# Brian Paul

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American software programmer

For the member of the "Bright Young Things" social scene, see [Brian Dean Paul](/source/Brian_Dean_Paul).

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Brian Paul receiving the [FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software](/source/FSF_Free_Software_Awards) from [Richard Stallman](/source/Richard_Stallman)

**Brian E. Paul** is a [computer programmer](/source/Computer_programming) who originally wrote and maintained the source code for the [open source](/source/Open-source_software) [Mesa](/source/Mesa_(computer_graphics)) graphics library until 2012, and is still active in the project. He began writing its source code in August 1993. Mesa is a [free software](/source/Free_software)/[open source](/source/Open_source_software) [graphics](/source/Computer_graphics) [library](/source/Library_(computer_science)) that provides a generic [OpenGL](/source/OpenGL) implementation for rendering [three-dimensional](/source/3-D_computer_graphics) graphics on multiple [platforms](/source/Platform_(computing)).

## Education

Paul obtained his bachelor's degree at the [University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh](/source/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Oshkosh) in 1990. He worked on the SSEC Visualization Project while obtaining his master's degree at the [University of Wisconsin–Madison](/source/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Madison).

## Mesa development

Paul was a graphics hobbyist. He thought it would be fun to implement a simple 3D graphics library using the OpenGL API. He spent eighteen months of part-time development before he released the software on the Internet. The software was well received, and people began contributing to its development.[1] Graphics hardware support was added to Mesa in 1997 in the form of a [Glide](/source/Glide_API) driver for the new [3dfx](/source/3dfx_Interactive) Voodoo graphics card.[2]

## Career

Paul continued working on the SSEC Project after graduation. He has also worked for [Silicon Graphics](/source/Silicon_Graphics), [Avid Technology](/source/Avid_Technology), and Precision Insight[1] (bought out by [VA Linux Systems](/source/Geeknet)).

In 2000, Paul won the third [Free Software Foundation](/source/Free_Software_Foundation) [Award for the Advancement of Free Software](/source/Award_for_the_Advancement_of_Free_Software).[3]

In November 2001, he co-founded Tungsten Graphics, which was acquired by [VMware](/source/VMware) in December 2008, where he now works.[1]

## Other contributions

Paul has also contributed to or written:

- [Chromium](/source/Chromium_(computer_graphics))

- [Direct Rendering Infrastructure](/source/Direct_Rendering_Infrastructure) in [XFree86](/source/XFree86)[2]

- Blockbuster – a high-res movie player for scientific visualization applications

- Glean – OpenGL validation

- Togl – an OpenGL widget for Tcl/Tk

- [Vis5D](/source/Vis5D) visualization system

- [VisAD](/source/VisAD) visualization system

- [Cave5D](/source/Cave5D) – an adaptation of Vis5D to immersive virtual reality

- TR – OpenGL tile rendering library

- V-Blocks – virtual building blocks

- Avid Marquee – video animation, 3D text, graphics

## References

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-lwn-history_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-lwn-history_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-lwn-history_1-2) Edge, Jake. ["The history of Mesa"](https://lwn.net/Articles/569083/). *LWN.net*. Eklektix, Inc. Retrieved 23 March 2021.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-DRI_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-DRI_2-1) ["Introduction to the Direct Rendering Infrastructure"](https://dri.sourceforge.net/doc/DRIintro.html); Retrieved 2007-02-11

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Brian Paul is Awarded the Free Software Foundation Award For the Advancement of Free Software"](https://www.gnu.org/award/2000/2000-pr.txt); February 2, 2001; Retrieved February 11, 2007

## External links

- [Brian Paul's Home Page](https://web.archive.org/web/20150503154441/http://www.mesa3d.org/brianp/home.html)

- ["Interview: Brian Paul Answers"](http://interviews.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/12/17/0927212); slashdot; December 17, 1999; Retrieved February 11, 2007

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