INDUSTRY

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- SGI (NYSE: SGI) has secured a $1.4 million deal to supply a high-performance visualization system for the world's first SGI(TM) Reality Center(TM) facility in a science center. The system is installed in the new Glasgow Science Centre, Scotland, which was officially opened on July 5 by Queen Elizabeth. The system, which the Glasgow Science Centre terms a Virtual Science Theatre, is a totally immersive 3D-visualization environment that seats 40 people. The theater uses a 16-processor Silicon Graphics(R) Onyx2(R) InfiniteReality3(TM) system to drive six front-projected stereo displays onto a 13-foot (four-meter) radius, 160-degree cylindrical screen supplied by Trimension. The same equipment can be used simultaneously to drive a separate 120-seat multimedia theater, also situated in the center, making this the most powerful publicly available visualization system in the UK today. The Virtual Science Theatre facilitates active participation from and collaboration with the audience, enabling each person to influence the progress of the experience and even to take command of events through the use of various interface devices. As a result, no two Virtual Science Theatre shows are ever the same. In addition, new data can be added to the system easily and quickly at any time, allowing existing shows to be updated and new ones to be introduced to take into account recent scientific events. Material for the Virtual Science Theatre will be sourced via SGI's Virtual Science Network, whose contributors include leading scientific and research institutions around the world. The network links the worlds of science discovery and science education by providing a distribution mechanism for content among members for use in virtual science theaters. The visualization technology in the Virtual Science Theatre is similar to environments used by leading energy, automobile and manufacturing companies around the world for design and data visualization. The ability to interface with real-time imagery interactively for scenario planning and predictive analysis makes SGI Reality Center facilities ideal decision-making tools. A $105 million millennium project sponsored by the Wellcome Trust, the Millennium Commission and Scottish Enterprise, the Glasgow Science Centre is the largest project of its kind in Scotland. Located on the Princess Dock area on the banks of the Clyde River, it provides a major tourist attraction and educational resource while encouraging development on the rest of the dockland site. Six hundred thousand visitors are expected each year. In addition, through the Learning and Communities outreach programs, the center aims to reach 55,000 schoolchildren, their teachers and families in socially deprived and remote or rural areas. The facility will also be made available to industry, enabling local organizations to familiarize themselves with the technology and use it for design, data visualization and decision-support purposes. "This contract is significant not only because it is the first Reality Center environment in a science center in the world, but also because it wholeheartedly embraces the Virtual Science Network concept," said David Hughes, SGI manager for scientific collaborative visualization and originator of the Virtual Science Network concept. "I cannot think of any other installation that is so well-poised to link the worlds of science discovery and science education using this new media across such a wide range of subject areas," he added. "SGI is the only company that can not only deliver the technology to make this happen, but enable valuable links into the scientific user base to provide the 3D source material that makes it all so relevant to today's scientific endeavor." Commenting on why the new Virtual Science Theatre was developed, Paul Smith, chief executive of the Glasgow Science Centre, said, "The Glasgow Science Centre aims to resurrect the spirit of innovation and creativity by establishing a scientifically aware and technologically capable society, providing a foundation for renewed and sustainable economic and cultural prosperity. The new Virtual Science Theatre is central to this vision, and the SGI visualization technology on which it is based will open up the world of science to the hundreds of thousands of people who will visit the Glasgow Science Centre." For further information about SGI technologies in science centers, museums and planetariums around the world, visit http://www.sgi.com/solutions/sciences/museums/index.html.