Stardent Computer Inc, Concord, Massachusetts, which as far back as September 1989 was talking about its ambitious RISC plan to marry MIPS Computer Systems Inc’s R3000 chip with Intel Corp’s 80860 in a single visualisation system – the Stardent 500 Stiletto series – has thrown in the towel on the project, citing the complexities associated with the vector integration unit of two unique and different processors, the MIPS 3000 and Intel 80860, as key obstacles in the development. We had serious difficulties was the way one Stardent spokeswoman summed up the problem. The project was seen as an attempt by the company finally to reconcile the product lines of the former Ardent Computer and Stellar Computer graphics minisupercomputer makers, which came together to form Stardent almost two years ago. Stardent president Bill Poduska said the while we regret the inconvenience this has caused our customers, the development efforts on the next-generation of desktop viusualisation products have progressed to the point where it no longer makes sense to pursue development of the 500. The Stiletto, several of which had already been shipped to beta sites – and many of which had been on order since its announcement last September was to have incorporated Ardent’s MIPS-based Titan technology running Stellar’s successful Application Visualisation System graphics software, whilst also providing support for DORE, Ardent’s Dynamic Object Rendering Environment. Stardent, which started life as a minisuper maker, was pitching the Stiletto 500 series as a mid-range machine. The new range of desktop graphics systems – being readied for the near future – will bring its product focus even further down the market. Despite the failure of the Stiletto project, the new systems are still likely to use the 80860, as Stardent has already transferred future development rights of the MIPS-based systems to its biggest investor, Japan’s Kubota Co, which holds a 28% stake in Stardent, and has a 20% holding in MIPS. Stardent’s latest product, the one-to-four processor 3000VS, is an enhanced Ardent 3000 running Stellar’s VX graphics subsystem, using the MIPS R3000 part. While awaiting the new desktop range customers are being offered a Stardent 750 system – the so-called Baby Titan – a cut-down 3000VS with one or two CPUS, developed and built by Kubota, for the price they would have paid for the 500. Rated at 32 MIPS and 16 MFLOPS with a SPECthruput mark of 52.8 in dual-processor configuration, the 750 uses Stardent’s VX graphics subsystem and runs the AVS environment, Unix V.3, X Window and TCP/IP. Prices go from $53,000 to $152,000 in the US. A single-CPU system with 32Mb RAM, 760Mb disk, VX graphics and 19 screen is UKP63,700 – $83,200.
