Date: 27-Nov-2009   URL: www.sun.com/software/imaging/xil/faq_xil.xml
XIL 1.3

General FAQ

General

1.
Q:
What is the technology?
A:
XIL 1.3 is an MT-hot foundation imaging library composed of an API that provides broad imaging functionality to application developers and a GPI that allows device developers to provide device-specific acceleration and access transparent to the API user.

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2.
Q:
What are the benefits?
A:
XIL is provided free with all copies of Solaris. This allows developers to replace hard-to-maintain internal IP libraries with XIL to achieve better scalable IP performance and reduced application development time.

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3.
Q:
What's new in Solaris 2.6?
A:
  • MT-hot: The underlying libraries use multiple threads to do image processing on MP systems. In addition, the application can use multiple threads calling the XIL API without locking.
  • Floating Point Support: The library now supports floating point images in order to better serves the technical imaging market.
  • Tiling: The library processes large images on a per-tile basis and defers operations in order to maximize the number of operations performed on a given tile before swapping the tile to disk.
  • GPI commitment: The compute, storage and I/O sections of the GPI are significantly simpler to use and are now SunSoft committed which guarantees compatability with future versions of the library.
  • Ports: Reference ports of XIL 1.3 are being completed for several other platforms, including Windows NT and SGI.

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4.
Q:
What effect will this have on user's environment?
A:
The XIL run-time libraries are included in the end-user part of a Solaris Operating System installation. Any applications that depend on XIL will be able to find the necessary run-time libraries. For development purposes, the XIL man pages and header files are included with the Solaris OS as part of the developer's installation.

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5.
Q:
What do end-users, ISV's and System Administrator have to do?
A:
End-users need to nothing to enjoy applications that have linked with XIL to provide imaging capabilities. ISV's will need to access the XIL Programmer's Guide on the Solaris 2.6 documentation CD and the man pages and header files included in the Solaris 2.6 developer's installation. Those developer's who wish to use the GPI to provide device drivers that accelerate IP and I/O functionality under XIL will need to pick up the XIL DDK packages from the DDK website.

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6.
Q:
Where can I find XIL documentation?
A:

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Links Mentioned on This Page

This page is located at: http://sun.com/software/imaging/xil/faq_xil.xml

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