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

To: John M. Zulauf who wrote (5570)	1/13/1999 2:32:00 PM
From: Woody_Nickels	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14451

SGI rumored to beat earnings estimate at: whisperearnings.com

To: John M. Zulauf who wrote (5570)	1/13/1999 2:35:00 PM
From: Edward Smyth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14451

John M. Zulauf wrote: /Relative costs of ... engineering for R12K O2 v R12K VW the R12K is pin compatible with the R10K.... the cost is (for HW) approximately $0. To build an R12K VW, you'd need a whole new motherboard, assuming the Cobalt chipset could support R12K with reasonable performance.... cost -- LOTS./ Yes, the cost of making a R12K O2 is minimal. However, the VW is cheaper, faster and more expandable than the O2. So, while a R12K O2 is cheap to make, I believe that a R12K VW would sell MUCH better. The O2's design never fit perfectly with the R10K. Unless the MRE chip is redesigned it can only get worse with the faster R12K. OK, larger L2 caches and the increased o-o-o execution on the R12K will help, but the penalty for going out of cache gets relatively worse. If the MRE chip is redesigned, that will cost much more money than just putting the R12K in. If SGI is willing to do that, then maybe it would be cheaper (maybe not, but MUCH more cost effective) to convert the VW instead. Other limitations of the O2 design would be fixed at the same time, eg limited disk and PCI expansion. An R12K O2 would be a great upgrade for existing users, and may sell quite a few more to people who need IRIX compatibility. But it is doubtful if its sales will grow that much with the VW hitting it from below. The SGI plan, as I understand it, is for NT low end and IRIX mid-high end. That is fine, as far as it goes. However, if the O2 is more expensive than the VW it must be faster i.e. scaling in price must equate with scaling in performance (allowing for product introduction schedules). Otherwise there is a danger that IRIX customers feel a bit cheated, when they see the specs of the cheaper SGI NT boxes. Besides, I'm sure I speak for some others when I say that I would love to see low-end ($3000-$8000) IRIX systems. When I look at how good a 1994 Indy is, I wouldn't mind IRIX taking over the computing world. Ed