cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson) (03/08/91)
The following is a posting to The WELL.
Topic 55: Cyberspace in the Media II
#113: Kenny Meyer (kennym) Thu, Mar 7, '91 (07:36) 31 lines
March 4 issue of COMPUTER WORLD (Advanced Technology section) has a
preview of the keynote addresses that are slated to be delivered at
the ACM Computer Science Conference in San Antonio.
Phil Hester, director IBM's Advance Workstation Division Engineering
Center is presenting a talk on improved workstations. CW says Hester
is responsible for IBM's RISC development.
I'll quote from the Article:
"I would say by the mid-90's we are easily going to have
workstation capability of 100 plus [MIPS] and are likely to have
photorealistic, three-dimensional visualization capability and
interfaces to create a virtual reality presence," said Hester...
Industrial, electrical and other forms of design have reached the
end of a progression that began with a paper and pencil and ended
with computers capable of realistic simulations, according to
Hester.
Now you can simulate a bridge, for example, inside a workstation
and do all sorts of optimizations..." It is no longer necessary
to build models before actually building the product...
"The question is, what happens next?" said Hester. "Now we start
getting into interaction with design through virtual reality.
We're not really doing interactive modeling of how a person will
deal with objects. We'll extend into 3-D space and insert the
self into a reality that is simulated on-screen."