1up ). I've got an Eagle M2 (Computer Concepts / Wild Vision) which can pull off 25fps at the same resolution. That's on an ARM610 RISC PC, capturing to RAM (a Memphis RAM drive). The bottleneck is the Podule bus, and the lack of bus-master and device-to-device DMA...

That's Acorn's have-the-processor-do-everything design philosophy catching up with them. I imagine that apart from emerging video standardisation, another reason why Acorn's set-top boxes ended up with MPEG decoding chips is because the industry was ramping up to design and produce them. Maybe someone at Acorn fancied designing hardware for Replay encoding and decoding, too.

I imagine the authorities on "how this was done" would be Paul or Simon Middleton, the two gentlemen who ran Uniqueway. I'd ask, but I don't have current contact details for them. If anyone does ask, please let me know what they say

Paul Middleton appears to have a YouTube channel, and judging by this recent addition, it could be the same guy:

"Acorn Computers Super Choice Promotional Video"

[piersw]

This describes the process used, with multiple-pass single-frame capture and batched encoding.

https://chrisacorns.computinghistory.or ... CSep92.pdf

I'd be surprised if the volume of material requiring encoding into Replay format could justify the purchase of an SGI machine for either company, leaving aside the cost. Acorn very soon moved onto MPEG encodings which would've required something beefier.

[paulb]

This describes the process used, with multiple-pass single-frame capture and batched encoding.

https://chrisacorns.computinghistory.or ... CSep92.pdf

I think I found this previously, but it is a bit light on the computational aspects.

I'd be surprised if the volume of material requiring encoding into Replay format could justify the purchase of an SGI machine for either company, leaving aside the cost. Acorn very soon moved onto MPEG encodings which would've required something beefier.

There might have been side-benefits of acquiring something like an Indy, and maybe Uniqueway's business would have made it worthwhile in a broader sense. As for MPEG encoding, I read up a bit on C-Cube Microsystems whose products were used in Acorn's set-top boxes for MPEG decoding, and they introduced a real-time encoder in 1993. Of course, MPEG encoding eventually became routine.