Scumbria - SGI Introduces Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon Workstations
Why isn't SGI holding out for AMD's K7 ?
Looks like lost "potential" for the Kdog chip !
Paul
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newsalert.com
March 12, 1999 14:09
-SILICON GRAPHICS: SG to include new Pentium III/ Pentium III Xeon processors in Visual workstations
M2 PRESSWIRE-12 March 1999-SILICON GRAPHICS: Silicon Graphics to offer Intel's new Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon processors in its innovative Visual workstations (C)1994-99 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD
Silicon Graphics Increases Performance Leadership of Visual Workstations by Optimising for New SIMD Instructions in Intel Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon Processors
Silicon Graphics has announced that it will offer Intel's new Pentium III and Pentium III Xeon processors at speeds of up to 550MHz in its new Silicon Graphics 320 and Silicon Graphics 540 visual workstations. The new Intel Pentium III and the Pentium, III Xeon processors feature more than 70 new instructions that further enhance the visual computing performance of the Silicon Graphics family of visual workstations.
Available. immediately, the Silicon Graphics 320 visual workstation, with an Intel Pentium III 450MHz processor, is priced starting at GBP2850. When shipped with an Intel Pentium III 500 MHZ processor, the Silicon Graphics 320 visual workstation is priced starting at GBP3060. All Silicon Graphics 320 standard and recommended configurations will have the ability to upgrade to a new Intel Pentium III processor.
"Silicon Graphics' new visual workstations provide the industry with a truly differentiated product that is able to exploit the most advanced performance improvements in our processor technology," said Anand Chandrasekher, general manager, Intel workstation products division. "We are pleased to see the continued level of excellence and innovation Silicon Graphics is providing using Intel architecture."
The new instructions featured in Intel's new processors incorporate streaming single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) operations which optimise performance for demanding computing tasks such as 3D graphics, video and audio. The Silicon Graphics 320 visual workstation architecture has been optimised to take advantage of the new SIMD instruction set built into the Intel Pentium III processors. With Intel's improved floating point registers, all graphics applications will see an immediate improvement when running on the Silicon Graphics 320 workstation.
The balanced design of Silicon Graphics' Integrated Visual Computing (IVC) architecture also harnesses more efficiently the additional power of Intel processors for most geometry-based operations. This results in a significant graphics performance improvement over traditional fixed, high-priced, AGP-card-based geometry chips.
When using an Intel Pentium III 450MHz processor over an Intel Pentium II 450MHz processor, the Silicon Graphics 320 visual workstation posted a 15 to 30 per cent benchmark improvement in most GLPerf and ViewPerf dataset benchmarks. The Pentium III 500MHz processor has delivered approximately 10 per cent additional performance on top of this result.
Intel's new processors enable Silicon Graphics to further enhance the visual computing capabilities of the visual workstation, delivering even greater graphics and media performance and capabilities to the visual computing professional," said Jim Irving, UK director of workstations and distribution, Silicon Graphics.
"This announcement reaffirms our commitment to work closely with Intel as we continue to innovate and raise the bar in terms of value and performance."
Silicon Graphics will begin shipping Silicon Graphics 320 with Intel's Pentium 111 450MHz and 500MHz processors immediately. It will also ship product with Intel's Pentium III 550MHz processor in the second quarter of 1999. For Silicon Graphics 540, the company will support both Intel Pentium 111 Xeon 500MHz and 550 MHZ processors when the workstation ships in the second quarter of 1999. Standard configuration for a Silicon Graphics 320 with an Intel Pentium 111 450MHz processor includes IVC architecture with the Cobalt graphics chipset, 128MB SDRAM memory (expandable to 1GB), 6.4GB E-IDE drive (optional Ultra.2 SCSI available), 10/100 Fast Ethernet, audio and video I/O and Windows NT 4.0.
Introduced in January 1999, Silicon Graphics' new visual workstations are based on Intel processors and the Windows NT operating system. For the first time, the products bring to market a combination of high-end visual computing capabilities and professional graphics and media functionality on the desktop. Starting at GBP2340 list, the full-featured Silicon Graphics 320 visual workstation began shipping the first week of February 1999. The Silicon Graphics 540 visual workstation starts at GBP4130 and is the industry's first quad processor-capable workstation. It will begin shipping in the second quarter of 1999.
Silicon Graphics background Silicon Graphics, Inc. is a leading supplier of visual computing and high-performance systems. Silicon Graphics and its subsidiaries have offices throughout the world and headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Further background information is available on the World Wide Web at: sgi.co.uk
Silicon Graphics and the Silicon Graphics logo are registered trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Silicon Graphics product names are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. All other trademarks belong to their respective companies.
CONTACT: Jane Harris/Nicola Tomlinson, Citigate Technology Tel: +44 (0)171 282 2952 e-mail: janeharris@ctech-lon.co.uk
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