SGI deals boost profile in SAR
Silicon Graphics' local business dealings have been given a major boost, with the United States firm securing large deals with Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Hong Kong Water Supplies Department.
Both bodies are investing heavily in SGI workstation hardware.
Polytechnic is building a $13 million virtual reality (VR) nursing lab.
The university has already set up four laboratories each with a Silicon Graphics R1000 250 MHz Onyx2 with 18 gb of storage space, the IT Daily reports.
The university will continue to expand these facilities in the coming years.
More than 1,200 students will study partly through the VR nursing lab which, among other things, is expected to reduce the danger to human patients.
Thomas Wong, an associate professor at Polytechnic University and a supporter of the VR nursing lab, said although such labs had been used in medical research, this was the first time VR had been used for the study of medicine.
Similarly, the Water Supplies Department is spending $10 million on SGI technology to improve Hong Kong's water supply management system.
The department is constructing a digital mapping system (DMS) for its 2,000 existing graphical representations of Hong Kong's water system.
The department's DMS is powered by SGI Indigo2 workstations running ARC/INFO, a geographical information system software package.
The department began a pilot programme in May last year to research the importance and effectiveness of the study. The project is expected to be completed this month.
