More about the MIPS spin-off:
The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition -- March 26, 1998
Digits: Gambits & Gadgets
In the World of Technology
Expect a slimmed-down Silicon Graphics Inc. early
next month, when its new chief executive, Rick
Belluzzo, unveils his strategy. The struggling
computer maker plans a partial spin-off to
shareholders of its MIPS microprocessor unit, which
the company bought for $200 million in 1992,
company executives say. MIPS designs the chips
used in SGI's workstations, famed for their ability to
create special effects such as the dinosaurs in
"Jurassic Park." But now SGI plans to base more of
its computers on Intel Corp. chips to counter price
competition.
The article from Mercury News posted previously is good also.
mercurycenter.com
I am also pleased at today's news about the success of the giant 1024 machine array:
biz.yahoo.com
An excerpt:
CRAY T3E System Produces Unprecedented Results in Numerical Weather Prediction Test Runs
EAGAN, Minn., March 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Silicon Graphics/Cray Research today announced that a 1,000+ processor CRAY T3E-900(TM) supercomputer provided unprecedented performance for HIRLAM, a short-range numerical weather prediction system (NWP). The HIRLAM model was timed to run at a record-breaking 69 gigaflops on 1024 processors.
The CRAY T3E(TM) architecture displayed near-linear scalability -- the code ran seven times faster on the 1,024-processor system than it did on a 128-processor configuration an eighth the size. This scalability is made possible by the extremely high-speed interconnect between processors, allowing for extremely fast movement of data. The Silicon Graphics/Cray interconnect technology boasts up to 10 times better latency and up to four times better bandwidth than the nearest competitive systems.
SGI is moving forward, and the news so far seems good. I am pleased that there has been no preannouncement so far, but I guess we still have a week or so to go here. (Friday after closing might be a particularly good time for them to peannounce bad news) If we can get through this week, me may see some great moves upside. --JD |
