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Power Tools 1993 November - Disc 2
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Power Tools Plus (Disc 2 of 2)(November 1993)(HP).iso
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ezsgipr
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ezsgipr.txt
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1993-04-20
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117 lines
EZSGIPR
Following their Jan 25 product announcement, SGI announced price
reductions for their existing Indigo workstations.
Prices on the older Indigo R3000 systems dropped by approximately $2,500
across the board. Price reductions on the R4000 Indigos vary - with
reductions of $500 on the least expensive systems and reductions of as
much as $4,500 for the more expensive versions configured with 3D
graphics hardware.
An Indigo R3000 Entry with 16MB RAM and 432MB disk dropped $2,500 from
$10,500 to $7995. An equivalently configured R4000-based Indigo dropped
from $15,000 to $14,500, a difference of only $500.
For higher-end graphics an R3000 Indigo XS/24Z went from $21,500 to
$19,000, again a savings of $2,500. An R4000 Indigo XS/24Z saves $4,500,
going from $26,500 to $22,000. Compare that $22,000 with $23,000 for an
R4000 Indigo XZ which provides equivalent functionality and twice the
perfomance of the XS/24Z. With the introduction of the XZ graphics board
the XS/24Z is no longer a very attractive option even with the price
drop.
Memory and disk prices for the Indigo remain unchanged.
Prices on the more expandible Crimson machines were also not changed.
Unless customers truly need the Crimson's expansion capabilities the
introduction of the Indigo2 Extreme makes the Crimson line much less
attractive. Note that both lines are based on the same R4000 processor
and deliver identical performance for both system and graphics
measurements where configured with identical graphics options. However,
an Indigo2 Extreme, at $35,000, delivers identical system performance
and better graphics performance (in some case by as much as 2x) than the
$57,900 Crimson Elan. The Indigo2 offers a new 64-bit system bus
architecture. along with two built-in Fast SCSI-II channels and support
for both EISA bus and GIO bus expandibility. Crimson supports 2 SCSI
channels along with 4 VME expandibility slots.
Let's take a look at how the systems and repricing stack up against HP.
Comparing the newly repriced R3000-based Indigos with HP's model 715/33
HP offers more performance across the board for integer floating point,
X Windows and graphics performance for $700 less in list price for
comparable configurations.
In the mid-range, HP's 715/50 offers better graphics and floating point
for a few hundred dollars less than SGI's new R4000-based Indigo XZ.
SGI's best competitive story today comes from the newest product, the
Indigo2 Extreme, which offers very good 3D solids performance. A good
strategy to compete here is to box the Indigo2 Extreme between the
715/50 CRX-48Z which comes in at a lower price for comparable CPU
performance, better X Windows performance and performance within
striking range in the graphics area, and the 735 CRX-48Z which has a
commanding lead in all areas.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Entry Systems 16MB RAM, 1/2GB disk, 16" monitor
-------------------------------------------------------------
HP SGI
715/33 Indigo
color Entry
1024x768 1024x768
15" 16"
--------- ---------
SPECint92 24 22
SPECfp92 45 24
X11perf 7633 5168
2D vec/sec 600 450
3D vec/sec 610 230
current $ 7,290 7,995
old $ 10,500
-------------------------------------------------------------
Mid-range 32MB RAM, 1GB disk, 19" monitor
-------------------------------------------------------------
HP SGI SGI
715/50 R4K Indigo R4K Indigo
CRX-24Z XZ XS/24Z
1280x1024 1280x1024 1280x1024
19" 19" 19"
--------- --------- ----------
SPECint92 37 57 57
SPECfp92 72 61 61
X11perf 10646 7633 7633
2D vec/sec 1150 540 270
3D vec/sec 680 540 270
3D tri/sec 140 160 80
GPC CYL 35.5 29.8 33.2
current $ 26,140 26,500 25,500
old $ n/a 30,000
-------------------------------------------------------------
Performance 3D 64MB RAM, 1GB disk, 19" monitor
-------------------------------------------------------------
HP HP SGI SGI
735 735 Crimson Indigo2
CRX-24Z CRX-48Z Elan Extreme
1280x1024 1280x1024 1280x1024 1280x1024
19" 19" 19" 19"
--------- --------- --------- ---------
SPECint92 80 80 57 57
SPECfp92 151 151 61 61
X11perf 18786 19122 6384 ?
2D vec/sec 680 2000 1000 1400*
3D vec/sec 680 1900 1000 1400*
3D tri/sec 175 600 270 540*
LSQ 95 160 68 150
GPC CYL 59.9 78.7 31.9 33.5
$ 51,940 56,940 61,900 35,000
* estimate