hsg@duke.cs.duke.edu (Henry Greenside) (12/11/90)
Does anyone know enough about the new Sparc II GS to compare it with a Silicon Graphics Iris 4D/35 in graphics capability? The blurb I have says that the GS can produce so many vectors per second and has a 16-bit Z plane, but these data are hard to appreciate as a non-graphics specialist. I am in the market for a scientific visualization workstation for analyzing two- and three-dimensional time-dependent data from fluid simulations, and can't tell from Sun's information if the new GS can approximate what a Personal Iris does. I would strongly prefer to use existing software rather than develop my own. At our University, Sun offers a 40% discount, while Silicon Graphics offers only a 30% discount. The GS comes with more memory and is substantially less expensive to fit into an existing network of Sun workstations, so seems an attractive option. But can it really compete with the Personal Iris 4D/35 in graphics performance? Henry