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The new visual workstations are designed for creative and technical visual computing professionals across many industries from 2D and 3D CAD/CAM, space and analysis; entertainment/media to medical imaging; education and learning on demand. The systems leverage processor technology from Intel, and the broad-based application availability of the Microsoft Windows NT operating system. These industry-standard technologies are combined with Silicon Graphics' state-of-the-art visualization capabilities, along with an architecture that maintains compatibility with industry standards while breaking through traditional PC bottlenecks. The Silicon Graphics 320 workstation can be configured with up to two Intel Pentium II 450 MHz processors and up to 1GB of ECC SDRAM memory. It comes standard with three available PCI expansion slots, two available storage bays, integrated floppy drive, 32X max CD-ROM and a choice of hard drives up to 14.4GB Ultra ATA/33. Support for 9GB Ultra2 SCSI is also available. Silicon Graphics 320 also features analog video I/O, 10/100 Ethernet and support for up to 1920x1200 (HDTV and better) graphics resolution. Silicon Graphics 540, the industry's first quad-capable graphics workstation, can be configured with up to four Intel Pentium II Xeon 450 MHz processors with 512KB, 1MB or 2MB of L2 cache and up to 2GB of ECC SDRAM memory. The system comes standard with six available PCI expansion slots, three available storage bays, integrated floppy drive, 32X max CD-ROM and a 9GB 7,200 RPM Ultra2 SCSI disk drive, upgradeable to 10,000 RPM in either 9GB or 18GB capacities. Silicon Graphics 540 also supports up to 1920x1200 (HDTV and better) graphics resolution, analog video I/O, 10/100 Ethernet, plus optional 4-channel serial digital video I/O. The new workstations feature a new design known as the Integrated Visual Computing (IVC) architecture. The IVC architecture has taken features that typically require add-in cards and integrated them into the core logic of the Cobalt Graphics chipset. These integrated features are linked by a high-speed, low-latency 3.2Gbit per second graphics-to-memory interconnect and a 1.6GB/sec I/O interconnect. The result is an increase in bandwidth of more than six times standard AGP 2X and more than 12 times the traditional PCI bus. The IVC architecture provides sufficient bandwidth to simultaneously support graphics models and multiple streams of uncompressed NTSC or PAL video, giving the opportunity of working in real time with uncompressed data. The shared memory architecture makes it possible to include video as a graphics component, map video as a texture, or capture and play back multiple streams of video. According to the CDRS-04 benchmark the Silicon Graphics 320 provides 3D graphics with a score of 200 from the Viewperf suite. This equates to a $/CDRS score of $26.00, the best price/ performance in the industry. Both the 320 and the 540 visual workstations are compatible with the company's recently introduced high-resolution digital flat panel monitor, the Silicon Graphics 1600SW. This product is complemented by the newly introduced ColorLock, a color calibration application specifically designed for the Silicon Graphics 1600SW monitor. the company also offers interoperability tools that are designed to ensure that the new Silicon Graphics visual workstations work seamlessly between UNIX, Windows NT and Macintosh platforms. The Interoperability Toolkit, free with every system, includes Hummingbird NFS Maestro Solo, Hummingbird Telnet Daemon, Mortice Kern Systems MKS Toolkit, UNIX File Manipulation Commands, and Media4 Productions MacDrive98. Also free with every system is Equilibrium DeBabelizer Pro 4.5 LE for automated graphics processing, and Intel LANDesk Client Manager.
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