Evans & Sutherland and Digital Equipment Corp. Forge Strategic Partnership for High-End Graphics Accelerators

Strategic Insights -

Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp. and Digital Equipment Corp. have announced a strategic agreement to supply high-end graphics accelerators for Digital's AlphaStation line. This partnership marks a significant development in the industry, solidifying E&S's position as a major supplier of high-end workstation graphics. The Freedom Series, E&S's flagship product, will be integrated with Digital's Alpha processor and the AlphaStation PCI bus, offering unparalleled performance and reinforcement of the Freedom Series leadership position.

Key Takeaways:

  • Evans & Sutherland and Digital Equipment Corp. have entered into a strategic agreement to supply high-end graphics accelerators for the AlphaStation line.
  • The Freedom Series, E&S's high-end graphics accelerators, will be integrated with Digital's Alpha processor and the AlphaStation PCI bus, offering significant performance increases.
  • The partnership solidifies E&S's position as the major supplier of high-end workstation graphics, following successful agreements with Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun Microsystems.
  • The combined system will support multiple workstation platforms, including AlphaStation, HP, IBM, and Sun Microsystems.
  • The initial offering will use the DEC OSF/1 operating system and utilize the OpenGL 3D graphics application programming interface.
  • Applications that will benefit from the high-performance graphics system include visual simulation, mechanical CAD, computer-aided molecular design, industrial design, and entertainment.

Statistics:

  • The Freedom Series provides the fastest 3D graphics performance in the industry, as confirmed by recent benchmarking results released by the National Computer Graphics Association.
  • The combined system is expected to provide a 79% market share, according to recent 1994 workstation sales numbers released from Dataquest.
  • E&S provides a broader range of OpenGL 3D solutions at higher reported performance levels than its major competitor, Silicon Graphics.

Sources:

  • Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp. - press release, 1995
  • Digital Equipment Corp. - press release, 1995
  • National Computer Graphics Association - benchmarking results, 1995
  • Dataquest - 1994 workstation sales numbers
  • Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp. is a leader in advanced 3D graphics and visualization systems for science, industry, education and entertainment.
  • Digital Equipment Corp. is the world's leader in open client/server solutions from personal computing to integrated worldwide information systems.