Ikonas

Logo

Ikonas was a 3D graphics hardware company in North Carolina founded by Nick England in the late 1970s. It was founded based on research he had done at North Carolina State University.

Ikonas' products consisted of the first general purpose programmable GPU that could output to a raster framebuffer. The products could be programmed for geometry or volumetric data.

Ikonas was bought by Adage in the 1980s.

Products

These products include Ikonas' Raster Display Systems:

• RDS-2000
• RDS-3000, released in 1980

Company

The name is derived from the Greek word eikōn (εἰκών), which translates to "image," "likeness," or "reflection," referring to the ability of the company's computer systems to create lifelike renderings that closely mirror the appearances of real objects and scenes.

References

• "The world's first GPGPU". 2023-08-14. https://www.graphics-history.org/ikonas/.
• England, Nick; Founder, Ikonas. "DVI / Ikonas Graphics Systems". https://www.manifest-tech.com/dvi/dvi_web/ikonas.htm.
• "Ikonas Graphics Systems, Inc.". https://history.siggraph.org/exhibitor/ikonas-graphics-systems-inc/.
• "RDS-3000 information". https://graphicshistory.org/ikonas/ik-notes-01.pdf.
• "Ikonas Graphics Systems 1979: : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive". 2016-10-23. https://archive.org/details/TNM_Ikonas_Graphics_Systems_1979_20180210_0221.
• "Nick England". 2021-06-25. https://www.virhistory.com/nick/.