SGI announces the availability of OpenGL Vizserver™1.3. The latest release of SGI™Visual Serving™ software is available for free download at http://www.sgi.com/software/. SGI’s visual serving solution enables networked users of desktop platforms running SGI™IRIX®, Sun®Solaris™ and Red Hat® Linux® 6.2 operating systems to visually interact with the ‘top end’ performance of a remote or background SGI™Onyx®3000 visualisation system. OpenGL Vizserver 1.3 enables users anywhere on the network to run mission-critical applications and visually analyse large and very large data sets – whether in medical imaging, seismic campaign analysis, scientific visualisation or product development and manufacturing.
OpenGL Vizserver 1.3 allows a high-end graphics system of the SGI Onyx 3000 family or a high-end graphics system of the Silicon Graphics® Onyx2® family to distribute visualisation sessions to UNIX® -based desktop workstations. Both Onyx families can simultaneously process complex 3D graphics, extensive 2D images and uncompressed video in high resolution in real time, providing the fastest and most realistic visualisation available today. When using OpenGL Vizserver, the visualisation processing takes place entirely on the Onyx system; the client on the desktop receives the visual result as a compressed image. In principle, this means that every user in a company or institution can seamlessly access the highest visual computing performance from their daily working environment.
New features – for increased transparency ….
The extended capabilities enable OpenGL-based applications on the Onyx platform to be accessed transparently from standard high-speed networks, even if they are shielded by packet-filtering firewalls.
In addition to first-time support for Red Hat Linux 6.2, Sun Solaris and packet-filtering firewalls, OpenGL Vizserver 1.3 also offers new image compressors, enabling better interactivity even on slower networks. Clients that require two monitors to display their application are now also supported, as are servers that are operated with up to six independent graphics pipes. The new release also includes a new graphical server management tool that facilitates the assignment and use of multiple InfiniteReality® graphics subsystems.
…. more productivity, better ROI
The visual serving software offers broad access to top-end technology with uniquely flexible, scalable system resources for compute performance, memory expansion and I/O bandwidth. Growing utilisation options ensure greater productivity at the individual workstation and a faster ROI (return on investment) when purchasing an Onyx system.
TU Munich: Top information for facial surgery
The Institute of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (MKG) at the Technical University of Munich, Klinikum rechts der Isar, has integrated an Onyx system with OpenGL Vizserver software into a highly interesting environment. In the visual serving environment, surgeons are able to transfer surgical planning procedures to intraoperative situations and focus specifically on individualised treatment strategies. Such strategies, which are also pursued in collaboration with other German medical institutions, include, for example, predicting and visually analysing exactly how connective tissue in the face will behave due to natural jaw movement, how it will react to repositioning of the bones during surgical corrections or how facial expressions with their diverse muscle play will make themselves felt.
Centre Director Dr Hans-Florian Zeilhofer: “The development of the necessary algorithms took place in cooperation with another institute in Berlin. We rely on the SGI technology OpenGL Vizserver to create an efficient distributed collaboration environment. With these powerful visualisation methods, the doctors are able to plan and simulate complex interventions as preoperative measures in the context of oral and maxillofacial surgery.”
