March 7, 1995
"With MAE, I get the speed of UNIX at my X-terminal for Solaris applications, and still get reasonable performance with my Mac applications, mostly Microsoft Office and other productivity tools," says Ken Hersey, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.
MAE 2.0 permits Hersey to store Macintosh and UNIX files on the same disk, with the same accessibility. "It's very convenient to be able to ftp a file from home on my Macintosh to the UNIX box and let it come up in Mac format under MAE," he continues. "It's much better than working with floppy disks."
The traditional Netrix software developer had two computers on his or her desk, one Apollo or Sun workstation, and another a Macintosh. The workstation tool suites were used for code generation, while the tools available on the Mac were used for documentation, presentations, spreadsheets, and email.
As workstation email tools became better on Sun and MAE 2.0 became available on Sun, Netrix developers were able to lessen the loads on their desks. Now, they have a single, integrated desktop on which to work, while maintaining connectivity to other colleagues, who still operate from standalone Macs.
Even though the clear majority of the workstations in the Computer Science Department at Michigan State University carry the Sun logo, computer users there want to run software that's only available on the Macintosh platform. MAE 2.0 gives these professors what they want, by making popular programs such as Microsoft's PowerPoint and Excel presentation and spreadsheet packages available in a cost-effective, easy way.
"The performance and compatibility of MAE 2.0 are outstanding," says System Administrator Chris Penney. "It's much faster than previous versions, which makes it easier for us to answer our users who want to take advantage of Mac software running at its intended speed."
As medical fields continue to become more specialized, it grows increasingly difficult for doctors and researchers to communicate with each other. Different kinds of research require different kinds of computer technology, and those technologies are rarely compatible. At the Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU), researchers are using Apple's MAE 2.0 to bridge the gap.
In the Radiology Image Research Lab at OHSU, researchers are analyzing cranial images of patients with Alzheimer's disease. The work requires countless brain scans and magnetic resonance images (MRI), all handled digitally by Sun workstations. Now, with MAE 2.0, those images can be sent via Ethernet to other labs using Macintosh computers. But the real boon of MAE 2.0 is its software sharing capabilities.
"We are able to take software packages made for Macs, and offered to research institutions for free, and run them on the UNIX workstations", says Systems Administrator Bill Coshow. "The cost savings is critical because of the significant difference in price between UNIX software and Mac software."
The Biomedical Computer Laboratory's primary activity is development of algorithms for quantitative imaging applied to biomedical research. Examples include work applied to Positron Emission Tomography (PET), electron-microscopic autoradiography (EMA), DNA sequencing, radiation treatment planning (RTP), and others. Faculty, staff, and students primarily use UNIX workstations and X-terminals to satisfy their primary computing and display needs. MAE facilitates occasional use of Macintosh applications for word processing, spreadsheets, image manipulation, and others from the users' desktops, rather than requiring them to go to the computer room and lose access to their UNIX tools and familiar working environment.
"We expect that users will continue to do the bulk of their work using UNIX systems, but documentation, presentation preparation, and some other activities will migrate to MAE," says Fred Rosenberger. "Convenient access to both UNIX and Macintosh applications on the same platform is a substantial advantage over using multiple platforms."
Yale's departmental research and instructional computing facilities include workstations and a number of specialized processors running the UNIX operating system, the majority of which are from Sun Microsystems. The administrative computing facility, on the other hand, is Macintosh-based. Until the advent of MAE, the ability to share information between faculty, researchers, and the administrative staff was limited at best.
"MAE 2.0 provides a near seamless method for sharing data and the applications that create it," says Ed Keegan. "For example, a faculty member can view the progress of a grant application and share the changes to the document with the departmental grant administrator, using the same word processor and spreadsheet applications. For us, MAE provides the `glue' between the UNIX and Macintosh computing environments."
USC's University Computing Services (UCS) department supports academic computing for approximately 35,000 faculty, staff, and student users on approximately 5,000 computers. While these users have access to a variety of computers, including Macintoshes, PCs, and UNIX machines, UCS wants to provide the users with the ability to consolidate their computing needs on fewer machines. This allows the users to have a consistent view of computing in the areas of file access, backups, and communications, while decreasing the number of machines that USC/UCS needs to administer.
"With MAE running on Sun workstations we can provide our users with access to Macintosh applications easily with a reduction in support costs," says Mike Cooper. "MAE 2.0 gives us the added advantage of AppleTalk networking support, allowing our MAE users to utilize our existing, extensive network of AppleTalk servers and installed applications from anywhere on our campus-wide network."
The Alta Group business unit is an engineering group within Cadence Design Systems. Most of the time, Alta engineers develop software programs to help with the design and simulation of communications networks and microchips. But, as in any office, a large chunk of time is needed for general office work as well as giving presentations to upper management. Apple's MAE 2.0 ties it all together for Alta.
Engineers use UNIX workstations for CAD and simulation programs critical to software development, while Macs and PowerBooks are used for image manipulation, presentations, and office productivity. With the help of MAE 2.0, engineers can run Mac applications on their workstations. In addition, MAE enables cutting and pasting from a UNIX X-window display onto a Mac program, without the hassle of converting files.
"We get to run all these great Mac programs on the UNIX boxes, which is incredibly useful," says Kanishka de Lanerolle, Systems Engineer. "With MAE, we can be working with an image on X-Windows, grab a portion of the screen and paste it into Power Point for manipulation. All on the same screen."