SGI lands workstation deal with Disney
By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
September 8, 2000, 1:10 p.m. PT
URL: news.cnet.com
SGI has sold 500 graphics workstations to Walt Disney's animation studio, the company said today.
Walt Disney Feature Animation, one of the world's most noted makers of animated movies, will purchase SGI's Octane and new Octane 2 workstations, the latter introduced in June. The machines will be used for 3D modeling, painting and animation on upcoming feature films.
In the recent past, Disney has used SGI computers for special effects in "Mission to Mars" and "Gone in 60 Seconds," as well as the animated films "Dinosaur" and the upcoming "102 Dalmatians."
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Mountain View, Calif.-based SGI is in the process of bringing some of its graphics software to the Linux operating system and Intel chips, but its high-end workstations currently use SGI's version of Unix, called Irix, and MIPS chips. SGI has been struggling financially, however, and its stock has stayed low while larger competitors such as Sun Microsystems attack SGI's core businesses. |
