From: root@sgigate.sgi.com (Super-User) Subject: EPUB: Iris On-Line Vol. 1 Issue 4 IRIS-On-Line VOL 1 ISSUE 4 AUGUST 1, 1993 TABLE OF CONTENTS PRESS RELEASES FROM SILICON GRAPHICS ==================================== 1. SILICON GRAPHICS REPORTS ITS FIRST BILLION DOLLAR YEAR ALONG WITH RECORD EARNINGS. 2. SILICON GRAPHICS BROADENS ACCESS TO POWER DESKTOP OFFERING WITH TWO NEW INDIGO2 SYSTEMS. 3. DEVELOPERS FORUM THIRD PARTY PRESS RELEASES ========================== 4. LOAD BALANCER VERSION 3.3 5. LEARNING THE KORN SHELL COOL STUFF - (FREE) =================== 6. BUY OR SELL QUICKLY - NEW FREE SERVICE 7. GRAPHICS CONVERSION SOFTWARE TECHNICAL ARTICLES AND REFERENCES ================================= 8. WHAT IS SGI EXPRESS? 9. FEDERAL CDROM DIRECTORY 10. IRIS EXPLORER USERS GROUP 11. INDY SEMINARS 12. AUG/SEPT. TRADE SHOWS PRESS RELEASES FROM SILICON GRAPHICS ==================================== 1. SILICON GRAPHICS REPORTS ITS FIRST BILLION DOLLAR YEAR ALONG WITH RECORD EARNINGS The Company delivers on post-merger objective MOUNTAIN VIEW, California, July 27, 1993 (NYSE- SGI) -- Silicon Graphics Inc., today reported that for its fiscal year ended June 30, 1993, the Company's consolidated revenues were $1.1 billion, a 26% increase over the comparable period. Net income for fiscal 1993 was $95 million, or $1.30 per common shares after extraordinary item. A year ago the Company reported a net loss of $118 million, or ($2.19) per common share for the prior fiscal year due primarily to charges related to the merger with MIPS Computer Systems which was effective June 29, 1992. For the fourth quarter ended June 30, 1993 net revenues were $319 million, compared to $240 million in the year ago quarter, a 33% increase. Net income for the quarter was $35 million, or $.47 per common share. Edward R. McCracken, Silicon Graphics' president and CEO commented, "I would characterize Fiscal 1993 as one of the most challenging in the history of the Company. We emerged as a significant computer systems supplier, absorbed and integrated the MIPS operation, delivered a new CPU architecture, and introduced several new products that span the entire spectrum of our offerings, all without the often associated transition disruption. To be able to do all of these things in any year is rewarding, but to accomplish them while reporting the kind of financial results we have is especially gratifying. "Our productivity per employee improved dramatically, and was at an all time high of $341,000 per employee during the fourth quarter. With solid momentum, a strong position in the marketplace, and healthy financials, we look forward to fiscal 1994. " At the end of fiscal 1993, the Company's balance sheet reflected stockholders' equity of $634 million. The Company's cash and investments balance at June 30, 1993 was $197 million. Total debt of $33 million represented 5% of total capital of the Company. The Company also noted that IndyTM, its new low cost personal workstation introduced in mid-July, has met with an ethusiastic response from current and potential customers. Indy, along with the new thrust in the digital media marketplace will open new doors for the Company for the rest of the decade. Silicon Graphics, Inc. is the leading manufacturer of high-performance visual computing systems. The Company delivers interactive three-dimensional graphics, digital media and multiprocessing supercomputing technologies to technical, scientific and creative professionals. Its subsidiary, MIPS Technologies, Inc., designs and licenses the industry's leading RISC processor technology for the computer systems and embedded control markets. Silicon Graphics has offices worldwide and headquarters in Mountain View, California. -end- 2. SILICON GRAPHICS BROADENS ACCESS TO POWER DESKTOP OFFERING WITH TWO NEW INDIGO2 SYSTEMS MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (July 5, 1993) #031#- Silicon Graphics, Inc. (NYSE: SGI) today created the world's fastest desktop product line with the unveiling of two new Indigo2(tm) systems. The Indigo2 XL and Indigo2 XZ systems bring the unrivaled power and throughput of the Indigo2 workstation to a broader range of users, with breakthrough prices. The Indigo2 line now includes three models that span a range of graphics: the entry XL system, with fast pixel, vector and X performance; the Indigo2 XZ system, aimed at 3D solids modeling; and the flagship Indigo2 Extreme(tm), the world's fastest desktop graphics system, introduced in January 1993. The expanded product line now offers users in CAD, chemistry, animation, CASE, visual simulation, professional video and publishing markets increased access to the Indigo2 system's leading combination of desktop compute and graphics performance. "Since its introduction, the Indigo2 Extreme system has been tremendously successful, delivering leading desktop graphics and superior throughput capabilities. The new Indigo2 models build on that success, expanding this powerful combination so that users can choose the price and graphics performance to meet their application needs," said Jim White, director of product marketing of Silicon Graphics' Interactive Systems Division. "Combined with Silicon Graphics' complete digital media environment, the new Indigo2 line delivers the power, tools and media features needed for true collaborative work." The Indigo2 XL system combines the power desktop compute performance of the Indigo2 system with XL graphics' 24-bit color and 1280 x 1024 resolution. The system delivers 1.4 million X lines per second, 600K 2D vectors per second and up to 437 million pixels per second in graphics performance, making it ideal for entry CAD, image processing and visualization applications. The Indigo2 XZ system features 24-bit color, 1280 x 1024 graphics with 3D hardware support via its two Geometry Engine(r) processors, Silicon Graphics' proprietary graphics processing unit. The graphics deliver up to 250K flat-shaded triangles per second, and 43K Gouraud-shaded, lighted, independent polygons per second. The system is optimized for applications in mechanical CAD, 3D visualization, animation and architecture. All Indigo2 systems incorporate the power of either a MIPS(r) RISC R4000(r) or R4400(tm) processor, which offer balanced integer and floating point performance. The Indigo2 systems also include two built-in Fast SCSI-II channels that deliver up to 10 MB per second throughput on each channel; EISA slots for additional expansion; and a new 64-bit system bus architecture that provides the industry's fastest desktop system throughput. Available for the expanded Indigo2 line is a new video input/output and effects option. The new Indigo2 Video(tm) option delivers video-based communications to all Indigo2 users. These communications capabilities include media mail, interactive digital media presentations and real-time print-to-video of high resolution graphics. The Indigo2 Video option complements Silicon Graphics' professional desktop video product, Galileo Video(tm), and is designed to assist work groups in communicating more effectively using video technology. Bundled with the Indigo2 line are digital media tools, a complete suite of tools that enables users and developers to build applications and communicate using digital media technology. Users can easily create audio, video and 3D objects, integrate them into a presentation and share them over a network. Developers can use the tools to quickly create powerful applications that incorporate digital media and image processing technologies. The Indigo2 XZ system is available immediately and the Indigo2 XL system will be available beginning in the third quarter of 1993. The Indigo2 XL and XZ systems come standard with 16-bit DAT quality audio, 16 MB of memory, a 535 MB hard disk, keyboard and mouse. In addition, the Indigo2 XL includes a 16-inch color monitor, and the Indigo2 XZ comes standard with a 19-inch color monitor. The Indigo2 family is binary compatible with Silicon Graphics' complete line of workstations and servers. Silicon Graphics, Inc. is the leading manufacturer of high-performance visual computing systems. The company delivers interactive three-dimensional graphics, digital media and multiprocessing supercomputing technologies to technical, scientific and creative professionals. Its subsidiary, MIPS Technologies, Inc., designs and licenses the industry's leading RISC processor technology for the computer systems and embedded control markets. Silicon Graphics has offices worldwide and headquarters in Mountain View, California. - end - 3. DEVELOPERS FORUM GET YOUR REGISTRATIONS IN FOR THE 1993 SILICON GRAPHICS DEVELOPER FORUM!!!! If you are interested in development on Silcon Graphics workstations, and especially if you want to get some hands-on experience with our new products, the Indy and the Indigo Magic End User Environment, then the Forum is an event for you!!! Registration materials and agendas are currently available through the Silicon Graphics Developer Hotline, 415-390-3033, or email devprogram@sgi.com. Get those registrations in, and we hope to see you at the Forum. -end- THIRD PARTY PRESS RELEASES ========================== 4. LOAD BALANCER VERSION 3.3 Announcing Load Balancer version 3.3 for SGI and other UNIX computers Load Balancer is a UNIX batch queueing and load sharing system. It ensures that jobs (ie: applications) submitted from any host in a network end up running on the best available host. It takes into account many performance factors and other real-world factors. Users can run, kill, and adjust the status of their jobs from any host, and can also get status information on jobs, queues, hosts, applications, and users from any host. No application or kernel modifications are necessary, since Load Balancer deals exclusively with whole applications, not application fragments. The user does not have to specify which host the job should run on. Load Balancer makes this choice at run-time based on such factors as load average, ram/swap requirements, application-specific host speed differences, presence/absence of interactive users on a host, licensing information, host availability schedules, queue depths, user-specific host and application access permissions, queueing priorities, and so on. For more information about Load Balancer, please send mail to dan@fsa.ca, or call Dan Freedman at the phone number listed below. Freedman Sharp and Associates Inc. 508 - 1011 - 1st Street SW Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2R 1J2 PHONE (403) 264 4822 FAX (403) 264 0873 dan@fsa.ca -end- 5. LEARNING THE KORN SHELL LEARNING THE KORN SHELL by Bill Rosenblatt 338 pages; ISBN 1-56592-054-6; Price: $27.95 (US) We have just published _Learning the Korn Shell_ by Bill Rosenblatt. It provides a guide to all aspects of Korn shell usage: interactive "command line" use, plus thorough coverage of shell programming. In addition to the basics of UNIX shell programming, _Learning the Korn Shell_ explains ksh string operations, co-processes, signals and signal handling, and one of the worst "dark corners" of shell programming, command-line interpretation. It covers new features like command history, which allows readers to recall and re-use previous commands conveniently, and built-in pattern matching, arithmetic evaluation, and condition evaluation, which allow them to write much more efficient shell scripts. As an extended example of advanced shell programming, it contains kshdb, a Korn shell script that's a debugger for shell scripts. An Appendix summarizes the differences between the Korn shell and the standard Bourne shell, the IEEE 1003.2 POSIX Shell Standard, the Windowing Korn shell (wksh), and such public domain versions as pdksh and bash. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 - Korn Shell Basics 7 - Input/Output and Command-line 2 - Command-line Editing Processing 3 - Customizing Your Environment 8 - Process Handling 4 - Basic Shell Programming 9 - Debugging Shell Programs 5 - Flow Control 10 - Korn Shell Administration 6 - Command-line Options & Typed Variables --------------------------------------------------------------------- This and other O'Reilly books are available in North America through bookstores or directly from the publisher. For a list of North American bookstores FAX (707/829-0104), phone 707/829-0515 (800/998-9938 in US & Canada), e-mail (order@ora.com), access our gopher catalog by "telnet gopher.ora.com. login as gopher", or write O'Reilly & Associates, 103 Morris St., Sebastopol, CA., 95472, US. GSA # GS-02F-6095A Beginning 11 August 1993, O'Reilly books will be distributed in the UK, Europe, Middle East, and Africa through International Thomson Publishing, Berkshire House, 168-173 High Holburn, London WC1V 7AA, UK. Telephone 071 497 1422; FAX 071 497 1426; or e-mail allison.lawrence@itpuk.co.uk. -- Brian Erwin, brian@ora.com O'Reilly & Associates 103A Morris Street, Sebastopol CA 95472 707-829-0515, Fax 707-829-0104 -end- COOL STUFF - (FREE) =================== 6. BUY OR SELL QUICKLY - NEW FREE SERVICE A T T E N T I O N U S E N E T S H O P P E R S Online Express(sm) is a new electronic mail service which provides users with the ability to list new and pre-owned products they wish to buy or sell. Once a product is listed with the Online Express(sm) nationwide database, Online Express(sm) will continuously search for matching buyers or sellers for a period of 30 days. Listing products is easy and FREE. Send e-mail to express@msw.metronet.com with the words "send info" in the body of the message for all the details. TIME IS MONEY. Put Online Express(sm) to work for you! -end- 7. GRAPHICS CONVERSION SOFTWARE For those of you converting graphics images to and from IRIS format here are some programs that may assist you. These files are available for ftp from sgi.com in the directory "graphics/bin". This directory contains the following IRIS 4D executables: NOTE:These are all compressed to save space. ftp them to your machine using binary mode and them uncompress them using "uncompress" imp.Z - a paint program for the IRIS enhance.Z - a general purpose image enhancement program. cpprint.Z - install in /usr/lib/print/pprint to draw color PS printers fromalias.Z - convert an Alias image file format to IRIS format fromgif.Z - convert a GIF iimage to IRIS format frommac.Z - convert a MAC Paint file to IRIS format frompic.Z - convert a BYU pic image to IRIS format frompict.Z - convert a PICT image to IRIS format frompixar.Z - convert a PIXAR image to IRIS format fromppm.Z - convert a PPM image to IRIS format fromrla.Z - convert a Wavefront image file to IRIS format fromsun.Z - convert a Sun raster file to IRIS format fromtarga.Z - convert a TARGA image file to IRIS format fromtiff.Z - convert a TIFF image file to IRIS format fromutah.Z - convert a UTAH raster toolkit image to IRIS format v2.4 fromxbm.Z - convert an X bitmap to IRIS format fromxwd.Z - convert an X window dump file to IRIS format fromyuv.Z - convert an Abekas YUV digital video image to IRIS format toalias.Z - convert an IRIS image to Alias format togif.Z - convert an IRIS image to GIF format tomac.Z - convert an IRIS image to Mac Paint format tonews.Z - convert an IRIS image to 8-Bit Sun raster file topict.Z - convert an IRIS image to Mac PICT format toppm.Z - convert an IRIS image to PPM format tops.Z - convert an IRIS image to PostScript format tosun.Z - convert an IRIS image to Sun rasterfile format totarga.Z - convert an IRIS image to TARGA format totiff.Z - convert an IRIS image to TIFF format v2.4 toutah.Z - convert an IRIS image to Utah raster toolkit format toxbm.Z - convert an IRIS image to X Bitmap format toyuv.Z - convert an IRIS image to Abekas YUV digital video format psrender.Z - convert PostScript to a series of IRIS image files: usgage: psrender -o page -d image -r 100 in.ps or psrender -o page -d image -r 100 < in.ps to render pages at 100 pixels per inch! This software is provided without support and without any obligation on the part of Silicon Graphics, Inc. to assist in its use, correction, modification or enhancement. There is no guarantee that this software will be included in future software releases. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITH NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF DESIGN, MERCHANTIBILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE OR TRADE PRACTICE. To get a file using anonymous FTP, use user name "anonymous" and your email address as a password: > ftp sgi.com Enter user name: anonymous Password: me@myhost.edu ftp> cd graphics/bin ftp> binary ftp> get FILENAME ftp> quit Remember the files are in compressed format so you must uncompress them before using them. -end- TECHNICAL ARTICLES AND REFERENCES ================================= 8. WHAT IS SGI EXPRESS? SGI Express is a telesales organization based at our corporate site in Mt. View, CA. It is staffed by 30 sales, presales support and management representatives. The sales represent- atives are assigned to cover North America on a geographic basis, working closely with our traditional field sales organization. The charter of SGI Express is to meet all of our customer's sales related needs that do not require a field sales repre- sentative to visit the customer's site. This allows our existing and future customers to order workstations, periph- erials, software and upgrades by calling our toll free number. These sales representatives have received the same training that is provided to our field sales organization, ensuring technically capable and timely service. The SGI Express Representatives can be reached by calling 1-800-800-SGI1(7441) from 6am to 6pm Pacific Standard Time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stan Jensen, Systems Engineer for "SGI Express" stanj@corp.sgi.com Silicon Graphics Inc., M/S 14L-120 Phone:(415)390-5822 P.O. Box 7311, 1350 Charleston Road FAX: (415)962-1589 Mt. View, CA 94039-7311 "I (heart) Tonks" ------------------------------------------------------------------------- -end- 9. FEDERAL CDROM DIRECTORY WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1993 JUL 26 (NB) -- Everyone knows that the federal government in the US collects a lot of information, but did you also know that it offers a great deal of that data on inexpensive compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) discs? At $11, the SIGCAT (special interest group, CD-ROM applications technology) CD-ROM Compendium offers an easy way to locate both obscure and popular titles carrying government information. The April 1993 issue of the directory, which is compiled by the world's largest CD-ROM user's group (sponsored by the US Geological Survey), runs to about 180 pages and contains half-page description of hundreds of titles, with a full index and a cross-reference to the publishing agency. Some of the CD-ROMs listed are actually published by federal agencies such as the US Geological Survey (USGS), which provides a lot of raw climatic and seismic data for students and scientists; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with satellite and deep sea data; and NASA, with its near-Earth satellite statistical data and planetary images. Federally published titles are often very inexpensive (the entire US Federal Code costs $34 on disc vs. about $2,000 for the print version) or even free, while many outside publishers charge high prices to format and publish data already paid for by taxpayers. But some companies such as Quanta Press publish reams of public data at very reasonable prices. Here are some sample titles found in the directory: Viking Orbiter Images of Mars; the 10-disc set costs less than $10 per disc from NASA. US Exports of Merchandise, $150 for a single month's data from the US Bureau of the Census. Side-Looking Airborne Radar images, $32 per disk (22 available) from the USGS. Pre-Magellan (radar data of Earth, Moon, Venus, Mars, and Mercury), $32, NASA. While this is an important directory, the descriptions are very brief and there is no information about CD-ROM technology so it isn't suitable for novice users. But for those business information specialists, librarians, and individual users who are familiar with CD-ROM, this inexpensive directory is a vital guide to government data on CD-ROM. To obtain a copy of the disc-based directory, send $11 ($13.75 foreign orders) to Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954 and specify document #021-000-00158-9. (Press Contact: Jerry McFaul, SIGCAT only, 703-648-7126) 10. IRIS EXPLORER USER GROUP IRIS Explorer User Group Meetings ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ at SIGGRAPH'93, Anaheim, Ca (August 1-6, 1993) and Eurographics'93, Barcelona, Spain (September 6-10, 1993) There'll be a meeting of the IRIS Explorer User Group during SIGGRAPH'93 on August 4th, and another meeting during Eurographics'93 on September 8th. All users of IRIS Explorer, regardless of level of experience, are welcome to attend either event - or both of them. Come along and meet with members of the IRIS Explorer development team, those involved in the porting of IRIS Explorer to other platforms, and other users. Find out about new directions for IRIS Explorer, the distribution of new modules, and the IRIS Explorer Center. Ask about new functionality, the development of application-specific module sets and the availability of IRIS Explorer on other platforms. Refreshments will be provided. The SIGGRAPH'93 meeting will be held on Wednesday August 4th at 5pm (** PLEASE note the revised time for this meeting **) at the Marriot, saloon #E. Further details of the events will be made available shortly. In the meantime, please email me with any queries or points you'd like to see discussed by the User Group. -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Jeremy Walton nagjpw@vax.oxford.ac.uk | | The Numerical Algorithms Group Ltd, Oxford, UK jeremyw@nag.co.uk | | Tel: +44 865 511245 | | Fax: +44 865 310139 | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -end- 11. INDY SEMINARS AUGUST 3-27 WEST DATE ---- ----- Anaheim, CA 8/3-4 N. Hollywood, CA 8/6 San Jose, CA 8/9 San Francisco, CA 8/11 Sacramento, CA 8/12 San Diego, CA 8/13 Albuquerque, NM 8/16 Denver, CO 8/17 Colorado Springs, CO 8/18 Tempe, AZ 8/19 Salt Lake City, UT 8/20 Seattle, WA 8/26 Portland, OR 8/27 EAST DATE ---- ---- Needham, MA 8/2 Burlington, MA 8/3 Worcester, MA 8/4 Boston, MA 8/5 Cromwell, CT 8/6 Princeton, NJ 8/9 Albany, NY 8/9 Rochester, NY 8/10 New York, NY 8/10 Philadelphia, PA 8/11 Harrisburg, PA 8/12 Pittsburg, PA 8/13 MID-SOUTH EAST DATE -------------- ---- Huntsville, AL 8/2 Pensacola, FL 8/3 Orlando, FL 8/4 Atlanta, GA 8/5 Raleigh, NC 8/6 Washington D.C. 8/11 Baltimore, MD 8/12 Tysons Corner, VA 8/13 CENTRAL DATE ------- ---- Independence, OH 8/16 Cincinnati, OH 8/17 Carmel, IN 8/18 Grand Rapids, MI 8/19 Troy, MI 8/20 Milwaukee, WI 8/23 New Orleans, LA 8/23 Arlington Heights, IL 8/24 Houston, TX 8/24 Austin, TX 8/25 Minneapolis, MN 8/25 Tulsa, OK 8/26 St. Louis, MO 8/26 Kansas City, MO 8/27 Dallas, TX 8/27 -end- 12. AUG/SEPT. TRADE SHOWS SILICON GRAPHICS 1993 TRADE SHOWS SHOW DATE PLACE ================ ====== ======================= AUGUST: Siggraph 3-5 Anaheim, CA Macworld 3-5 Boston, MA ACS 23-25 Chicago, IL Federal Imaging TBD Washingon, DC INTEROP 23-27 San Francisco Developers' Forum 8/30-9/3 Stanford, CA September: TRI-ADA 20-22 Seattle, WA SEG 26-30 Washington, DC Oracle User Group 9/26-10/1 Orlando, FL OCTOBER: SPE 3-6 Houston, TX EDUCOM 17-19 Cincinnati, OH Seybold 28-30 San Francisco, CA NOVEMBER: GIS 2-4 Minneapolis, MN Autofact 9-11 Chicago, IL COMDEX 15-19 Las Vegas, NV Supercomputing 16-18 Portland, OR -end- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Silicon Graphics, IRIS, Geometry Engine and the Silicon Graphics logo are registered trademarks, and Indy, Indy Video, IRIS Indigo, Indigo, Indigo2, Indigo Magic, Onyx and Challenge are trademarks, of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Extreme is a trademark used under license by Silicon Graphics. MIPS and R4000 are registered trademarks, and R4000PC and R4000SC are trademarks, of MIPS Technologies, Inc. The X symbol is a trademark of the X/Open Company Ltd. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ For information regarding this publication, send mail to list-manager@agi.com. The message should consist of the command "info iris-online". The subscribe, send mail to list-manager@sgi.com. The message should consist of the command "subscribe iris-online". Your return email address will be added to the subscription list. If you wish to receive this magazine at an address other than that from which you are sending your request, send email with the subject "subscribe" to iris-online-editor@sgi.com. Include your email address in the message. To include an article or announcement in this publication, send mail with the subject "submittal" to iris-online-editor@sgi.com. Please include contact information. All products, services, and other statements regarding Silicon Graphics or third parties are subject to local availability and policies. Please contact your local Silicon Graphics or third party sales representative for information and details in your location. This magazine is published as an information service to users of Silicon Graphics Computer Systems. Descriptions of, or references to, products or publications within this publication does not imply endorsement of that product or publication by Silicon Graphics. Silicon Graphics makes no warranty of any kind with respect to the subject matter included herein, the products listed herein, or the completeness or accuracy of this catalog. Silicon Graphics specifically disclaims all warranties, express, implied or otherwise, including without limitation, all warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.