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Silicon Graphics, Inc. · SGI
Silicon Graphics, Inc., also known as SiliconGraphics or SGI, 1
was an American manufacturer of high-performance computer
hardware, supercomputers and software, founded on 9 November 1981
by Jim Clark, and headquartered in Mountain View (California, USA).
The company's initial market was high-end
3D graphics computer workstations, but changed significantly over time.
The company is best known for its Geometry Engine – developed by Jim Clark
and Marc Hannah – which became the first very-large-scale integration (VLSI)
implementation of a geometry pipeline — decicated hardware that does the
computations for displaying 3D images. It became the crown jewels of
the company. But as time went by, the performance of regular Wintel
computers (PCs) rapidly increased at a much lower cost,
and gradually started eroding SGI's market position.
SGI scrambled to address these marketing issues, but made several bad
decisions. The move from their existing MIPS platforms
— since 1992 owned by SGI — to the Intel Itanium, turned out to
be a diastrous one. In addition, their own Linux-based
Intel IA-32 based workstations and servers failed in the market.
SGI then tried to reposition itself as a vendor of supercomputers.
SGI acquired several companies, including Alias (1995), Wavefront (1995),
Cray Research (1996)
and Intergraph (2000), but could not transform itself
into a successful operation again. After selling some of its recent acquisitions,
the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on 1 April 2009.
Most of the assets were taken over by Rackable Systems, who also assumed
the name Silicon Graphics International. The remainder became
Graphics Properties Holdings, Inc. [1].
On 1 November 2016, Silicon Graphics International (the former Rackable Systems)
was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). With the acquisition, HPE
was able to add the SGI Pleiades — a TOP500 supercomputer used at
NASA Ames Research Center — to its product
portfolio [1].
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Initially founded as Silicon Graphics Computer Systems (SGCS).
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Saturday 19 February 2022. Last changed: Monday, 21 February 2022 - 10:32 CET.
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![Original logo of Silicon Graphics Computer Systems (9 Nov 1981 - 13 Apr 1999) designed by Scott Kim [2]](svg/sg_logo.svg){kind=logo}
![Later logo of Silicon Graphics, Inc. (13 Apr 1999 - 11 May 2009) designed by Joseph Stitzlein (Landor Associates) [2]](svg/sgi_logo.svg){kind=logo}
![Later logo of Silicon Graphics International. (11 May 2009 - 1 Nov 2016) before the company was taken over by Hewlett Packard Enterprise [2]](svg/sgint_logo.svg){kind=logo}