CCL:Visualizing molecules on Indy

[davis $#at#$ adenosine.pharm.utah.edu (Darrell R. Davis)]

 on Fri, 18 Feb 1994 16:02:06 -0500 (EST),
 "Rebecca K. Schmidt" <rks2 $#at#$ crux2.cit.cornell.edu> said:
 >> We are considering buying a Silicon Graphics Indy to run QUANTA and
 >> visualize proteins from molecular dynamics simulations.  Apparently the
 >> Indy does not have a Z-buffer in the hardware.  Therefore rotating
 larger
 >> proteins would be unsatisfactory since the depth-cueing must be done
 with
 >> software and is much slower.  I would appreciate hearing about peoples'
 >> experience with the Indy in this regard and whether this limitation
 >> prevents it from being a useful graphics workstation for our needs.
 >> Thank you,
 >> Rebecca Schmidt
 We were pleasantly surprised when we demo'ed Biosym Insight/Discover
 on the Indy's.  We have bought 5 PC's and 1 SC all with 24 bit
 graphics.  These machines populate a "graphics lab.".  We went in this
 direction because it was important to maximize the number of boxes
 that students could access.
 In a side by side demo with an Indigo R4000 XS/24 Z-buffer, the Indy
 SC/24 did pretty well.  3D rotations were slower yes, but not
 painfully so.
 Having said that.  These are not in the same league as our 150 MHz
 Indigo2 XZ, but they are 0.5 the cost.  Depends on what your
 priorities are and your budget.  The Indys are usable machines, but
 for molecular visualization make sure and get the 24 bit upgrade,
 still a bargain.
 --------------------------------------------------------------
  Darrell R. Davis
  Medicinal Chemistry
  University of Utah
 --------------------------------------------------------------