Vr Mapping

ON-LINE REFERENCE DOCUMENTATION

CARDINAL SYSTEMS, LLC

386-439-2525   

www.cardinalsystems.net   
Copyright © 2000-2007 by Cardinal Systems, LLC   

A SAMPLE BUILD IT YOURSELF COMPUTER – eKit965 – PCI EXPRESS

 

Description

The following computer example is an Intel single processor, Core 2 Duo computer with a 1066Mhz Front Side Bus with Dual Channel memory.  This computer is well suited for all Vr Mapping applications including stereo roaming.  A computer to be used for stereo compilation should have at least two gigabyte of memory and a computer to be used for image processing and orthophoto production should have two or more gigabytes of memory.

 

Below is listed the major components of several computer that we have built at Cardinal Systems and use for software development and demonstration.  Also listed in blue is the authors’ opinion of that component.  Items such as disk drive data cables are not listed here.  Please read the manufacturers specifications for more information about each component.

 

NOTE: Please visit Build Notes for information that might save you some heartburn during the assembly of the computer.

 

NOTE:  The data listed below is for information purposes.  Cardinal Systems does not guarantee or endorse any of the products listed.  Cardinal Systems does not guarantee this information to be correct and the opinions listed are from our experience and may not reflect your experience with these products.  The user assumes all responsibility and liability for the use of this information.

The eKit965, eKit945 and the eKit875

The eKit965 and the eKit945 are based on the PCI-Express interface for the graphics card and on Serial ATA (SATA) for the disk drive interface.  The eKit875, which was the previous UBuildComputer, was based on the AGP interface for the graphics card and the ULTRA ATA interface for the disk drive interface.  The eKit965 is a newer design than the eKit945 and the eKit875.

Revision History

December 2006 – Components chosen and several computers built.  The computers were tested in the Vr Mapping environment including VrTwo stereo roaming with the PNY NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400 graphics card.

 

Photos of Computer

Click a photo to enlarge.

Mid-tower case
16.75” (H) x 18.25”(D) x 8.13”(W)

Access to DVD and Floppy and power

The business end of the computer

Rear connectors; Keyboard, Mouse, Parallel, Serial, 4x USB 2.0, Firewire (1394),  2x Gigabit LAN, Sound.

Side view with cover removed.

2 SATA-II drives

Asus P5B Motherboard with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4 GB of memory.

Asus P5B Motherboard showing the two PCI-X slots (The Quadro FX 1400  graphics card is in the top slot).

 

Component List

 

Component

Manufacturer

Web page

Part #

 

 

 

Motherboard

 

Asus P5B Deluxe P965 Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Duo/Pentium Extreme/Pentium D/P4/Celeron D 1066FSB LGA775 DDR2 ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA

 

Intel LGA775 Platform
Intel® Quad-core CPU Ready
Intel® Core™2 Extreme / Core™2 Duo Ready
Intel® Pentium® Extreme / Pentium® D / Pentium® 4 / Celeron® D Ready
Dual-channel DDR2 800/667/533
AI NOS™ / AI Gear / AI Nap
8 Phase Power Design
Fanless Design - Heat Pipe & Stack Cool 2
Array Mic / Noise Filter 

 

Manufacturer Product Specifications

 

Opinion:

This seems to be a great motherboard with many on board features.  Supports PCI-Express and has two of these graphics slots.  With the correct power supply and memory this board has been very reliable.

 

247117

Processor

 

Intel® Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe Processor 2.13GHz, 1066FSB, LGA775, 2MB Cache

 

  Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe Dual-Core Processor

  2.13GHZ, 2M CACHE, 1066FSB, LGA775

  Dual Core

  Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology supporting 64-bit computing

  Intel Virtualization Technology

 

Opinion:

Intel has basically put two processors on a single chip with the Core 2 Duo.  A combination of the 1066 MHz front side bus speed and lower power consumption the Core 2 Duo is current performance leader.  As the Windows 64-bit operating systems becomes a reality in the future this processor should be a great performer.

 

Notice the processor listed here does not have the fastest clock speed available.  When roaming stereo images there is a lot of data being pushed over the system bus between memory, the processor and the graphics card.  Memory and bus speed are more important than raw CPU speed for this process.

 

80859

Memory

 

Corsair CM2X1024-6400PRO 1GB DDR2-800 XMS2-6400 ProSeries Memory w/Platinum Heat Spreader

 

Opinion:                               

Although the ASUS motherboard supports several memory speeds, try to use the fastest memory that this board supports which is DDR2 800.  We have used the memory listed here in 4GB (4 SIMM) configurations with the ASUS P5B Deluxe motherboard without problems.  Notice that we configure memory in multiple SIMMS.  This allows dual-channel memory access.

 

WARNING:  Be careful when selecting memory.  When configuring a computer with 2GB or 4GB of memory the latency settings are very important.  Always purchase memory that has been tested by the board manufacturer.  Using the wrong memory can cause system problems such as reboots, hangs and other bizarre behavior.

 

85025-4

 

 

 

Case

 

Antec Sonata II Quiet Super Mid Tower Case (Piano Black) w/450W Power Supply

 

Two years ago, Antec kick-started the quiet computing revolution with the introduction of Sonata, the first computer case to combine style and performance in an enclosure designed from the ground up to be completely quiet. Since then, Sonata has sold over half a million units worldwide and the demand continues to grow. Sonata II combines the classic style and silent performance of the original Sonata with an upgraded SmartPower2.0 450 power supply and innovative new cooling design for handling the latest, fastest technologies.

 

Opinion:

Roomy and QUIET with no silly lights on the fans.  Comes with a 450 Watt Power Supply which is normally plenty of power.

 

NOTE: If you purchase a case with a power supply make sure that it is an ATX v2.0 power supply.  This has a 24-pin main power connector instead of the 20-pin connector that comes with the standard ATX power supply.

 

140122

 

 

CD/DVD Drive

 

Sony Q170A-B2 18X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive

 

·  Sony DVDRW Q170A Black

·  Write Speed: DVD+R 18x, DVD-R 18x, DVD+R(DL) 8x, DVD-R(DL) 8x, DVD+RW 8x, DV 6x, CD-R 48x, CD-RW 32x

·  Read Speed: DVD+R 16x, DVD-R 16x, DVD+R(DL) 12x, DVD-R(DL) 12x, DVD+RW 13x, RW 13x, CD-R 48x, CD-RW 40x

·  This drive does not have RAM function

·  RoHs compliant

·  Does not come with cables

 

Opinion:

Who knows? This one was well priced and seems to work.  There are a million choices for CD/DVD drives out there.  Be careful; there are two DVD formats, a plus (+) and a minus (-).  We try to stick with the plus format.

                                                                       

172479

 

 

Keyboard and Mouse

 

Microsoft Basic Black Value Pack Keyboard and Mouse Combo Single Pack

 

Opinion:

This is a small, light keyboard with a Microsoft optical mouse. 

Keyboard:

There are a million choices.  Some have the necessary buttons and others have too many buttons and take over your desk. Do I really need a single button on my keyboard to check e-mail?

Mouse:

Optical is the ONLY way to go.  More accurate than the old trackball kind.  There are no moving parts except the buttons and wheel.  No more cleaning everyone else’s hair out of the trackball.

 

 

211200

Hard Disk Drive(s)

                                                                                  

Western Digital RE2 WD5000YS 500GB Serial ATA 3.0 Gb/s 7200RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer

 

Opinion:

SATA (Serial ATA) 2.0 at 3.0GB a second is the way to go.  The ASUS P5B motherboard supports this faster interface.

 

Western Digital, Maxtor and Seagate all make great disk drives.  We had a few failures with IBM (Hitachi) drives and don’t use them any longer.  Just make sure to get at least 7200 RPM drives.  The 8Mb or greater buffer size is nice should be a requirement.  This is a Serial ATA (SATA) drive which is the preferred interface of most manufacturers including Dell.  We don’t think there is a future for the older SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) which is a more expensive interface.  ULTRA ATA is supported by the Asus motherboard but again, this is an older interface and we think SATA is the interface that will get the most attention in the future.

 

 

101258-9

Floppy Disk Drive

 

NEC 1.44MB 3.5in Internal Floppy Disk Drive (Black)

 

Opinion:

Do we really use these anymore?  We still put one in for old time’s sake.                                                                                   This one cost $13.49.

                                                              

110601

Operating System

 

Windows XP

 

The Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional operating system is the best choice for businesses of all sizes. Windows XP Professional integrates the strengths of Windows 2000 Professional—standards-based security, manageability, and reliability—with the best business features of Windows 98 and Windows Me—Plug and Play, simplified user interface, and innovative support services—to create the best desktop operating system for business. Whether your business deploys Windows XP Professional on a single computer or throughout a worldwide network, this new operating system increases your computing power while lowering the total cost of ownership for desktop computers.

 

Opinion:

Windows 2000 is showing its age.  Windows XP is a great operating system.  It’s almost as good and reliable as UNIX.  We recommend Windows XP and do not recommend or support Windows 95/98/ME.  Vista is now available and it should be become the standard in the future.  We are currently working on the support of Vr Mapping on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista.  Please check with Cardinal Systems for availability.

                                                               

604631

Graphics Card

 

PNY NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400 PCI Express 128MB DDR Video Card

PNY NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400 PCI Express 256MB DDR Video Card

PNY NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 PCI Express 512MB DDR Video Card

 

The NVIDIA Quadro FX architecture takes application performance to new levels by featuring an array of parallel vertex engines, a radically new line engine and fully programmable pixel pipelines coupled to a high-speed graphics DRAM bus. Pipeline efficiency is further multiplied by NVIDIA's next-generation crossbar memory architecture, enabling occlusion-culling, lossless depth Z-buffer, and color compression.

 

Opinion:

These are newer graphics cards based in the NVIDIA chipset and is the most common card running VrTwo.  A reliable, professional and well made card.  Keep in mind that NVIDIA has made about a billion cards for the gaming crowd. We have found these cards to perform well for stereo roaming.  They have also been reliable and have a normal size form factor so they can fit into almost any case.  The power requirements of the Quadro FX cards are reasonable and most computers can use a 400 - 450 WATT power supply.

 

Since stereo roaming can involve two images over a gigabyte each, it is impossible to place a whole image on the graphics card.  During roaming, system memory buffers are filled and transferred to the graphics card’s frame buffer as needed.   Graphics cards with 128MB work well with this design so the extra memory offered by the 3400 and the 4400 is not required.  As of January 2006, the PNY Quadro FX 1400 offers the best performance for the price.

 

For more information about the PNY Quadro FX cards please visit the manufacturer’s web page at www.pny.com.

 

NOTE: When purchasing the NVIDIA Quadro graphics card make sure you purchase a PNY manufactured card.

 

322997

Graphics Card

 

3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm 500 PCI Express 256MB

 

The new Wildcat Realizm 500 offers high-end graphics performance to Computer-aided Design (CAD) and Digital Content and Creation (DCC) professionals ... for a mid-range price.

 

Opinion:

This is a good stereo card with a nice form factor and acceptable power requirements.  Unfortunately, in February 2006, 3Dlabs announced that it would stop developing professional 3D graphic chips and focus on embedded and mobile graphic technologies.

 

Realizm 500

Graphics Card

 

ATI FireGL V3200 PCI Express 128MB

ATI FireGL V5000 PCI Express 128MB

ATI FireGL V5100 PCI Express 128MB

ATI FireGL V7200 PCI Express 256MB

 

The FireGL™ Visualization series of workstation graphics accelerators is designed specifically for the new, high-bandwidth PCI Express® bus, and is architected to deliver unprecedented speed and image quality for real-time visualization. True cinematic quality rendering of complex geometry is now available for compelling animation, visual effects, mechanical design and leading edge business communication.

 

Opinion:

As of January 2006, These cards have not been tested with VrTwo and the purchase of these graphics cards for use with Vr stereo is not recommended.

 

321358

Monitors

 

Opinion:

When viewing 3D stereo in VrTwo the monitor must be capable of a refresh rate of at least 100Hz at a resolution of 1280x1024.  Refresh rates slower than 100Hz can result in noticeable flicker to the operator.  At the present time, LCD and non-CRT screens refresh rates are 85Hz at the maximum setting.

 

The trend in display technology is toward non-CRT display screens and finding CRTs with 100-120Hz capability is more difficult.  Please see the help page on monitors.  A good source for stereo compatible monitors is Sharper Technology.  Call Michael Hooper at 650-964-4600 (http://www.sharpertechnology.com/)

 

Monitors

 

Build Notes

 

Power Supply for the ASUS P5B Motherboard

 

Make sure the power supply you order for this motherboard is the ATX v2.0 version.  This has a 24-pin (not 20-pin) connector main power connector.  The “Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-400 ATX12V 400W Power Supply 115/230” works well for most applications.