The runaway success of Sun Microsystems Inc’s Netra Internet-optimised servers – which caught the company itself on the hop – has energised all its major rivals to seek to get into the business, and Silicon Graphics Inc has now come out with a line of WebForce Indy- and Indigo2 workstations and Challenge S servers designed to provide high bandwidth visual computing systems for use on the internet. They will come with the Navigator client software bundled on the workstations and Netsite software bundled on the servers, both from Netscape Communications Corp. Silicon Graphics claims WebForce is the first product line for creating and serving media-rich content for the World Wide Web. Netsite server software on the WebForce servers is designed to bring secure communications, high performance and mouse control to individuals and businesses that want to access or create information services on global networks. The authoring software is Silicon Graphics’ WebMagic Author – a Hypertext Markup Language editor, and comes with integrated digital media tools and MovieMaster encoder so that users can create MPEG-I and QuickTime Cinepak movie files. Built-in networking capabilities include ISDN. The WebForce Indy system incorporates the Indy XL graphics subsystem, IndyCam digital video camera and CD-quality audio system. The high-end three-dimensional WebForce Indigo2 Extreme system features the world’s most powerful desktop graphics. The pre-installed WebMagic Author application includes technology licensed from Amdahl Corp, and is claimed to present an intuitive graphical user interface shielding users from the complicated Hypertext language. Prices start at $11,000 for a WebForce Indy with 8-bit graphics, a 1Gb disk, 32Mb memory and 16 high-resolution colour monitor, using a 133MHz R4600 RISC. The 24-bit Indy dedicated authoring system with 1Gb disk and 32Mb memory is $17,500; the 200MHz R4400 Indigo2 Extreme with 2Gb disk and 128Mb memory is $45,200. The WebForce Challenge S servers start at $13,500 with 100MHz R4600 or 150MHz R4400 processors with a 1Gb system disk and 32Mb of memory. Existing users can upgrade to WebForce configurations.
