SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY

CalComp on View: The most common use of sophisticated computer graphics, though, remains the design and modeling of projects ranging from integrated circuits to automobiles and buildings. Hardly any significant product is now built without it first taking shape as a computer simulation.

One local company that’s been a great beneficiary of this trend is Anaheim-based CalComp. The company was a pioneer in the development of graphics plotters--the sophisticated printers necessary to make hard copies of fancy graphics--and it continues to lead the market. CalComp, which also makes “digitizers” that convert drawings into computer language and many graphics display products, introduced a number of new products Monday, including a high-end plotter selling for $75,000.

But the biggest news at CalComp is that it may not be a Lockheed Corp. subsidiary much longer. Lockheed was going to sell the $500-million company last year, then decided to keep it. But Texas financier Harold Simmons, who has launched a proxy fight for control of Lockheed, “may have other ideas,” a CalComp spokesman said Monday.