“SGI is holding off on porting its own Unix operating system to
Intel’s Merced chip, preferring to use Linux.”
“‘We have not closed the door finally on [Irix, SGI’s version of
Unix, on Intel], but the current feeling from an applications
standpoint is that Linux is the right answer,’ said Hank Shiffman,
strategy technologist at SGI. ‘Given the resources we have, we have
to focus on just one [operating system] and that one is
Linux.'”
“SGI’s strategy has reversed since April 1998, when chief
executive Rick Belluzzo outlined SGI’s relationship with Intel. In
a statement, the company said then: ‘By porting the Irix operating
system to Intel’s IA64 architecture debuting in the Merced
processor, Silicon Graphics [since renamed SGI] will provide new
choices for customers.'”