A week or so earlier than expected, IBM Corp yesterday announced its graphics enhancements for the RS/6000, and also added a new 9333 disk subsystem for the Unix box. The new integrated colour graphics products, understood to be licensed from Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp, are claimed to give a fivefold improvement in two- and an eightfold increase in three-dimensional performance. The company also launched the Power Visualisation System, announced a disk drive promotion with prices reduced by 38% to 42% on most RS/6000 drives, and cut prices on some three-dimensional colour graphics adaptors. The Power Gt4x, Power Gt4 and Power Gt3 – are internally-attached graphics subsystems connected via Micro Channel slots. An 8-bit Gt4x is $11,700, with the 24-bit version at $17,000 from October 25. The visualisation system is from $600,000 to $2m and uses a server with up to 32 parallel processors, running the Data Explorer integrated visualisation environment, which supports X Window and OSF/Motif. The 9333 High-Performance Disk Drive Subsystem comes in two models, a deskside unit that attaches to 500 series models, and a drawer subsystem for 900 series rack models. They use 857Mb disks and cost from $23,500, deskside and $23,000 drawer, and arrive in October.
