On 10/29/2010 10:34 PM, Don Stanley wrote: > Hi Kent; > I have wondered how SGI faired over the years. > A look at Wiki and WOW. > > It looked like some awesome graphics near the end, especially > their larger systems. > > I was using their IRIS 1000 - 3000 and the IRIS 4D (Baby steps). > But they were great by comparison to what was available otherwise. > > In the end did it appear they were too big or too programed to step > into the inexpensive Video Production and PC Gaming markets? > > Thanks > Don
Across our institute, we probably had something on the order of 50 SGI systems of varying size and capability. I think there may have been a few IRIS boxes lurking in dusty corners when I retired. Early on, they were the go-to system for scientific and technical visualization. Later, they were at the forefront of 3D visualization; among other things, SGI boxes powered the institute's 3-wall virtual-reality cave. It was a gas to strap on the goggles and walk through my data; even better, to give a guided tour of the data to visitors. In my own lab, in addition to various work-group sized servers we had over the years, we also tried their 2-board Graphics system on an PC and later their first SGI-branded WindowsNT box as they tried desperately to stay relevant. The economics of commodity-based computing did them in. (But, then, I could give a treatise on the decline and fall of supercomputers, mini-supercomputers, and super-minicomputers, Our institute tried them all.) Regards, Kent ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Nokia and AT&T present the 2010 Calling All Innovators-North America contest Create new apps & games for the Nokia N8 for consumers in U.S. and Canada $10 million total in prizes - $4M cash, 500 devices, nearly $6M in marketing Develop with Nokia Qt SDK, Web Runtime, or Java and Publish to Ovi Store http://p.sf.net/sfu/nokia-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
