Sun Microsystems Inc has, as reported briefly (CI No 961), intro duced two further members of its Sparc-based Sun-4 Series with prices starting at $44,000, UKP34,600 in the UK. The two models are the Sun-4/150CXP, aimed at mechanical computer-aided-design users, and the Sun 4-/150TAAC, for image processing and scientif ic visualisations. Both are deskside models with the same proc essor, memory and storage capabilities as the Sun-4/110. The graphics accelerator in the CXP provides fast vector and drawing speeds and polygon rendering rates to allow users to interact with and manipulate three-dimensional models in real-time. The TAAC has an applications accelerator from Transcept Systems Inc, which Sun acquired back in August last year, and has a high performance floating point unit combined with dedicated libraries of graphics functions built-in. Sun also announced an optimised implementation of SunPHIGS three-dimensional graphics software, which is based on the ANSI and International Standards Organisa tion PHIGS – Programmer’s Hierarchical Interactive Graphics System – standard. And in a separate announcement, Sun has also introduced its first application product based on its NeWS Net work-Extensible Window System software, in the shape of a colour graphics 3270 terminal emulator, SunLink CG2370. This is de signed to enable Sun users to access IBM host mainframe applica tions, including colour and host graphics from IBM’s GDDM Graphi cal Data Display Manager.
