I have not looked at the dual pentium pro machines, but just before Xmas we
has a demo of the SGI O2 ( we currently have a Indigo2 XZ). The O2 is a
really amazing thing - it runs under Irix 6.3, which is SGI's 64-bit
version of Unix. Its main features are that it has Unified Memory
Architecture, whereby all the memory required by the CPU, video, graphics
etc is the same - the different functions of the processors access the same
memory pool. The basic unit has a whole lot of image processing
capabilities built into hardware, including a wide range of kernel-based
filters, texture-to-surface mapping, real-time video image processing, real-
time JPEG compression. It also is fully HTML and JAVA aware: in fact, the
on-line manuals are in HTML. The machine is clearly set up for super-WWW
web use, especially virtual 3D applications, and for non-linear video
editing / production. Its performance in these areas is simply astounding -
it leaves our current SGI for dead, which means that even a fast Pentium
set-up would be struggling to keep up, assuming you could the operating
system to work with all the various plug-ins and extras you would need to
make the comparison valid... It is true that in its standard configuration,
the O2 may not perform as well as a top line desktop SGI, like an Indigo2
Extreme, on 3D datasets that require truly massive ammounts of number
crunching, but then they cost nearly ten times as much!! Nevertheless, the
O2 seems to have the potential to really make a big difference to the stuff
we do, at a cost that is little more than a fully configured MAC 8500 of
Pentium Pro, with the added bonus that all the SGI stuff actually works
without mucking around (at least not very much...).  All we have to do now
is wait for the software developers to get up to speed, but I understand
there is a lot of stuff almost ready to go...

If people want more info on the O2 or any other SGI gear, they have a
really good web-site: www.sgi.com/O2.


I have no connection with SGI, other that we have one already, we get
excellent service from the local people, and the O2 looks like a HUGE amont
of fun....

Hope that helps,
IAN
Professor Ian Gibbins                         Flinders Microscopy &
Department of Anatomy and Histology            Image Analysis Facility
Flinders University of South Australia
GPO Box 2100 Adelaide 5001                    Centre for Neuroscience
AUSTRALIA
Phone:  +61-8-2045271
FAX:    +61-8-2770085
e-mail:  [log in to unmask]