Silicon Graphics Inc plans to reveal the first of its new SVI supercomputer sites in a week or two. SV1 is the upgrade route for users of three of SGI’s four Cray vector processor lines; the J90, and older YMP and C90 generations. The success of SV1 will be key to determining the future of SGI’s supercomputing business. CEO Rick Belluzzo made some dramatic cuts in the company’s burdensome high-end unit on his arrival from Hewlett- Packard Co a year ago. SV2, a post-2000 box which replaces SV1’s flat memory with a distributed shared memory system inherited from SGI’s SN1 MIPS-based Origin server will also supersede the high-end T90 vector processor and run a new operating system crafted from SGI’s Irix Unix, Unicos, the Hive Cellular Irix work and more. Indeed SGI’s reported to be offering pieces of the Cellular Irix’s distributed technology to Microsoft Corp. Next Monday SGI cuts the ribbon from around its prized Windows NT boxes judged so important to the company’s future success (see separate story).
