Silicon Graphics Inc’s agreement with Intel Corp supposedly gives it the right to build its forthcoming range of WinTel workstations by utilizing its own bus in conjunction with the CPU instead of Intel’s. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter’s server hardware people, who appear to have been briefed on the subject, believe that by integrating graphics and bandwidth into the core chip set, SGI expects to achieve better graphics performance than competitors using the standard Intel interface. It says SGI’s NT workstations will be able to stream in two video streams (want to watch baseball and the conference call from LA?) simultaneously while the workstation also streams out two streams of video (like a recording of you dressed for work so the folks in LA don’t have to look at your mustard-stained T-shirt and the presentation you’re giving to LA). The streams will operate at 30 frames per second – the level which the eye sees as smooth motion. It’ll offer this functionality in the $5,000 to $7,000 price range, but will offer systems priced across the full NT spectrum from $3,000 to $22,000. It’s intending to beat anything graphics/NT sold through the channel on price. Moreover once 100,000 of the Visual PCs roll off the production lines in the US, SGI will farm manufacture out to Ireland and Thailand (like SGI CEO Rick Belluzzo did at Hewlett-Packard Co, the brokerage notes). SGI will move the rest of its desktop production to this model as well.
