Comments on Stardent's AVS

[David Kamins @stardent]

The following is in response to the various conversations between 
Ian Hoyle, James Helman,  Sam Fulcomer, and Tony Facca  regarding 
Stardent's AVS:

AVS provides end-user scientists and engineers with a rich set of
visualization capabilities in  a fully reconfigurable, extensible
environment.  It is not  intended  to   compete   with   "custom,
application    specific,    scientific  visualization   software"
(James Helman), but rather to enable the scientist or engineer to
achieve  a  fast  and  reliable  solution   to  a  broad range of
visualization  problems  without  programming.   AVS  is  not   a
prototype  -  it  is  a  fully  supported  product.  Version  2.0
was  distributed  to  all  Stardent  2000  users,  and  will   be
distributed  to  all  Stardent  1500  and  Stardent 3000 users in 
about a month.

AVS currently supports two rendering libraries, PHIGS+ and  Dore.
The  "graphics  independent level" (James Helman) has been a part
of AVS since its original design.  The recent port  to  Dore  has
substantiated  the  value  of AVS' portable architecture - it was
quick and painless.  Stardent has not ported AVS to an  Iris  (re
Tony Facca's mail).

AVS Source code licenses are available only to Stardent customers
and  system  vendors  with  whom we've entered into a contractual
agreement.  We  have  many  exciting  porting   plans   underway,
although  it  is  too  early to make a general announcement about
these.

		David Kamins (davek at stardent.com)
		Manager,  Visualization  Software
		Stardent Computer  Inc.  (Newton)