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                                                        The Florida SunFlash

  Vicom Will Now Sell, Support Sun's Visualization Accelerators (VX, MVX)
   
SunFLASH Vol 35 #4					       November 1991 
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --October 28, 1991--  Sun Microsystems Computer
Corporation (SMCC) and Vicom Systems, a leading supplier of imaging and
visualization products, have signed an agreement under which Vicom will
offer high-end visualization accelerators for the SPARCstation(TM)
platform.  Beginning January 1, Vicom will take over all manufacturing,
selling and support of SMCC's VX(TM) and MVX(TM) visualization
accelerators, develop follow-on versions of these products and provide
value-added configurations.  Meanwhile, SMCC and Vicom will work
jointly during the transition period until January 1 to provide
seamless support to VX and MVX customers.

With the addition of the VX and MVX accelerators, Vicom now offers a
full range of specialized imaging systems, which include its existing
high-end image processing products and the Gould and Pixar product
lines. Vicom plans to broaden the VX and MVX product lines in the
future, while maintaining full compatibility with Sun's Solaris
environment, XGL(TM) and SunVision(TM) visualization software.
Customers will now be able to buy high-volume low-cost and mid-range
visualization accelerators such as a SPARCstation 2 system running
SunVision(R) from Sun and higher-end compatible visualization systems
from Vicom.

Introduced in August 1990, the VX and MVX deliver high performance for
many visualization segments, such as image processing, volume
rendering, 3-D graphics and high-quality rendering.  The VX offers 40
MIPS and 80 peak MFLOPS (double precision) performance; the
multiprocessor MVX offers performance of up to 160 MIPS and 320
MFLOPS.  These powerful accelerators are primarily used for
sophisticated markets like medical, earth resources, scientific
visualization, pharmaceutical/chemical, mapping and mechanical
computer-aided design.

"SMCC's strategy is to focus our resources on providing high-volume,
open graphics platforms," said Anil Gadre, SMCC vice president of
systems product marketing. "We then rely on third-party partners to
build specialized products that complement our product line.  Vicom,
with its long and successful history in the image processing business,
is a natural choice to support the VX and MVX and continue innovation
in this area. In this way, our customers will get the best of both
worlds."

"We have picked the best, most widely available, open standard platform
in the industry," said Arun Taneja, vice president of marketing for
Vicom. "We look forward to using our expertise in image processing to
provide a full range of products, services and support to our new VX
and MVX customers and to SMCC's VX/MVX installed base in the U.S. and
internationally."

SMCC Continues To Develop, Market High-Volume Graphics and Imaging Products

SMCC will continue to aggressively develop and market high-volume
graphics and imaging products, including its four graphics
accelerators, the GX, GXplus, GS and GT.  The industry-leading GX
offers the general-purpose 2-D/3-D wireframe graphics, visualization
and accelerated windowing needed by all Sun customers. The GXplus
enhances GX performance with the 1280-by-1024 resolution and double
buffering capabilities needed by the government and financial services
markets. The GS provides 3-D solids modeling capabilities for the MCAD,
GIS and molecular modeling markets. The GT performs high-end 3-D
graphics, solids modeling and antialiasing in the most demanding MCAD,
GIS and molecular modeling applications.

Vicom Systems, Inc., is the leading manufacturer of high-performance
visualization hardware and software products primarily used for
applications such as medical imaging, industrial inspection, earth
sciences (geographic information systems, geophysical/seismic imaging,
remote sensing), scientific visualization and electronic pre-press.
The company, founded in 1981 and headquartered in Fremont, Calif.,
sells products worldwide.


For reader inquiries, telephone 1-800-821-4643.

PR contacts:

Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation
Carrie Dillon (415) 336-3564

Vicom Systems, Inc.
Sandy Staufenbiel (510) 498-3284 

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John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. (305) 776-7770.