Is the Game Finally up for SGI? 182
Rob writes to mention a Computer Business Review article looking at the bankruptcy of SGI, and whether the company is planning on a comeback. CEO Dennis McKenna is emphatic that the company isn't just looking for an exit strategy, but it's hard to see where they could go from here. From the article: "SGI has more challenges ahead, and I still find it hard to believe that after all of the chances it has had to run a profitable server and visualization business in the past it can miraculously do so now, selling lower-end boxes on even slimmer margins. But I'm hoping that the Chapter 11 has provided the necessary wake-up call for the company to get really lean really fast, because only from a more stable financial footing does it have any hope of fighting its way back onto new technology buyers' wish-lists."
the game was up when it moved to intel (Score:4, Insightful)
The expensive add on video card did little to add value compared to the hp/dells of the world.
We have some SGI (Irix) based software here we ported fairly easily to solaris.
not really (Score:3, Insightful)
Chapter 11 does not equal a death sentence, it's often just a way of flipping the bird to the creditors - that's what most people don't realize.
Re:SGI Video cards (Score:5, Insightful)
nVidia poached most of SGI's engineers when they went big, which I guess soured their previous relationship. I suspect the decision to switch to ATI was based on politics, the sort that drive SGI into the ground into the first place. Good riddance
Oh, pardon, that's sgi, not SGI. Ooh, lowercase, how trendy. That's the sort of thing they focus on over in Mountain View these days.
I'll miss SGI about as much as I'll miss HP if they ever go under. The real company died a long time ago, we just haven't whacked their shambling zombie corpse with a shovel enough times yet.
Perhaps one reason... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Considering SGI's major market... (Score:4, Insightful)
When SGI announced their x86 based line of servers I can remember thinking the same thing, "why would I buy this $3,500 dollar PC from SGI for $6,000?" It seemed to me as if they had the same problem that Sun currently has, not being able to decide what business they're in.
VAMPIRES! (Score:1, Insightful)
Re::-( cryx0r (Score:4, Insightful)
No compelling products anymore. (Score:5, Insightful)
But most of the people still running IRIX are doing so because they have legacy applications that they need to use, which assumedly already runs on their existing hardware
SGI is rapidly running of of stuff to sell. What they do make looks really neat (gotta love purple), and I'd love to have one under my desk, but it's tough to come up with a business case for the premium it seems like they have to charge in order to stay afloat.
As much as I hate to say it, being someone who's drooled over SGI gear for years, I think they need to exit the hardware business. Or perhaps license the SGI hardware brand out to someone else, to use as their high-end workstation brand. Then pare the company back and concentrate on software for the very high-end visualization markets, and perhaps offer consulting services for people converting from IRIX to Linux.
It seems like they tried to play IRIX for far too long after the writing was on the wall, and the gamble with Itanium didn't help either. Running a single-vendor OS on what's rapidly becoming a single-vendor hardware platform isn't something that many people are going to be interested in.
Not Siggraph. (Score:4, Insightful)
From coolest name to dumbest trademark (Score:2, Insightful)
But as far as I was concerned they missed the boat in '95 or so. My company wanted to buy SGI systems for graphics work, but for any reasonable amount of money at the time, the systems were entirely underpowered compared even to cheap consumer PC's running Photoshop. We had a huge budget, and the machines SGI tried to sell us were absolutely horrible, by anybody's standards. So their high end was probably better, but we didn't get the hook in our mouth so we never would have known.
SGI "open to selling OpenGL"..best buyer? (Score:3, Insightful)
i would think any one of the companies currently on the ARB should be the ones that get to bid. any one of those would be favorable. Nvidia would be a great steal. ATI is in bed with DirectX and MS so i dunno about them. can IBM handle it? Apple would also be a good steal. what do you think?
Re:Apple (Score:3, Insightful)
And on a related note, here's something I wrote last year when they were delisted, which struck me as funny then, and still does:*
A few days after SGI was delisted [google.com], I stumbled across an old (1994) article about SGI [wired.com] while I was poking around in one of my favorite places, the Wired archive [wired.com]. The article has this quote from SGI founder Jim Clark:
Clark is not afraid to publicly dis a company like Apple, much as Steve Jobs once mocked IBM.
"Apple," Jim Clark will sigh, as if he were talking about a horse on its way to the glue factory. "They're not doing anything... Apple blew it."
Then, with a dismissive wave of his hand, and just the hint of a grin: "I think they're in serious trouble."
Funny how things can change in 12 years.
* in a sad way, of course--I used to drive past all the cool companies along 101 on my way to work when I lived in the Bay Area in the late 90s, and I have fond memories of those days, back when SGI was the coolest thing around.
Re:SGI Video cards (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, another thing that people always liked about their systems was the design astetics (flowing curves of their systems). They need to bring that back. Also, bring back the bleeding edge performance - or make the systems they are selling more affordable... otherwise they are doomed to fail yet again.