Remember the old IBM Corp 5080, a vast and expensive graphics display workstation that borrowed a lot from Sanders Associates Inc and plugged into a mainframe, offloading the graphics work so that computer-aided design programs would run at a reasonable speed? Following an agreement with Spectragraphics Corp, San Diego, you will soon be able to have all the functionality of a lumbering 5080 on a nippy little HP 9000 Series 700 workstation. Hewlett-Packard Co has signed Spectragraphics to put its GSE5080 emulator up on the Series 700, which attaches to the IBM host via a communications controller. The GSE5080 will also enable HP 9000 users to view and edit the mainframe CAD/CAM/CAE drawing or model alongside other applications in a multi-window environment. The main applications likely to be used with the system are Cadam, Catia, CAEDS, or in-house-developed packages. The partners reckon that they are looking at a market of 80,000 mainframe-attached terminals worldwide, but did not put a price on the software or say when it would be ready.
