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- From: trimble@ph-meter.beckman.uiuc.edu (Chris Trimble)
- Subject: Re: SGI's new Supercomputer
- References: <1993Jan27.223145.3274@leland.Stanford.EDU>
- Message-ID: <trimble.728189071@ph-meter.beckman.uiuc.edu>
- Sender: usenet@news.cso.uiuc.edu (Net Noise owner)
- Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
- Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 02:44:31 GMT
- Lines: 119
-
- ledwards@leland.Stanford.EDU (Laurence James Edwards) writes:
-
- >Anybody have any more details on the supercomputer series announced by SGI?
-
-
- Here are some details snagged from the UofI's sgi newsgroup.
-
- - C
-
- --------------
-
- From uiuc.sys.sgi Wed Jan 27 20:42:25 1993
- ~From: newsbytes@clarinet.com
- ~Subject: Silicon Graphics' Huge Revenues, Workstations, Supercomputers 01/26/93
- essage-ID: <NB930126.16@clarinet.com>
- ~Date: 26 Jan 93 20:51:37 GMT
- ~Lines: 91
-
- MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1993 JAN 26 (NB) -- After
- reporting historically high, quarter-of-a-billion dollar revenues
- for the last quarter of 1992, Silicon Graphics has rolled out
- two extensions of its top-selling Indigo workstation line, along
- with a new brand of supercomputers called Onyx.
-
- SGI's new Onyx supercomputer family includes models ranging from
- two-processor deskside workstations to 24-processor rack systems.
- The new Indigo XZ and Indigo2 Extreme, a workstation with an
- expandable 64-bit bus architecture, are aimed at boosting the
- performance of Indigo, the product family that now accounts for the
- bulk of SGI's sales. Onyx and Indigo2 Extreme are the first
- computers to be unveiled that are based on the new MIPS R4400 RISC
- processor.
-
- Even before last year's merger between SGI and MIPS, SGI was always
- the first to use new MIPS semiconductor technology, and SGI's newly
- released financial results prove that the merger has benefitted
- both SGI and the chip manufacturer, said company officials in a
- series of interviews with Newsbytes.
-
- The new quarterly statement shows net revenues of $270 million for
- the last calendar quarter, an increase of 15% over revenues for the
- same quarter the previous year, and net income of $24 million, or
- 33 cents per share, up from $17 million, or 23 cents per share, for
- the comparable quarter in 1991. SGI also reported an 11% operating
- profit for the last quarter of calendar 1992.
-
- The $270 million in quarterly revenues places SGI, for the first
- time ever, at a "billion dollar run rate," meaning that if
- quarterly revenues were multiplied by four, annual revenues would
- equal $1 billion or more, said Marilyn Lattin, director of investor
- relations for SGI. The Indigo line accounted for the lion's share
- of revenues, but MIPS semiconductors, still being sold to outside
- vendors, also played a role.
-
- The rise in SGI's quarterly earnings signifies that SGI and MIPS
- are carrying out a pledge to the industry that the merger would be
- "non dilutive," meaning that shareholders' interests would not be
- jeopardized, noted another company representative. "In fact,
- shareholders are already gaining substantially, and SGI's position
- excellent position in the marketplace can only be improved by the
- new workstations," he noted.
-
- In the suite of new workstations, SGI is using color and packaging
- to help differentiate the Onyx supercomputers and Indigo2 Extreme
- from the traditional Indigo product line, first brought out in
- 1991. A company spokesperson told Newsbytes that the Indigo XZ,
- like other workstations in the mainstream Indigo family, is a
- desktop model, similar in configuration to a Macintosh SE but
- midnight blue in color. In contrast, The Indigo2 Extreme is a
- pizza box configuration produced in teal blue, and the Onyx
- supercomputers are black in color.
-
- The Indigo XZ uses the same R4000 MIPS RISC (reduced instruction set
- computer) processor as the previously released Indigo models XS, XS24,
- XS24Z and Elan Graphics. But the new Iris workstation is also
- outfitted with a pair of Geometry Engine processors meant to
- double graphics performance. The system comes standard with 16MB
- of memory, a 432MB system disk, DAT-quality audio, a 19-inch monitor,
- and Irix, the Silicon Graphics version of Unix.
-
- The Indigo2 Extreme is constructed to raise performance across all
- parameters. The "pizza box" workstation offers either the R4000 or
- the new R4400, a chip that brings a faster clock speed of up to 150
- Hz and doubles the 8 KB cache memory of the R4000 to 16KB. The 64-
- bit bus architecture and two built-in fast SCSI-II channels are
- designed to raise throughput. The 64-bit bus also supports
- expansion to EISA and GIO buses, giving users access to a wider
- range of hardware adapters. The Indigo2 Extreme is bundled with
- Indigo Magic, a set of tools for the development of digital media
- applications.
-
- Members of the new Onyx supercomputer family are equipped with two
- new graphics subsystems, ReaalityEngine 2 and VIX, as well as
- multiple MIPS 4400 chips. Target application areas include digital
- film and video production, computational fluid dynamics, virtual
- reality, and visual simulation.
-
- The Indigo XZ is priced at $23,000, and shipping now. The
- Indigo2 Extreme with an R4000 processor is slated for first quarter
- availability at a starting price of $35,000. An R4400 upgrade to
- the Indigo2, priced at $6,000, is scheduled to ship in the third
- quarter. A two-processor Onyx workstation, priced at $114,900, and
- a 24-processor RealityEngine2 rack system, priced at $643,900, are
- due out this quarter. In the second quarter, SGI plans to release
- an Onyx rack system with up to three RealityEngine2 graphics
- subsystems in a single chassis.
-
- (Jacqueline Emigh/19930126/Press contact: Carl Furry, SGI, tel
- 415-390-3365)
-
- --
- =========
- Amy K. Swanson
- SGI Systems Administrator, NCSA
- amys@ncsa.uiuc.edu
-
- --
- Chris Trimble President, Irwin Allen fan club.
- Beckman Institute Systems Services - chris1@uiuc.edu - PGP key available.
-