TenLinks Interview with Dominic Gallello, CEO of Graphisoft

Roopinder Tara of TenLinks did a short interview of Dominic Gallello recently. Interesting tidbits include the fact that Mr. Gallello is an accomplished marathon runner, recently running in Switzerland with a vertical climb of 6,000 feet. Nothing regarding the company and its software was revealed in the interview, but one interesting aspect revealed was that Graphisoft is itself, a user of its own software with its Virtual Construction™ services. Mr. Gallello remarked that Graphisoft is involved in some of the largest 3D/5D building projects in the world and "have more insight into what 3D and 5D can enable in the total building delivery process than perhaps any company." ArchiCAD by Graphisoft is widely regarded as the number one BIM application in the world, with over 1 million buildings to its credit. It was invented on the Mac and runs on both Windows and Mac OS X. To read the article go here.

JobOrder

Management Software announced this week the expanded capabilities of Workplan, Prioritizer, and SmartScheduler, built-in estimating and scheduling tools in the company's flagship JobOrder 12.9.

Used by project-centric organizations and professional services firms like advertising agencies, architects, design firms, engineering firms and consulting companies, JobOrder 12.9 helps companies manage their estimates, schedules, people and jobs.

JobOrder 12.9 is a 4th Dimension database-driven application for Windows and Macintosh. Management Software has been a leading developer of business process management software since 1989. For more information go to: www.joborder.com

AMD Makes a Move for ATI - Impact on Apple

One of the more surprising moves came this week in the announcement that AMD was set to purchase ATI, the popular graphics chip maker, for $4.2 billion in cash and issues of 57 million shares of common stock to ATI shareholders. Starting in 2008, AMD is seeking to create "chip platforms" that integrate microprocessors and graphics processors. These platforms will be specifically targeted for types of computing use, such as media, data, graphics and general purpose.

Apple has had a longtime relationship with ATI and its chips are commonly found in its mobile and desktop computer lines. So what is the impact on Apple from this move?

For starters, ATI and Intel's relationship is now antagonistic and their licensing deals (for example Intel's license of ATI's chipset bus) will likely not be renewed. Further business with ATI would fund Intel's arch rival, AMD, something Intel will not want to do. However, in the short term there are customers that are of concern. Principally, in Apple's case their current iMac and MacBook Pro.

A ZDNet columnist speculates that in the future all Apple computers will ship with Nvidia graphics. It should be pointed out that currently all graphics options for the Apple Power Mac G5 are limited to just Nvidia graphics, including the ultra powerful "workstation class" Nvidia Quadro FX 4500.

But what about the future? Apple's move to Intel's architecture means that the 'endian' problem is gone. Writing drivers to Nvidia's graphics chips has often fallen on Apple's shoulders, but perhaps the endian issue will enable Nvidia to support more cards for Apple customer of not all of them.

What Mac CAD and 3D users should want more of are other "workstation class" card options besides the ultra expensive FX 4500.

VectorWorks Spanish Language Ships

Nemetschek North America announced yesterday the availability of Spanish-language versions of VectorWorks Fundamentals, VectorWorks Architect, and RenderWorks 12.

However, the company is doing something unusual: they are shipping the Spanish language versions also in the United States.

"For the first time, a Spanish-language version of VectorWorks will be actively sold in the United States,' states Sean Flaherty, chief executive officer, Nemetschek North America. "We are pleased to bring the benefits of VectorWorks 12 to our Spanish-language markets. And complementing this new offering is the Spanish-language phone support we recently introduced. We are also actively working with our Spanish and South American distributors to expand our network of dealers in Spanish-language markets to better support our Spanish-speaking audiences."

For more information visit Nemetschek NA online at: www.nemetschek.net