594 Chapter 20
of the designers to include MIDI IN and OUT sockets on the side of the machine. This
made the Atari the only ready-to-go, “ plug and play ” MIDI sequencer platform, a fact
refl ected in the number of software products designed for it.
PowerPCs and PowerMacs are machines built around a reduced instruction set computing
(RISC) processor developed jointly by IBM, Apple, and Motorola. They are designed
to run operating system software that supports both PC and Mac applications and are
designed to be especially good at handling large data fi les typical of media components.
RISC technology is especially noted in workstation computers. Three computers designed
and manufactured by the American high-end computer company Silicon Graphics Inc.
(SGI) make extensive use of RISC technology. SGI’s subsidiary, MIPS Technologies,
Inc., designs the RISC processor technology inside SGI machines. MIPS ’ new
R5000 MIPS RISC processor delivers a peak of 480 million fl oating point operations per
second (MFLOPS)—up to twice as fast as Intel’s 200-MHz Pentium Pro and over seven
times as fast as a 133-MHz Pentium! Workstations from SGI are also fi nding their way
into high-end audio production.
SGI is the leading manufacturer of high-performance visual computing systems.
The company delivers interactive three-dimensional graphics, digital media, and
multiprocessing super-computing technologies to technical, scientifi c, and creative
professionals. SGI manufactures some of the best tools for multimedia creation, as
well as white-heat video, audio, and graphics stand-alone packages. They also provide
specialist tools for HTML, hypermedia page creation, and serving for the creation of
multimedia creations on the Internet/World Wide Web (WWW). SGI has its headquarters
in Mountain View, California. SGI’s products include the Indy, which is a “ value ” RISC
workstation utilizing a 64-bit system architecture and MIPS processors. On the audio
side it has digital audio I/O as well as analogue ports. The Indigo 2 is aimed as a cost-
effective desktop alternative to older style dedicated video production hardware. The
Onyx is a super-computer with a graphics bias! SGI also manufactures the CHALLENGE
Media Server for the broadcast television environment. Table 20.1 is the audio subsystem
specifi cation for Onyx and CHALLENGE and represents the typical digital audio
performance from desktop audio. The option also provides for microphone input and
headphone output but these fi gures are not quoted here.
Note that the input ports for audio (both analogue and digital) conform to consumer levels
and practice even though SGI themselves refer to the digital inputs as AES/EBU.