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They're here; SGI's much-anticipated Windows NT/Intel-powered model 320 and 540 Visualization Workstations are on the market. We've gotten a first-look at the 320, which is the lower-cost version of the two, designed for a variety of demanding media applications.
SGI has long been the leader in UNIX-based workstations for high-end entertainment production, and they continue to offer several unique UNIX (IRIX)-based products, including the 02, Octane, Origin, and Onyx systems. The Windows NT OS has, however, arrived as a force in video and digital filmmaking during the past few years and cannot be ignored. Many new applications have been developed for the Windows NT OS and many popular UNIX and Macintosh applications have been ported to Windows NT. Many professional producers of content have integrated the Windows NT-based systems into productions and some have migrated completely to the platforms running Microsoft's OS.
As the premium computer supplier at the high end, SGI decided that it was time to provide Windows NT-based solutions. The 320 and 540 workstations are the first impressive foray into this area for SGI. Expectations are high. What users expect to see from SGI are powerful workstations capable of serious performance in both the 2D and 3D production space.
The 320 comes configured with one or two Intel Pentium III processors and a customized version of Microsoft Windows NT. The Pentium III has performance-enhancing features such as a dual independent-bus architecture, dynamic execution, Intel MMX multimedia technology, and a closely coupled 512 KB Level 2 cache. Those who are familiar with the 02 and Octane workstation architectures will see some similanty in concept in the 320 and 540. Similar to the architectures of those machines, the Integrated Visual Computing (IVC) Architecture of the 320 and 540 machines is designed to provide all functions with access to a common set of resources: high-speed processing, large system memory, and fast system interconnects. The IVC architecture also integrates analog...