Speculation: Maybe CPQ would buy SGI?
from today's "I, Cringley" column:
(http://www.pbs.org/cringely/)
"By the time it was clear that the 3-D
graphics business was fading, the
World Wide Web was supposed to
take over. And true to SGI's glorious
history, the company developed some
of the best Web development tools
around. But Web development tools,
like 3-D animation tools, don't have to
be run strictly on SGI boxes. There
are many more Web servers than Web
development systems, and the best
price-performance Web servers are
Intel-based, a fact that will soon come
home not just for SGI, but also for Sun
and Digital.
So what's to come of SGI? Well the
boss, Ed McCracken, will soon be
history. And the company itself will
follow one of two courses. First, they
have to get their profit margins up by
taking cost out of the hardware. This
means embracing the demon by
building (or buying) Intel boxes
running Windows NT. The days of
SGI's custom hardware, and even its
very powerful line of MIPs
processors, are fading. The second
course, which isn't at all in conflict
with the first, is that the company will
be sold. Certainly the MIPs processor
business has to go, and maybe the rest
of the company with it. MIPs chips
certainly aren't going to go away,
since there is one inside every Sony
PlayStation. And there are tons of
MIPs R-10000 chips at the heart of
every nonstop mainframe from
Tandem Computer, too.
Tandem is now owned by Compaq.
Tandem needs MIPs processors,
which means Compaq needs MIPs
processors. Compaq would like to
dominate the 3-D graphics market and
would also like some advantage in
Web development tools. Compaq can
also use all the good engineers it can
find. Is a pattern beginning to emerge
here? Look for Compaq to take a
strong run at SGI. "
Sounds plausible to me... |
