The machine is also being sold as an animation bundle along with Electric Image Universe 3D animation software. Universe is the latest upgrade to the Electric Image Animation System (EIAS) package, which belonged to Play until recently. In the near future, Universe will also be sold with Sun's higher end Sun Blade 1000, Ultra 80, Ultra 60, and Ultra 10 Solaris workstations.
Another new graphics offering from Sun is the Expert 3D-Lite graphics accelerator, which is based on 3DLabs' new Wildcat II technology. The 3D-Lite complements Sun's higher end Expert 3D board, based on the original Wildcat graphics technology.
Pricing for the Sun Blade 100 ranges from $995 to $2995, depending on configuration. Bundled with Universe, pricing starts at $2995. The standalone Universe package will also be available for the Solaris operating environment at a cost of $1995. The 3D-Lite accelerator is $995. (Sun Microsystems; www.sun.com) -JD