Silicon Graphics Inc is adding workstations thick and fast these days, the latest being a new mid-range machine, the 4D/310. Using a single R3000 processor from MIPS Computer Systems, the 4D/310 is rated at 30 MIPS and 4.9 MFLOPS, and is positioned as the entry-level system to the company’s Power Series of workstations, previously all multi-processor. It shares the Powerchannel architecture with the 4D/320, 340 and 380 models, and can be upgraded to the top-end, eight-processor 380 which is rated at 234 MIPS. Below these are the Personal Iris machines the 4D/20, 25 and the recently launched 4D/35. UK marketing manager Steve Webb claimed that, in comparison, Sun Microsystems’ Sparcstation GT 2 has a slower CPU, slower input-output and less powerful graphics – and a higher price than the 4D/310. As a server, the machine costs UKP19,000 in the UK, or UKP35,000 as a graphics workstation. For graphics rated at up to one million polygons per second, the 4D/310 VGX costs UKP55,000.
