Computer graphics interactive workstations

Both these techniques are realized by two software packages Teamwork and P-NUT. Teamwork is a computer aided software engineering (CASE) tool family that automates standard structured methodologies using interactive computer graphics and multiuser workstation power. P-NUT is a set of tools developed by the Distributed Systems Project in the Information and Computer Science... 

Time levels of graphics workstation have come into use over the last few years. The low-end systems typically have 2 to 5 MIPS of processor performance, numeric computing performance of 0.25 to 1 MFLOPS, and a drawing performance of 200,000 v/s and 2,000 to 5,000 p/s. Many of these systems were developed around the Motorola 68020 processor with a floating point processor. Since they are created from off-the-shelf components, they are relatively inexpensive ( 10,000 to 30,000). They are adequate when used for small molecule (250 atoms or less) calculations and interactive display. 

The mid-range workstations offer 10 to 15 MIPS performance, with numeric processing at 1 to 2 MFLOPS, drawing rates of 200,000 to 400,0(X) v/s and 20,000 p/s. Their higher performance arises from so-call RISC architecture (Reduced Instruction Set CPU), which allow the computer to perform fewer tasks per CPU instruction. They also utilize faster, proprietary graphics display processors and larger display memory, which allows more colors and multiple windows. These units cost between 30,000 and 70,000, and they probably make up the bulk of recent CAMD woikstation purchases. They are suitable for solid model display and manipulation of small molecules, and wireframe and dot-surface display of macromolecules. Molecular mechanics and dynamics calcinations on small molecules and ensembles can be run in batch mode on these machines, and the results can be displayed and manipulated interactively. 

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