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Fujitsu releases its first Linux App
Jean-Paul Smets wrote in to tell us that
Fujistu has released
its first Linux software:
AVS5 is a
visualization and computer graphics program that includes
advanced features such as volume rendering. Apparently
Fujitsu has a
strong Linux tradition, with
Linux already running on its AP1000/AP3000 series of parallel computers.
Update: 02/25 11:22 by S : Can someone who reads Japanese confirm this story
because...
maynard writes "Dudes:
I notified /. of AVS-5.4 for Linux back in spetember. Also, you might note that AVS is produced by
Advanced Visual Systems in
Waltham MA, not Fujitsu. See
this freshmeat app index entry."
So: do we have a mix up, or 2 pieces of software with the same name?
The AVS5 url is an english menu but the relevant page is mostly in japanese... Any english write-ups? Is there an english version of
the program? I couldn't be sure if the program
was commercial or GNU.
View-->Character set-->japanese(autodetect)
\begin{translation}
We're now selling the Linux version of AVS5.4, because Linux is expanding especially on the Educational areas, and we had a demand.
Price: 458.000yens for a single user license.
Working Environment: Platform: Intel. 64MB of RAM, 55MB of HD, Working OS: RedHat 5.0 / 5.1.
It doesn't work on RedHat 5.2.
We don't support graphics cards, but software renderings w/ X, Mesa 3D (I wonder what that means).
\end{translation}
humm... I don't like the "Working OS" part, but it's good news.
While I would love to have a copy of AVS, if you need to do visualization-in-the-cheap (like me), there is an excellent free visualization toolkit that runs on *nix and Windows (eww) called VTK available at http://www.kitware.com. You can use the library to build visualization networks with straight C++, or through the Tcl, Java, or Python (yay python!) bindings.
It is at least 28 shades of groovy.
I used this software about five years ago (on
a Stardent, not a PC) to do some chemistry visualization. Shortly afterwards, specific chemistry programs (e.g. Spartan) arrived, so we moved to them instead. In the meantime, the "literal" take on object oriented programming that AVS had made for some pretty fast generation of "programs" that did want I wanted them to. The idea was to connect boxes (modules) on the screen with lines that show the flow of data. The boxes had colored input and output "plugs" that told you what kind of imput & output the module used. Not a unique concept, but a good demonstration of reusable objects and a pretty good rapid application development environment for visualizations. And yes, it is commercial and expensive.
At the bottom of http://www.fns.co.jp/avs/Products/AVS5/, there's a link to Advanced Visual Systems. The Japanese sentence there reads `AVS is produced and licensed by Advanced Visual Systems.' It also notes that AVS products are sold in Japan through its Japanese agent, KGT.
it's all about black metal ... like cradle of filth!!!!!!!!
http://209.226.111.111
Wow, they are committed.
I wonder when/if AP/Linuz is going into the main tree.
*sigh*, somebodies got to say it. A Beowolf cluster of these things could be interesting:):)
Bill - aka taniwha
--
Leave others their otherness. -- Aratak
Posted by Assmodeus:
that page is all gibberish to me...
This app has been available for Linux for awhile directly from Advanced Visual Systems. It has a freshmeat entry at:
0 9/25/906704695.html
http://ny.us.mirrors.freshmeat.net/appindex/1998/
and run directly on Linux. It outputs OpenGL and takes about any data type you want to input. Yes it's expensive... that's because it's commercial software.
This is one of many news articles I keep running into more and more frequently. I personally have converted two people to Linux at work ( unnamed MS partner ) and I keep grinning ear to ear.
Now for the MP3 bit. There was an article about a band putting an MP3 up not sure what would happen etc. Well, my band has done it too. The MP3 is at:
http://www.mp3.com/robertrude
Slashdot me please!
We are at like 938 or something...
It don't work quite as well as the other band said it did.
Then again we might just suck......
Ken Broadfoot
Bitcoin pyramid: Join here: http://www.bitcoinpyramid.com/r/1427 it's FREE!
I'm a bit rusty at Japanese, but here's what I can make out from the articles:
There are two personal pages linked. The Japanese sections are just translations of the other sections that are in English.
On the announcement page, there's not really much information. I picked out the following details:
licence is for a single user (458000 yen)
requires X and Mesa 3D drivers: no native
graphics support
Redhat 4.2 won't work. You need to upgrade
to 5.0 or higher.
Hope this helps,
dec
The key folks on the AP/Linux project for Fujitsu's supercomputers have also been central contributors to the Linux-on-PowerPC effort. It's nice to see these excellent folks getting some recognition. Congratulations to Paul Mackerras, Andrew Tridgell, et. al.!
Enjoyed your article on installing Linux on a Vaio in Linux Japan last month.
(Apologies if I'm mistaken...)
well, not me atleast, tho I won't claim to be the be all end off of knowledge. But I do know this brings us back to the 3d issue that was brought up pretty recently...to use most visualization software you want atleast some form of 3d hardware acceleration. Anyone have any idea when this is making its way into XFree86?
Their page doesn't say much about what this piece of software actually is, but a single-user licence costs 458,000 Yen, which is about $4000. BTW, for Japanese Linux Info, I write a weekly e-mail newsletter called "Linux Japan Express". Mail and Web edition, both are in Japanese.