Kernel Wars

Technical deep-dives into PLM systems and CAD analysis

Chapter 15 - The Kernel Wars: A Modern Perspective

Chapter 13 - CAE Wars: Simulation Eating the Physical World

Chapter 12 - CAM Wars: The Machinist's Digital Shadow

Chapter 11 - CAD Wars

Chapter 10 - How MCAD and Computer Graphics Drove Each Other: A Story of Mutual Acceleration

Chapter 9 - The Evolution of Graphics APIs

Chapter 8 - The Evolution of Surfacing Technologies — People, Companies, and the Creative Machines Behind the Magic

Chapter 7 - The Computational Alchemy: How Graphics Mathematics Forged the AI Age

I have been at pains to prove that all this MCAD history is relevant to us today because the problems it solved were found to be analogous to those required for advancing artificial intelligence. The full mathematical story below.

Chapter 5 - Cautionary Tales in CAD: When Tech Isn’t Enough

Sometimes vendors approached the market haphazardly or did not see a technological shift, and sometimes they were too lazy to fix their bugs. This is the story of three dead ends in the history of MCAD.

Chapter 4 - Solid Edge versus SolidWorks: Two Different (but similar) Paths to Parasolid

At the advent of Microsoft Windows stood Jim Meadlock of Intergraph and Jon Hirschtick of Winchester Design (later SolidWorks) that saw the writing on the wall for the death of UNIX workstations. This is the story of how they got there and their very different fates afterwards.