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From: thomson@cs.utah.edu (Rich Thomson)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: Can anyone help us unravel the mysteries of PHIGS usage?
Summary: Some answers... really need to wait for marketplace
Message-ID: <1990Sep15.130322.24916@hellgate.utah.edu>
Date: 15 Sep 90 19:03:22 GMT
References: <1990Sep14.205956.18500@spectra.com>
Lines: 64

[ Disclaimer: I work for Evans & Sutherland who makes a high-performance
  workstation based on PEX (PHIGS/PHIGS+ Extensions to X) so I have some
  relevant information, but I in no way speak officially for Evans &
  Sutherland. ]

In article <1990Sep14.205956.18500@spectra.com> scott@spectra.com
    (Tim Scott) writes:
>
>   CAN ANYONE HELP US UNRAVEL THE MYSTERIES OF PHIGS USAGE????
>
>   Q1.   Does SDRC, Prime/CV, and McDonnell Douglas base their
>         commercially-sold (released product) CAD/CAE software on PHIGS (or
>         PHIGS+) graphics library?  (All platforms, all versions?)

I don't know that these companies generally make their CAD
environment available to outsiders; my impression is that they have
large systems that have developed and mutated over the past 10+ years
that are heavily customized ofr their applications.  If this is the
case, then it is doubtful that they have written their application
with PHIGS in mind, since PHIGS+ and (I think) PHIGS were just dreams
of a standard that didn't exist when they started writing their
application.

PHIGS (when I say PHIGS, lets agree that it means PHIGS/PHIGS+ and
possibly PEX) has only been around for a very short time compared to
the life of these big CAD packages.

>   Q2.   What is the installed base of commercially-sold software based on
>         PHIGS (or PHIGS+) from the above three vendors.

See above; PHIGS is so new that people are basically trying to decide
if they should go with GL and the installed base of SGI (and now IBM
RS6000) machines, or go with PHIGS which is what all the other vendors
seem to be doing.  People with PHIGS: E&S, Sun, DEC, HP (Apollo), IBM,
etc.  People with GL: SGI, IBM.  [These lists are certainly
incomplete.]

>   Q3.   Are there any other commercial CAD/CAE software packages being
>         sold that use PHIGS (or PHIGS+) for the graphics foundation?

Well, we have MovieStar.BYU on the ESV, but I haven't used it myself.
It's primarly for generation/processing of FEM results via a
traditional FEM package.

>   Q4.   Who are the major users of PHIGS (or PHIGS+) today?  If they are
>         in large F1000 corporations that have in-house developed
>         applications, then who are these major PHIGS users.  What type of
>         applications do those F1000 customers use PHIGS for?  How many
>         copies of PHIGS (run-time licenses) combined from all vendors are
>         there in use today worldwide?

Again, PHIGS is so new that the user base today possibly isn't the
best metric.  Interestingly enough, Stardent's AVS (Application
Visualization Software) has a PHIGS porting layer and it is at least
several years old.

>   Q5.   What is the installed base of Figaro (PHIGS or PHIGS+) packages
>         from Template Graphics Software Inc.?

I have no idea.

						-- Rich
Rich Thomson	thomson@cs.utah.edu  {bellcore,hplabs,uunet}!utah-cs!thomson
``If everybody is thinking the same thing, is anybody thinking?'' --Bob Johnson