When Hewlett-Packard Co launched what it claimed was the fastest graphics workstations ever seen with its PA-8000 Visualize offerings last week, Sun Microsystems Inc countered to claim supremacy for its Ultra workstations, with the addition of Freedom accelerators from Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp, which were previously on the SparcStation 20 boxes. Sun claims 316.7 PLBsurf93 with a 16-processor Freedom 3000. But so pleased was Hewlett-Packard at its claim to be vendor with the fastest graphics workstations, at least for the time being that it could not resist bashing Sun at every available opportunity at the launch. Along with graphs, charts and the like with Sun at the bottom and Hewlett at the top, it showed a video of its new 64-bit boxes crashing through the Sundown Cafe, and offering Free Java.
