Recognizing the increasingly important and growing market for data visualization, the two companies will cooperate over the next nine months on a joint development program resulting in the launch of the IRIS Explorer Release 3.0 software in the first quarter of 1995. The NAG team is working extensively with Silicon Graphics' software engineers to ensure a smooth and successful launch. At the completion of the joint development effort, NAG will provide training and support as well as sell and distribute the IRIS Explorer software for Silicon Graphics workstations and other platforms including systems from Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, Cray Research and Digital Equipment Corp.
"We view the new arrangement with Silicon Graphics as pivotal to our presence in the market for scientific visualization software," said Brian Ford, director of NAG. "Silicon Graphics' technical excellence and strong market position in this area directly complements NAG's solid experience in the development, porting and distribution of complex scientific software. Our history as a company has been characterized by strategic business links with key players and opinion leaders in financially attractive markets. The relationship with Silicon Graphics is one such link, and we perceive the IRIS Explorer software to be a cornerstone product for NAG and the scientific visualization community."NAG and Silicon Graphics have been working together for more than a year. As a result, NAG has made ports of the IRIS Explorer software available for Sun, IBM and Cray computers. The companies will focus on ports to include HP and DEC systems for existing releases of the software, and particularly for Release 3.0."The new arrangement between Silicon Graphics and NAG will greatly benefit scientific and technical users who need to build powerful data visualization applications," said Way Ting, vice president and general manager of Silicon Graphics' Visual Magic Division. "NAG's experience with complex scientific software enables it to provide the highest level of support to current users of the IRIS Explorer software. Our joint development of Release 3.0 will provide users with an even more powerful development environment for data visualization applications."
The IRIS Explorer software was explicitly designed to ensure its application across hardware platforms in heterogeneous network environments. Using NAG's porting expertise, these ports are being distributed by the IRIS Explorer Centers NAG has established in North America (Chicago), Europe (Oxford, UK) and Japan (Tokyo).
NAG also recently announced that it will be offering a comprehensive support and maintenance program to existing users of the IRIS Explorer software on Silicon Graphics systems. The support and maintenance contract is being offered at a preferential rate to Silicon Graphics users until Release 3.0, and will be available to all users across hardware ports subsequently.
NAG has over 20 years experience in developing, porting, distributing and supporting scientific software. NAG is a not-for-profit organization which supplies a range of compilers, tools, software libraries and associated products for the professional programmer and for educational and industrial use.
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