From: trimble@ph-meter.beckman.uiuc.edu (Chris Trimble)
Subject: Re: SGI's new Supercomputer
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 02:44:31 GMT

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

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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.