From: andyrose@netcom.com (San Francisco Fractal Factory)
Subject: TECH: AVS modeling software on PC - viz for everyone!
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 18:46:14 GMT
Message-ID: <-xznzt=.andyrose@netcom.com>
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 


Crossposted from comp.graphics.visualization


Just talked to Charles G. and he OKed this post.

FROM: chuckg@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us (Charles Gallagher)

I sell for a company out of Boulder, called Set Technology, that
supplies a 486 box, 32 MB of ram, 500 MB hard disk, both floppies,
1/4" 150 MB tape, ethernet, graphics board (1024x768), Sony 17"
monitor, SCO UNIX, X11, NFS, and AVS for $9,995.

This is a 50Mhz 486, AVS4.0 with advanced memory sharing, heirarchical
module creation (modules within modules) and executable building

This is a completely integrated, tested, ready to use system.  Set is
a source code licensee of the AVS software and has the only 486 port.

Under terms of their agreement with Advanced Visual Systems, Inc.,
they are precluded from selling only the AVS software seperately.

The price for AVS, qty 1, to commercial users on typical WS's (SUN,
HP, SGI, IBM6000) is $6500.

Please contact me if you require more info re AVS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~  Chuck Gallagher      chuckg@cruzio.santa-cruz.ca.us       (408) 464-2180  ~
~  Visualization Systems        3835 Moana Way         Santa Cruz, CA 95062  ~
~                                                                            ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chuck's coming over in a week so I can tell you how screaming fast
this configuration is.  I asked him over the phone to load the read
field, iso- surface, color map, and render modules and rotate that
little hydrogen thing around.  Apparently AVS uses a 'bounding box' to
give interactivity to the 'virtual spaceball'.  So the cubeythingy
moves in real time and when you let the button go, the new image is
rendered.  A couple seconds.

Upshot? p5 upgrade will require a motherboard swap (although most
chips and controllers can be reused) and should come 'in a year'.

Competition? Iris Indigo is reasonable but only for 8bit graphics.  24
bit will cost you $25,000+ (correct me if I'm wrong).

Output? laser disk is best for reasons of random access, single frame
viewing, cost, archiving, reliability, space, and ease of use.

I suppose there should be some duplication in the function of all the
IBM Explorer, IRIS Explorer, and AVS modules.  Count on AVS for having
more because it's been around longer.  Khoros is 'being ported to AVS'
whatever that means.


later

Andrew Rose andyrose@netcom.com FAX 4155537756 When peace rules the planet