Silicon Graphics files for Chapter 11

We can't help but feel a twinge of melancholy as we ponder Silicon Graphics' announcement today that the company is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. However, the SGI of today is a mere shadow of it former self, with a mixed bag of products that range from overpriced, Linux-based, Intel-powered workstations to overpriced, Linux-based, Intel-powered supercomputers. But it wasn't all that long ago that the SGI Indy was considered the hottest thing on the market, and seemed to herald the future of multimedia computing. Of course, that future was pre-empted first by cheaper Unix and Linux options, and later by Mac OSX and even Windows, which was hardly a factor in the graphics industry back in the early 90s when the Indy debuted. So, best of luck emerging from bankruptcy, SGI. We'd like to see you stick around for a bit just for old time's sake. But if we want one of your boxes, we'll skip the new ones, and hunt down an Indy on eBay.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in.]

[tracy @ May 8th 2006 3:37PM]

man that takes me back, i still have the mouse pad that came with the indy i worked on, beeutifull blue indy box, blazeing fast speed for the day yada yada yada

[Todd @ May 8th 2006 4:00PM]

I remember back at the 1991 Siggraph convention, the people in the SGI booth were sooooooooo condescending and rude. Good riddance you buncha snobs!

[Suz @ May 8th 2006 4:00PM]

WOW I remember when that was the thing to get when I was studying technical arts in college(an obscure Fine Arts degree no longer offered). My department got one right when I was leaving the program.

Technology marches on..

http://www.ipodidiom.com

[Joe @ May 8th 2006 4:07PM]

Yea SGi has always been a bunch of snobs im better then you becasue i can afford a over price unix box.
with 128 mb of ram RISC cpu, ill pass.

im glad they lost out, if only Apple bought them up and rebranded there Octanes with G5s or something, it would be a teribble lost of a marketable name.

[Lex @ May 8th 2006 4:20PM]

"This is a Unix system. I know this."

[Brado @ May 8th 2006 4:37PM]

Ahhhh the true niche computer company; Apple had nothing on ya. You were a great company, too bad those product placements on Lost In Space didn't work.

[Jeff @ May 8th 2006 4:40PM]

"with 128 mb of ram RISC cpu, ill pass."

Yeah dude, and I was using that 128MB RISC box when Windows machines were lucky if they had FOUR megabytes. Think about that in today's terms - if 1GB is pretty standard in Windows machines nowadays, that would be like buying a box with 32GB of RAM.

The Indigo2 I worked on also had a 133mhz CPU at a time when you were lucky if you got a 33mhz 486 in your PC - and that's a 133mhz RISC CPU vs. a 33mhz CISC CPU.

You don't think SGI users had a right to be snobs back then? We were running graphical Unix (way before there was such a thing as Mac OSX - this was the early days of graphical Unix), and we were running way more powerful hardware than any commodity box, with software like Alias Power Animator that you just couldn't even get on Windows.

Nowadays, commodity hardware has caught up. But in the early 90's, SGI machines were in a whole other class.

[Max @ May 8th 2006 4:55PM]

Hmmm, I worked at SGI for a while, great company, great people. Killed by short sighted management. Who takes a great hardware company, and decides they wanna be a pc box shifter. Maybe someone, who planned to take core technology and jump ship to Redmond?.....

[E @ May 8th 2006 5:06PM]

I beta tested SoftImage 3D on a Win NT dual 90 mhz pentium from Intergraph in 1996. I was amazed at how much faster it was than the SGI Indigo2. It didn't take long for NT boxes to outpace SGI in the 3D FX market. Last time I touched an SGI for 3D work was sometime in 1997-98. I missed a lot of the OS functionality, but formost, I need render power, and PC boxes had a serious edge over what SGI was offering.

99% of 3D FX is done on PCs these days.

[flipper @ May 8th 2006 5:09PM]

Think I agree with the condecending snob comments but still freaked this company has bust - I alone gave them a hundred thousand pounds of hard earned cash (and still never properly got to grips with power animator!)

I keep my 90's SGIs in the attic - octanes are too heavy to sell on ebay.

[Lorenzo @ May 8th 2006 5:57PM]

Back in 1988 I was trying to sell some special graphics cards (up to 8 in parallel) who could be put into a SUN WS for rendering and real-time 3D jobs.
Then one day I visited an Aerospace company flight simulator site and they had a Control Data connected to 4 SGIs... I was shocked !!

[The Jeremy @ May 8th 2006 6:05PM]

Would any of SGI's assets be of interest to Apple? Certainly not Sun because they have enough problems of their own to sort out first...

Trying to pontificate if mixing OpenGL with Java as open source platform would be of value if it hasn't been done yet (the co-mingling, not the open sourcing)...

Maybe there's something in SGI's implementation of Unix that could be ported beneficially to OS X.

Hopefully the more astute readers can answer these lazy Monday ponderings.

[mark @ May 8th 2006 6:05PM]

>99% of 3D FX is done on PCs these days.

and all those PCs combined hardly carry 1% of the sexyness of just one SGI...

[Joe Isuzu @ May 8th 2006 6:33PM]

I remember in the mid 90's when Apple was struggling there was speculation that Sun or SGI would buy them. The CEO of SGI Ed McCraken answered that question with something like, why such a premiere company such as SGI would want to buy a failing computer maker?

Too bad. That company was so far ahead everyone else but they just didn't know what to do with themselves.

[Richard @ May 8th 2006 6:46PM]

Guess I should take that old O2 out of the closet and fire 'er up for old times sake, eh?

[K MAN @ May 8th 2006 7:30PM]

i remember watching "Lost in Space" the movie back in 1999(i think) and seeing all the computers in that movie were from SGI.

Sad indeed

[alloneword @ May 8th 2006 7:31PM]

I have one of those boxes from the picture holding up my monitor.

I bought an Indy with the 20" Sony screen for $200 (AUD) about 6 years ago. The monitor died last year.

But it is the best monitor stand I have ever bought, got more processing power than a space shuttle and it holds up my monitor :D

[ladders @ May 8th 2006 7:46PM]

this news really shocked me. it doesnt seem too long ago that sgi was THE machine to get, not just for cgi, but for any sort of high end computation.

i remember in 2000 as a student being shown a brand new sgi lab that my university had just bought, kitted out with around 50 sgi machines (i think they were O2s). seems like a waste of money now considering how well the lintel platform evolved.

pay loads for irix, or get linux for free... hmm.

[Matt @ May 8th 2006 10:38PM]

#5 -- I accept your subtle (SGI) challenge: "Jurassic Park".

[Zytheran @ May 8th 2006 10:42PM]

Ok, I'll just go out and buy a replacement for my Infinite Reality system..
Yep, All I need is a PC that can run triple PCIeX16 slots to handle the dual head Nvidia cards....
oh, wait a sec, damn.....I guess I can sell 1/3 of my spherical screen because the PC ain't going to be using it..
There are some jobs PC's still don't do.

[ZipperSeven @ May 9th 2006 8:03AM]

Man if I had a couple of million sitting around, I'd buy SGI just to own the name.

[Greg @ May 14th 2006 4:12PM]

Serves those phuckers right. All of 'em! Dirty bastards. Our school bought into SGI in the late 90s and received crap for customer support (condescending snobs). What comes around goes around.

HAHAHAHA!! May they rot in hell.