“Beleaguered computer hardware maker SGI has introduced a bold
new Unix server design, a product that’s late but carries the
company’s best hopes yet for financial recovery.”
“The new Origin 3000 server is the rallying cry for SGI’s return
to its roots: slick, high-powered computers that wow technical
computing users. It took several years for the company to shed its
grander ambitions, but analysts believe SGI will be more successful
in this niche market than in trying to take on giants such as Sun
Microsystems, IBM and Hewlett-Packard….”
“The Origin 3000 is the first SGI machine that will accommodate
Intel’s new Itanium chip, the first of a family of 64-bit CPUs
called IA-64. And though IA-64 has been delayed again, SGI isn’t
complaining….”
“However, there are some limits to the SGI Itanium machine.
For one thing, it will run Linux, and Linux won’t work well beyond
a 16-processor configuration, Silverman said. However, he added,
more processors can be used as long as they run a separate instance
of the operating system.“