SGI and VRSim Announce North American Reseller Agreement and Debut VRSim Mock-Up on Silicon Graphics Prism27 May 2005
Today at the daratechMVP2005 conference, held May 23-24, 2005 at the Sheraton Detroit Novi Hotel, Silicon Graphics ( NYSE: SGI ) announced a North American reseller agreement whereby the Professional Services arm of SGI will sell VRSim software solutions to its customers. This strategic relationship provides integrated high-performance hardware and software solutions for manufacturing customers who demand high-quality, well-designed products with individual appeal. In addition to the reseller agreement, SGI debuts VRSim Mock-Up software running on the Silicon Graphics Prism™ visualization system.
Why design only a steering wheel assembly when you can take a 360-degree walk around the complete auto—move parts, reassemble components, and test its functionality? Instead of building a costly prototype of a helicopter, why not step inside a virtual reality ( VR ) model, and become a virtual medic with a prone patient to determine the most efficient placement for the medical supplies shelf? Imagine training a group of workers on an entire engine, as opposed to limiting maintenance training to a few parts displayed on a desktop. These are but a few examples of the incredible possibilities realized by VRSim Mock-Up, the new, totally immersive, 3D virtual reality simulation software now available on the high-performance, Intel® Itanium® 2 processor and Linux® OS-based Silicon Graphics Prism visualization systems. SGI offers a complete hardware, software, and integration and support services package of the Silicon Graphics Prism visualization system with VRSim Mock-Up. The Mock-Up software can also be easily integrated into previously purchased SGI high-performance systems such as the IRIX® OS-based Reality Center® environment.
"Anybody involved in the digital design and prototyping of machinery—an automobile, airplane, tractor, rail car, or the Space Shuttle—will be thrilled with VRSim Mock-Up's capabilities, interoperability, and interactivity running on the extremely high-resolution Prism visualization system," said Matthew Wallace, chief executive officer, VRSim. "Mock-Up allows users to test accessibility and maintainability of the parts before building the first expensive prototype. The software offers kinesthetic awareness of a virtual problem, i.e.: Will a hand be able to reach and remove the oil filter? Subsequently, changes can be reviewed and tested immediately."
"VRSim's Mock-Up coupled with the sheer power and unsurpassed visualization capabilities of the Silicon Graphics Prism system will revolutionize manufacturing design processes," said Shawn Underwood, director of Marketing, Visual System Group SGI. "The cost-effectiveness alone is staggering: a faster, more effective way to access form, fit, function and arrangement of parts plus infinite repeat variations without spending millions to build a physical mock-up each time. This is a targeted solution that all heavy equipment manufacturers need to consider adding to their process."
The Mock-Up software running on Silicon Graphics Prism systems delivers superb real-time immersive virtual simulation for maintenance tasks, testing, engineering design, and digital prototyping. With OpenGL Performer™ as its visualizer, VRSim Mock-Up running on the Silicon Graphics Prism 64-bit open Linux environment enables legacy data from CAD files created on other operating systems to be seamlessly imported for immediate manipulation in a virtual space. VRSim software also allows for easy integration with a host of other VR components ( motion capture software, gloves, goggles, etc. ). With the purchase of two or more systems for different locations, Silicon Graphics Prism visualization systems can deliver data over distance via Local Area Networks ( LANs ), thus providing virtual training or problem solving in the same environment, in multiple locations at the same time. For example, a company headquartered in San Diego could have its instructor teaching and evaluating maintenance workers at the company's remote Atlanta facility in real time.
"For product lifecycle management or skill sets enhancement, there is nothing else on the market that can deliver as much detail as VRSim Mock-up on Prism systems. Silicon Graphics Prism, with multiple graphics pipes and a 64-bit multiprocessing system, expands exponentially both the complexity and the size of the model that can be shown, which is becoming more and more significant in the manufacturing process. We've got something powerful, efficient and very special," added Wallace.
Pricing and Availability
SGI offers a complete hardware, software, and integration and support services package of the Silicon Graphics Prism visualization system running Intel Itanium 2 processors with VRSim Mock-Up. The VRSim Mock-Up software is available immediately with solutions starting under $100,000 ( U.S. List ).
VRSIM Welding Trainer
Last month at the American Welding Show, in Dallas, SGI and VRSim launched the Virtual Reality Welding Trainer powered by SGI visualization technology ( See release dated April 27, 2005 ). The immersive Virtual Reality Welding Trainer maximizes training capabilities in a safe environment by allowing the instructor to comment and evaluate a student while the virtual weld is taking place. This classroom solution allows the entire class to observe the student's weld on a monitor and learn from the instructor's suggestions about the angle of the torch, the fluidity and steadiness of arm movement, hand-eye coordination, the position of the student's body, the way they are holding the torch and a variety of other physical attributes that can affect the weld.
"The VRSim Virtual Reality Welding Trainer is a time- and cost-saving productivity tool that provides excellent gas metal arc welding simulation for new recruits and experienced welders," said Nancy Porter, project manager, Edison Welding Institute at Navy Joining Center. "The system has far exceeded our expectations."
A complete bundle of the Virtual Reality Welding Trainer is available immediately and includes the Silicon Graphics Prism visualization system with four Intel Itanium 2 processors, two ATI® graphics pipes, VRSim Welding Software suite, FCS Robotics HapticMASTER System, motion-tracking head-mount display, and Instruction Console. The system is scalable to multiple training bays per Instructor Station. U.S. list price for a multiple booth configuration can reach below $99,000 per training station.
For more information contact SGI at ( 800 ) 800-7441 or a local SGI sales office.
VRSim
VRSim, Inc. is a rapidly growing technology company located in New Britain, CT. VRSim provides a platform independent software suite and integration capabilities that that provide easy to use immersive capabilities for digital design, maintenance and training for the heavy industry and government users. VRSim can be found on the web at www.VRSim.com.
SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery™
SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc. ( NYSE: SGI ), is a leader in high-performance computing, visualization and storage. SGI's vision is to provide technology that enables the most significant scientific and creative breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether it's sharing images to aid in brain surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate, providing technologies for homeland security and defense, or enabling the transition from analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to addressing the next class of challenges for scientific, engineering and creative users. With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at www.sgi.com.
Source: i- Newswire
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