---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash SMCC In Partnership With Evans & Sutherland SunFLASH Vol 38 #7 February 1992 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Companies to Develop High-End Graphics Products for SPARC Platform MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --January 27, 1992-- Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation (SMCC) and Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation (E&S), a leading manufacturer of high-performance 3-D graphics products, have signed a joint agreement under which E&S will develop new, sophisticated graphics accelerators for SMCC's SPARC(R) systems. These will be the first E&S products for SPARC systems running the Solaris(R) distributed computing evironment and will extend SMCC's current graphics product line. The new E&S graphics accelerators will be software-compatible with workstations currently available from both SMCC and E&S. For SMCC, the new graphics products will be compatible with 3-D applications written using Sun's XGL(TM), SunPHIGS(TM), Xlib and PEXlib graphics software libraries, as well as the 3,840 current independent solutions for SPARC platforms. Software compatibility from E&S will include the high-end 3-D graphics E&S applications such as CDRS(TM), SYBYL(R), AVS(TM) and other applications written using ES/PEX(TM). These powerful new products from E&S will deliver the sophisticated 3-D graphics features and performance needed for such areas as mission planning, molecular modeling, avionics, simulation, animation, architectural engineering and industrial design. For example, advanced features like texture mapping and antialiasing will give product designers the ability to create highly complex and realistic models. Product design cycles can be dramatically reduced when these realistic models are used in presentations to management and customers before actual production saving time and money. "We are extremely enthusiastic about offering E&S graphics on the most popular and widely available open platform in the industry. This combination is sure to provide a very competitive, high-end solution. The agreement with SMCC fits within our strategy to provide E&S graphics to additional markets," said Gary Hodgman, president of Evans & Sutherland's Design Systems Division. According to Anil Gadre, SMCC vice president of systems product marketing, "E&S invented 3-D graphics we couldn't ask for a better partner to take us into new markets and help us make SPARC the leading graphics platform." Gadre added that partnerships like this one with E&S are essential to SMCC's "open graphics" strategy. "We have a powerful open platform that is ideal for third-party vendors who want to develop a wide-range of innovative, specialized products," he said. Future E&S Products to Complement SMCC's Current Graphics Products The 3-D graphics products to be developed by E&S will extend SMCC's current line of graphics accelerators, the GX, GXplus, GS and GT. The E&S products will also increase SMCC's penetration into new markets such as animation and simulation. The industry-leading GX offers the fast 2-D/3-D wireframe graphics and accelerated windowing needed by all SMCC customers. The GXplus enhances GX performance with 1280-x-1024 resolution for government and financial services markets and double-buffering for CAD markets. The GS has 3-D solids modeling capabilities for the MCAD, GIS and molecular modeling markets. For the power user, the GT provides 3-D graphics, solids modeling, and antialiasing for MCAD, GIS and molecular modeling applications. Evans & Sutherland is a leader in advanced visualization and simulation systems for science and industry. The Design System Division develops, builds, and sells high-performance 3-D graphics systems, as well as sophisticated software applications for industrial design, molecular modeling, and scientific visualization. CDRS and ES/PEX are trademarks of Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation. SYBYL is a registered trademark of Tripos Associates. AVS is a trademark of Stardent Computer, Inc. PR contacts: Sun Microsystems, Inc. Carrie Dillon (415) 336-3564 Evans & Sutherland Lynn Thorsen (801) 582-5847 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For information send mail to info-sunflash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. Subscription requests should be sent to sunflash-request@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. Archives are on solar.nova.edu, paris.cs.miami.edu, uunet.uu.net, src.doc.ic.ac.uk and ftp.adelaide.edu.au All prices, availability, and other statements relating to Sun or third party products are valid in the U.S. only. Please contact your local Sales Representative for details of pricing and product availability in your region. Descriptions of, or references to products or publications within SunFlash does not imply an endorsement of that product or publication by Sun Microsystems. John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. (305) 776-7770.