FIRST ANNUAL PHIGS USER GROUP CONFERENCE            The First Annual PHIGS User Group Conference was held March 21-24           in Orlando, Florida.  The conference was organized by the Rensse-           laer Design Research Center in co-operation with  IEEE  and  SIG-           GRAPH.   Attendees  came  from five countries spanning three con-           tinents.   A  good  cross-section  of  the  PHIGS  community  was           represented  at this conference with participants including PHIGS           users, workstation vendors, third-party PHIGS implementors, stan-           dards  committee  members,  and  researchers  from  industry  and           academia.  The opening speaker, Dr. Richard Puk, challenged PHIGS           users  to  "take  charge of your PHIGS" by participating in PHIGS           standardization activities and communicating their needs to PHIGS           implementors.    The   closing  speaker,  Dr.  Andries  Van  Dam,           described his vision of the future of graphics standards  "beyond           PHIGS".            Technical paper sessions in the conference covered the  following           topics:  PHIGS  and  X, Application Toolkits, Application Issues,           Texture Mapping, NURBS,  PHIGS  Extensions,  and  Object-Oriented           Libraries and Frameworks.  Panel sessions on PHIGS and PEX, PHIGS           Non-Retained Data, Real-World CAD Applications Using  PHIGS,  and           Portability  Issues generated enthusiastic discussions and formed           a good forum for exchange of ideas, needs, and experiences.   The           conference  also included a day full of tutorials on topics rang-           ing from mathematics for 3D  graphics  to  object-oriented  tools           based on PHIGS.            Next year's conference is planned for March, 1994.            PHIGS EVERYWHERE            At the conference, PHIGS  vendors   described   and  demonstrated           PHIGS  products  that  run on all types of computers, from PCs to           mainframes.            Megatek Corporation demonstrated their PHIGS extensions including           conditional traversal, composite logical input devices, texturing           and translucency.            Template Graphics  Software  launched  FIGARO+  PRO,  the  Photo-           Realistic  Option  for  PHIGS+.  FIGARO+  PRO  is designed to add           advanced rendering to the existing PHIGS+ API, with features like           ray   tracing,  materials,  anti-aliasing  and  texture  mapping.           Radiosity support is also planned.            FIGARO+ is an example of how TGS continues to add newly  emerging           graphics  features to their products.  FIGARO+ supports immediate           mode extensions to PHIGS and also supports SUN XGL,  HP  Starbase           and SGI GL/OpenGL. FIGARO+ for NT will be released this summer.            TGS also demonstrated the latest versions of FIGraph, a  powerful           "2-call"  charting  system  based on PHIGS+, and FIGt, an object-           oriented utility library for PHIGS/PEX developers.            G5G and Gallium Software demonstrated a new version of GPHIGS  on           Silicon  Graphics  workstations. Scheduled for summer, 1993, Ver-           sion 3.0 of GPHIGS, the company's  PHIGS+  library  for  worksta-           tions,  will include an advanced PHIGS debugger that allows PHIGS           developers to display and browse PHIGS structures and other PHIGS           internal  state.  G5G  also  described  their Non-Duplicated Data           Store that stores pointers to application data in the GPHIGS  CSS           for  more  efficient  use  of  memory. In addition, G5G described           their application GSE that allows application callback  functions           during  GPHIGS traversal.  GPHIGS and PHIGURE, G5G's data visual-           izer and application development toolkit, are currently available           on  all  major  workstations  that support GL, X Windows, PEX, or           Starbase.            Wise Software presented a slide show of  Z-PHIGS  for  MS-Windows           and ARENA, a PHIGS based modeller/render. Z-PHIGS implements most           of the PHIGS+ primitives.  In addition Z-PHIGS has built in  many           advanced  rendering features like texture mapping, shadow genera-           tion, area quick updates and ray tracing. A demo disk of  Z-PHIGS           or ARENA is available on request.            ATC exhibited GRAFPAK-PHIGS, their full-featured PHIGS  implemen-           tation  based  on  DEC  PHIGS. GRAFPAK-PHIGS is available on most           workstation platforms with C, FORTRAN and Ada bindings and incor-           porates PEX support.            Within the booth sponsored by Advanced Technology Center, Digital           Equipment  Corporation demonstrated DEC PHIGS V2.4 running on the           DEC 3000/400 AXP PXG. ATCs' GRAFPAK-PHIGS is a port of DEC PHIGS.           DEC  PHIGS  V2.4 contains most PHIGS and PHIGS PLUS features with           support for PEX V5.1  protocol.  DEC  PHIGS  also  contains  most           GM/EDS   PHIGS  extensions  including  post-to-view  as  well  as           proprietary extensions to support immediate  mode  rendering  and           the use of PHIGS in an X11 environment.            AXP, DEC, and DEC PHIGS are trademarks of Digital Equipment  Cor-           poration.  GRAFPAK-PHIGS and ATC are trademarks of Advanced Tech-           nology Center. PEX and X11 are trademarks of Massachusetts Insti-           tute of Technology.            The IBM exhibit featured a GTO accelerator attached to an IBM 340           workstation running graPHIGS and PEX.            Hewlett Packard and SHOgraphics demonstrated at the conference. A           Hewlett  Packard  machine was coupled to display on a SHOgraphics           PEX terminal. HP showcased their latest  PHIGS  product  enhance-           ments.             PHIGS USER GROUP            The PHIGS Users Group was formed to aid the development of  PHIGS           applications  and provide user feedback to PHIGS implementors and           PHIGS standards bodies.  For more  information  about  the  PHIGS           Users Group, send e-mail to:                      phigsug@cadrt10.me.vt.edu            or write to:                      Sankar Jayaram                     Virginia Polytechnic Institute                     114 Randolph Hall                     Blacksburg, Va. 24061-0238                     FAX: 703-231-9100             VENDOR CONTACTS            Megatek Corporation           TEL (619) 455-5590           FAX (619) 453-7603            Template Graphics Software           TEL (800) 544-4847           FAX (619) 452-2547            WISE software GmbH           TEL +49-451-3909-413           FAX +49-451-3909-499            G5G - North American Sales           TEL (800) 267-2626           FAX (613) 592-1278            Advanced Technology Center           TEL (800) 999-5711           FAX (714) 583-9213            Digital Equipment Corporation           TEL (603) 884-5111            International Business Machines Corporation           TEL (800) 426-3333            Hewlett Packard Company           TEL (303) 229-3800            COPIES OF THE CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS            Copies of the conference proceedings may be obtained by  contact-           ing Mary Johnson at:                      Johnson, Mary                     Design and Manufacturing Institute                     Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute                     110 Eighth Street                     Building CII, Room 7015                     Troy, NY  12180-3590                     Tel:  (518)276-6754                     Fax:  (518)276-2702                     Email:  mjohnson@rdrc.rpi.edu