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Technology Stocks : Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jerry Whlan who wrote (3625)	11/20/1997 11:08:00 AM
From: Alexis Cousein	Respond to of 14451

>I can't see SGI making a cent off the cartridge sales, only the game >console sales. That would be regulated by an agreement between SGI and Nintendo, and as it's perfectly possible for Nintendo to earn a royalty on cartridges they do not make themselves, it would be possible for SGI. I'm not privvy to that information (or if I am, I have to play dumb on this forum), but neither are you. >I think you should also mention how much cash in the bank SGI has >(somewhere around 300-400 million isn't it?). Don't think that figure is accurate, but feel free to contact Investor Relations for the exact figure.

To: Jerry Whlan who wrote (3625)	11/20/1997 11:22:00 AM
From: John M. Zulauf	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14451

> the largest Origin system that SGI has announced is only 128 processors You are correct, but at that size, the only 6 computers sold in the world today are faster as supercomputers. (based on an approximation based an anticipated LINPACK results, once it uses all 128 processors) (also please note that LINPACK performance is not a good measure of integer or bandwidth performance. It's a big matrix inversion, a task that splits up onto many processors well. So just because you have a great linpack number doesn't mean you've got a great server, or I/O or anything else. Linpack is however a useful HPC figure as many supercomputing tasks involve at some stage a big matrix inversion or a big "time step iteration over a large number of cell" that have similar performance characteristics as a large matrix inversion) Intel ASCI Red a one off for the gov't experimental computer SGI/Cray T3E... various models, its the fastest commerically available. Hitachi/Tsukuba CP-PACS/2048 apparent a one off at a Japanese supercomputing lab Hitachi SR2201/1024 commericially available 1 at this size exists, 10 total of this type are in the top 500 list. Only one outside Japan Fujitsu Numerical Wind Tunnel another one off for a very specific purpose Fujitsu vpp (several models a fast vector machine not well suit for the server role. IBM SP (several models, some faster, some slower) a nice fast massively parallel machine which is apparently a nightmare to program for optimal performance Intel XP/ a discontinued Intel supercomputer NEC SX (several models, some faster, some slower vs. 128proc 02K) don't know much about this one. Installed base -- 29 of the top 500 -- 4 outside Japan. SGI/Cray T3D predecessor to the T3E Hewlett-Packard Exemplar X-Class (several models, some faster, some slower vs. 128proc 02K) 26 of the top 500 sites world wide. Pain in the neck mulitprocess programming model. (from what several PhD types have told me) Thats 6 commercially available, only two of which could be considered "server" competition (the HP and the NEC SX). The TOTAL number of reported systems in the world faster than an Origin 2000 128proc (assuming as yet unannounce performance number -- okay so it's a WAG) about 90. Again that's 90 total installed computers in the entire world faster than a Origin 200 128proc. What's really cool, and really mind-blowing, is that SGI set one up (in apparently less than two days) on the trade show floor of "SuperComputing '97" this week. The words "portable" and "supercomputer" don't usually go together -- but the ability to put together a top 100 (in the world) computing site in a generic space, in a short period of time is astounding. Assumptions and references... for actual Top 500 results: netlib.org The approximate estimate of 128 proc Origin 2000 results is based on an assumption of 80% efficient scaling -- i.e. 1.8 * 64 processor results (for an approximate RMax of 34,200 -- which would rank it at 87th) , which is consistant with the 16-32, an 32-64 ratio and the parallizability of the problem. Actual results (when they are released) could be better or worse, YMMV, (insert disclaimer here). Very unofficially, john

To: Jerry Whlan who wrote (3625)	11/20/1997 11:37:00 AM
From: Chris Hipp	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 14451

First of all, nice job Jim. If only we could get those actually IN the media to write as objectively as you!! > Message from Jerry Whlan on Nov 20 1997 9:01AM EST >> The company has deployed a vast 1,328-processor machine that is the largest production >> supercomputer in the world - but is still is binary compatable with their smaller machines. SGI's >> unique investment in cc-NUMA architecture. > It may be binary compatible with the older T3E-900, but it is not binary compatible with any of the > Origin products. It is based on the DEC Alpha chip, not any of the MIPS family. Also, I don't think it > is a cc-NUMA box, it may be NUMA, but I don't think it is cache-coherent which makes all the > difference. The T3E series are Vector Supercomputers. > So far, the largest Origin system that SGI has announced is only 128 processors and it will be in beta > until next year. There are solid plans to scale to numbers of processors in the thousands. >> (SGI will still be making royalties on those Nintendo 64 game cartridges, too.) > I'm sure Nintendo will be making royalties on those cartridges, at least until someone successfully > challenges their requirement that all game manufacturers pay them for the privilege of writing software > for their game console. But I digress. Unless those cartridges have MIPS chips in them (and they > typically only have ROM and a little NVRAM), I can't see SGI making a cent off the cartridge sales, > only the game console sales. Each game console contains an R4300i CPU and a Reality Co-Processor, or RCP. > I think you should also mention how much cash in the bank SGI has (somewhere around 300-400 > million isn't it?). $657 million. Hippster