2015-07-27
"Finally we decided to design the processor ourselves, because only in this way, we thought, could we obtain a truly complete display processor. We approached the task by starting with a simple scheme and adding commands and features that we felt would enhance the power of the machine. Gradually the processor became more complex. We were not disturbed by this because computer graphics, after all, are complex. Finally the display processor came to resemble a full-fledged computer with some special graphics features. And then a strange thing happened. We felt compelled to add to the processor a second, subsidiary processor, which, itself, began to grow in complexity. It was then that we discovered a disturbing truth. Designing a display processor can become a never-ending cyclical process. In fact, we found the process so frustrating that we have come to call it the 'wheel of reincarnation.' We spent a long time trapped on that wheel before we finally broke free."
cva.stanford.edu/classes/cs99s/papers/myer-sutherland-design-of-display-processors.pdf