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Upgradable midrange series and desktop systems
CAD in industry Upgradable midrange series and desktop systems Digital Equipment Company (DEC) has added to its range of VAX computers by announcing the VAX 6300 series. At the same time, DEC has launched a series of desktop products to complement the VAX range.
Midrange systems for computeintensive applications The VAX 6300 series consists of six configurations (from 6310 to 6360). These systems are an extension of the VAX 6200 and fall into the middle of the VAX range. Performance of the new series varies between 3.8 and 22 times that of the VAX 11/780, according to DEC. The VAX 6300 series use up to six CMOS CPUs. Upgrading within the series (and from the 6200 series to the 6300) progresses through insertion of additional processing boards. The 6310 and 6320 models are a~vailable operating under Ultrix-32, DEC's version of Unix, as well as under the VAX VMS operating system, under which all the other models operate. The most powerful model, the 6360, can support up to 600 users for office applications, or deliver over 30 debit/credit transactions/s for transaction processing applications. Symmetric processing is supported transparently by dynamically balancing workloads across all available CPUs. Each system includes a 14-slot 100 Mbytes/s system interconnect. The VMS-based systems have up to 256 Mbytes of shared memory (configurable by upgrading) and the Ultrix-based systems have a memory expandable to 128 Mbytes. Prices for the systems vary from £121 800 for an Ultrix-based 6310 system to £590 500 for a 6360. An upgrade from 6210 to 6310 costs £7 850 and from 6240 to 6340 costs £31 4O0. Ultrix- and VMS-based fileservers based on the 6310 and 6320 are also available.
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DECwindows graphical user interlace
Dekstop set use DECwindows DEC's three new families of workstations use DECwindows, DEC's implementation of the X-window user interface. DECwindows is a graphical user and programming interface that can be used across VMS, Ultrix and MS-DOS operating systems. Apple Macintosh, OS/2 and Unix display devices, and mainframes which support the X-windows system are supported by DECwindows. The VAXstation 3100 is a generalpurpose entry-level workstation that is based on CMOS VAX processing units. The system operates under VMS or Ultrix, and networking is through Ethernet. Memory ranges from 8 to 32 Mbytes. The workstation is fully compatible with all other VAX systems. A fully configured system (Model 40 including 315 Mbyte disk, 600 Mbyte CDROM drive, 95 Mbyte streamer tape and 16 Mbyte memory) is designed to be applied to problems in CAD/ CAE. The cost of such a workstation is £20400 for a monochrome and £22 600 for a colour version.
The DECstation 3100 uses reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture based on chips from MIPS Computer Systems. Performance is given as 14 MIPS (Dhrystone benchmark), with Linpack performance of 3.7 Mflops single precision and 0.6 Mflops double precision. Memory is expandable in 4 Mbyte increments from 8 to 24 Mbytes. The workstation runs on Ultrix and so through NFS and TCP/IP can be integrated into a heterogeneous computing environment. Made for compute-intensive applications such as simulation and
DECstation 3100
computer-aided design
CAD in industry modelling, a discless DECstation 3100 costs £8800 for a monochrome and £13200 for a colour version. VAXstations 3520 and 3540 are symmetric processing workstations designed for 2D and 3D graphics applications. The systems use standards such as PHIGS, PHIGSextension to X-window system (PEX), GKS, DECwindows, TCP/IP, DECnet, and NFS, and operates in an X-11-based window environment. These workstations can be used either as singleuser systems or in a network. The VAXstations are available with a choice of VMS or Ultrix operating systems. The graphics output is on a screen of 1280 x 1024 pixels. Display buffering is used to allow smooth animation and display in real time, and 24-bit Zbuffering calculates hidden surfaces of solid models. The workstations are targeted at compute-intensive graphics applications. (Digital Equipment Company Ltd, Queen's House, Forbury Road, Reading, Berkshire RG7 31H, UK. Tel: (0734) 8687"11)
Massively parallel system The DAP 610 is a top of the range product from Active Memory Technology's Distributed Array of Processors series. It is a massively parallel computer system that can perform 40 billion Boolean operations/s (character handling rate of 4 billion/s). The DAP 610 is four times more powerful than its predecessor, the DAP 510, and costs just over twice as much (£250000 is the cost of a DAP 610 with 16 Mbyte memory). It consists of a 64 x 64 matrix of processors. The processors are semicustom chips, consisting of 8 x 8 subarrays, designed by Active Memory Technology. The system can connect to Vax computers and Sun workstations. (Active Memory Technology Ltd, 65 Suttons Park Avenue, Reading, Berks RG6 "IAZ, UK. Tel: (0734) 667717)
volume 21 number 3 april 1989
Multi-user software package An enhancement o[ Sonata, a CAD software package [or 3D building design and visualization, allows a number of designers to work on the same areas o[ a single project simultaneously. This has been achieved by the development o[ a multi-user project access (MPA) [acility, which is available to users running Sonata on Apollo hardware. The MPA facility is based on the Network Computing System (NCS), a network-independent compute-sharing system developed by Apollo. NCS allows the software writer to specify which parts of an application run on which parts o[ a network. NCS is used to define the state of a file, and maintains integrity of files [or multiple users. NCS has now been adopted by 160 companies including IBM, DEC, Hewlett Packard and Sun Microsystems, and has been submitted to the Open Software Foundation for acceptance as an industry standard. As a result of this, the developers o[ Sonata, t2 Solutions, intend to extend the multi-user [acility to all networks, so that Sonata can run simultaneously on any mixture of systems. (t 2 Solutions Ltd, The Teamwork Centre, Prince Edward Street, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire HP4 3AY, UK. Tel: (0442) 865481. Tx: 825797. Fax: (0442) 872670)
Supercomputers for visualization The family of supercomputers from Alliant are claimed to support both compute-intensive applications and real-time interactive graphic display. This new range is based on the Alliant FX/Series parallel vector supercomputers and programmer's hierarchical interactive graphics standard (PHIGS/PHIGS +) graphics systems from Raster Technologies, a company owned by Alliant. The VFX/82 has a peak performance of 377 Mflops, and supports up to 16 visualization displays and 128 users. The VFX/80 operates at up to 188.8 Mflops and supports up to eight visualization displays and 64 users. VFX/40 and VFX/4 operate at 94.4 and 47.2 Mflops, supporting up to 32 and
16 users, respectively. Both of these models offer four visualization displays. Graphics performance of up to 640 Mflops is also available. The Visualization system can be integrated into existing environments through autoparallelizing and autovectorizing compilers for languages including FX/Fortran with Vax/VMS and Cray extensions, as well as FX/C and FX/Ada. The operating system for the series is Concentrix, which is based on Unix. Prices range from £54000 to £89 000 per graphics seat, depending on the number of users and the particular model required. (Alliant Computer Systems Ltd, 70 Heatherley Road, Cambefley, Surrey, UK. Tel: (0276) 682881)
191
Midrange systems for computeintensive applications The VAX 6300 series consists of six configurations (from 6310 to 6360). These systems are an extension of the VAX 6200 and fall into the middle of the VAX range. Performance of the new series varies between 3.8 and 22 times that of the VAX 11/780, according to DEC. The VAX 6300 series use up to six CMOS CPUs. Upgrading within the series (and from the 6200 series to the 6300) progresses through insertion of additional processing boards. The 6310 and 6320 models are a~vailable operating under Ultrix-32, DEC's version of Unix, as well as under the VAX VMS operating system, under which all the other models operate. The most powerful model, the 6360, can support up to 600 users for office applications, or deliver over 30 debit/credit transactions/s for transaction processing applications. Symmetric processing is supported transparently by dynamically balancing workloads across all available CPUs. Each system includes a 14-slot 100 Mbytes/s system interconnect. The VMS-based systems have up to 256 Mbytes of shared memory (configurable by upgrading) and the Ultrix-based systems have a memory expandable to 128 Mbytes. Prices for the systems vary from £121 800 for an Ultrix-based 6310 system to £590 500 for a 6360. An upgrade from 6210 to 6310 costs £7 850 and from 6240 to 6340 costs £31 4O0. Ultrix- and VMS-based fileservers based on the 6310 and 6320 are also available.
190
DECwindows graphical user interlace
Dekstop set use DECwindows DEC's three new families of workstations use DECwindows, DEC's implementation of the X-window user interface. DECwindows is a graphical user and programming interface that can be used across VMS, Ultrix and MS-DOS operating systems. Apple Macintosh, OS/2 and Unix display devices, and mainframes which support the X-windows system are supported by DECwindows. The VAXstation 3100 is a generalpurpose entry-level workstation that is based on CMOS VAX processing units. The system operates under VMS or Ultrix, and networking is through Ethernet. Memory ranges from 8 to 32 Mbytes. The workstation is fully compatible with all other VAX systems. A fully configured system (Model 40 including 315 Mbyte disk, 600 Mbyte CDROM drive, 95 Mbyte streamer tape and 16 Mbyte memory) is designed to be applied to problems in CAD/ CAE. The cost of such a workstation is £20400 for a monochrome and £22 600 for a colour version.
The DECstation 3100 uses reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture based on chips from MIPS Computer Systems. Performance is given as 14 MIPS (Dhrystone benchmark), with Linpack performance of 3.7 Mflops single precision and 0.6 Mflops double precision. Memory is expandable in 4 Mbyte increments from 8 to 24 Mbytes. The workstation runs on Ultrix and so through NFS and TCP/IP can be integrated into a heterogeneous computing environment. Made for compute-intensive applications such as simulation and
DECstation 3100
computer-aided design
CAD in industry modelling, a discless DECstation 3100 costs £8800 for a monochrome and £13200 for a colour version. VAXstations 3520 and 3540 are symmetric processing workstations designed for 2D and 3D graphics applications. The systems use standards such as PHIGS, PHIGSextension to X-window system (PEX), GKS, DECwindows, TCP/IP, DECnet, and NFS, and operates in an X-11-based window environment. These workstations can be used either as singleuser systems or in a network. The VAXstations are available with a choice of VMS or Ultrix operating systems. The graphics output is on a screen of 1280 x 1024 pixels. Display buffering is used to allow smooth animation and display in real time, and 24-bit Zbuffering calculates hidden surfaces of solid models. The workstations are targeted at compute-intensive graphics applications. (Digital Equipment Company Ltd, Queen's House, Forbury Road, Reading, Berkshire RG7 31H, UK. Tel: (0734) 8687"11)
Massively parallel system The DAP 610 is a top of the range product from Active Memory Technology's Distributed Array of Processors series. It is a massively parallel computer system that can perform 40 billion Boolean operations/s (character handling rate of 4 billion/s). The DAP 610 is four times more powerful than its predecessor, the DAP 510, and costs just over twice as much (£250000 is the cost of a DAP 610 with 16 Mbyte memory). It consists of a 64 x 64 matrix of processors. The processors are semicustom chips, consisting of 8 x 8 subarrays, designed by Active Memory Technology. The system can connect to Vax computers and Sun workstations. (Active Memory Technology Ltd, 65 Suttons Park Avenue, Reading, Berks RG6 "IAZ, UK. Tel: (0734) 667717)
volume 21 number 3 april 1989
Multi-user software package An enhancement o[ Sonata, a CAD software package [or 3D building design and visualization, allows a number of designers to work on the same areas o[ a single project simultaneously. This has been achieved by the development o[ a multi-user project access (MPA) [acility, which is available to users running Sonata on Apollo hardware. The MPA facility is based on the Network Computing System (NCS), a network-independent compute-sharing system developed by Apollo. NCS allows the software writer to specify which parts of an application run on which parts o[ a network. NCS is used to define the state of a file, and maintains integrity of files [or multiple users. NCS has now been adopted by 160 companies including IBM, DEC, Hewlett Packard and Sun Microsystems, and has been submitted to the Open Software Foundation for acceptance as an industry standard. As a result of this, the developers o[ Sonata, t2 Solutions, intend to extend the multi-user [acility to all networks, so that Sonata can run simultaneously on any mixture of systems. (t 2 Solutions Ltd, The Teamwork Centre, Prince Edward Street, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire HP4 3AY, UK. Tel: (0442) 865481. Tx: 825797. Fax: (0442) 872670)
Supercomputers for visualization The family of supercomputers from Alliant are claimed to support both compute-intensive applications and real-time interactive graphic display. This new range is based on the Alliant FX/Series parallel vector supercomputers and programmer's hierarchical interactive graphics standard (PHIGS/PHIGS +) graphics systems from Raster Technologies, a company owned by Alliant. The VFX/82 has a peak performance of 377 Mflops, and supports up to 16 visualization displays and 128 users. The VFX/80 operates at up to 188.8 Mflops and supports up to eight visualization displays and 64 users. VFX/40 and VFX/4 operate at 94.4 and 47.2 Mflops, supporting up to 32 and
16 users, respectively. Both of these models offer four visualization displays. Graphics performance of up to 640 Mflops is also available. The Visualization system can be integrated into existing environments through autoparallelizing and autovectorizing compilers for languages including FX/Fortran with Vax/VMS and Cray extensions, as well as FX/C and FX/Ada. The operating system for the series is Concentrix, which is based on Unix. Prices range from £54000 to £89 000 per graphics seat, depending on the number of users and the particular model required. (Alliant Computer Systems Ltd, 70 Heatherley Road, Cambefley, Surrey, UK. Tel: (0276) 682881)
191