This month, we list the 10 workstations that most recently received the best ratings for price versus performance on the Advanced Visualizer (AWadvs-03) viewset of the SPECviewperf 6.1.1 benchmark. Advanced Visualizer is a 3D animation system from Alias|Wavefront, and the Advanced Visualizer viewset consists of 10 shading operations involving polygonal models. The dollar-per-composite score is arrived at by dividing the cost of each workstation by its mean composite performance results.
To see how the same workstations fared in different benchmark tests and to view results from additional workstations, visit SPEC/GPC's Web site at
www.spec.org/gpc.
Pierre Bezier, who in 1970 first described the cubic polynomial curve known as the Bezier curve, died on November 25, 1999. Bezier began researching CAD/CAM systems in 1960, focusing on drawing machines, computer control, interactive free-form curve and surface design, and 3D milling. His system, UNISURF, was launched in 1968 and continues in use today.
Motion-tracking developer InterSense (Burlington, MA) recently announced that it will package its inertial tracking systems with i-O Display Systems' (Menlo Park, CA) i-glasses for use with real-time 3D applications....Muse Technologies, a developer of visualization and collaboration software (Albuquerque, NM), announced that it has acquired Virtual Presence (London, England), a provider of interactive visualization systems for the defense, medical, and manufacturing industries....BricsNet (Gent, Belgium), a developer of architectural design software, has acquired S+b dataserv (Germany), whose Internet-based Architect Information System provides building professionals with information on building products from manufacturers....Compaq (Houston) has announced that it is partnering with a number of graphics board vendors in order to deliver a broad range of graphics capability to its Professional Workstation line. Vendors include 3Dlabs, Intense3D, Elsa, nVidia, S3, Matrox, and Appian.