IBM is showing the RS/6000 Unix box off like crazy at the Siggraph computer graphics convention in Dallas this week: five are linked together with optical fibre to create what IBM contentiously calls a de facto supercomputer to accelerate the performance of processor-intensive functions such as ray tracing, with four RS/6000s operating as assistants to a fifth; ray tracing is a method of creating an artificial scene or animation by having a computer calculate all the paths light rays would trace in a specific room, landscape or other scene; another RS/6000 array – built by the Utah Supercomputing Institute – is linking workstations and performing calculations over the network; three-dimensional images in X windows and the ability to transmit animated video over a local area network and display it on a PS/2 screen are also being shown.
