Computers

Though the Vivid 700 can operate without being attached to a computer, in the lab it is almost always used in conjunction with our high-end 3D workstation, a Dell 610 workstation.

The 610 features a 19-inch monitor, 1 gb (yes, that's gigabyte and not a typo) of Ram, dual Pentium II 450 cpu's with 1mb of cache each, 18 GB of hard disk space, ethernet Internet connection, a GMX 2000 3D accelerator card, and a number of peripherals. The peripherals include a 2 GB Jazz Drive, full audio speaker system, and a CD Rom CD writer.

In the field, the Vivid 700 should almost always be used in conjunction with a laptop computer. During the first round of funding for the ATL, the lab secured funds for a Dell Latitude CPI notebook computer, docking station, and monitor.

Originally, the notebook was to be used as a storage device for scans made while in the field. However, recent use of the notebook in conjunction with the scanner in the field revealed that the notebook needs to be able to run high-end modeling software do its job. The current notebook computer is not powerful enough to do the job adequately.

Our current notebook features a 12.1-inch LCD SVGA monitor, 128 mb of Ram, a Pentium II 266mhz cpu, 6 GB of hard disk space, Adaptech SCSI II PCI card, 56k modem PCI card, 100 mb parallel zip drive, 1/2 floppy drive, and CD Rom. Connected to the Latitude's docking station in the lab is an ethernet Internet connection and a 17-inch monitor. We hope to upgrade to a Pentium III 650mhz with a 512mb of Ram and 3D software acceleration in the near future.