In a swirling multimedia presentation paced at a rate of about 200 MHz
(coincidentally, the current clock speed of the new R10000 microprocessor)
Silicon Graphics' President and Chief Operating Officer Tom Jermoluk told
newspeople and analysts about a full range of new products based on the R10K,
as SGI staffers call it, and the slower, less expensive R5000.
  But that was no surprise. After the recent unveiling of the new processors
from MIPS Technologies, an SGI subsidiary, it was widely expected that SGI
would follow soon with a launch of new products.
  The bigger news: SGI, which stimulated dismay and loathing throughout the
HPC vendor community when it announced unprecedented, low price levels in
1993, has done it again.
  Price reductions are especially conspicuous for the PowerChallenge series,
which SGI refers to as "supercomputing servers."
  Dual processor entry-level PowerChallenge systems with the R8000, standard
since 1993, were priced at $129,000. Machines with the same configuration,
equipped with the more powerful R10K, will now sell for $89,000.
  Four-processor systems, $178,000 with the R8000, have dropped to $138,000
for the new R10000 models.
  Prices now increase linearly at $25,000 per additional processor, in
contrast to $45,000 per processor for the R8000 version.
  Jermoluk said that these new products will be available for quantity
shipment in March.

WIDER SCOPE, BROADER WORLD REACH
  Price reductions thus range from 31 or 23 percent for smaller systems
(which must finance the cost of basic infrastructure) to 45 percent for
add-on processors.
  This is not a fire sale, but an expression of SGI's strategy of expanding
the market scope of high-performance computing as well as its geographic
reach. The chosen weapons are aggressive price reductions as well as steady
improvements in performance.
  An SGI spokesperson noted that, for example, major automotive manufacturers
have long used high-performance systems to simulate air flow and crash
resistance and speed up the design/prototyping/production cycle.
  The availability of low-priced, reliable, powerful high-performance systems
has coincided with increasingly fashionable requirements that parts suppliers
adopt just-in-time delivery procedures. This is no longer just a matter of
changing shipping schedules and inventory policies. Parts suppliers are also
being required to accept design responsibilities that had previously been
carried out by the assembler.
   As a result, SGI high-performance systems are now being used by suppliers
and subcontractors for tasks like the design of windshield wipers and
improved clean rooms.
  SGI's geographical horizon has been enlarged to include countries like
Poland (more than a dozen sales) the Czech Republic (also more than 12),
Mexico, Singapore, China, Argentina and a number of other locations new to
high-performance computing.
  Some of these sales have been made for fossil fuel exploration and
exploitation -- a well-established field for high-performance computing. SGI
systems are also being deployed for a wide range of other duties.

DIFFERENT CHIPS, SAME CONTEXT
  Adding to the overall capabilities of PowerChallenge systems without
redesign of basic components has been made easier by the differences between
the R8000 and R10000 designs.
  The R8000 is a dual-chip microprocessor that was launched as an interim
solution to demands for high floating-point performance. It occupies two
microprocessor spaces on the PowerChallenge boards (also used in SGIs'
Challenge series, aimed primarily at the commercial market sector).
PowerChallenge machines were consequently limited to a maximum of 18
processors.
  This ceiling has been raised to 36 processors for the new PowerChallenge
10000. Boards can now accommodate two R10000 microprocessors without
changing other basic design features.
  Additional variants have been added to the PowerChallenge line and its
Challenge counterpart:
  -- The Power Challenge 10000 GR model, which is configured to accommodate
SGI's new Infinite Reality graphics system (which is itself a very powerful
parallel computer). SGI believes that tight coupling of high computational
capabilities with fast graphics will make it easier for scientists and other
users to speed up turn-around times and integrate visualization more
organically into their research.
  Customers can buy the GR version without adding the graphics package, which
can be purchased later when needs (or new money) are found.
  In contrast to SGI's top-end Onyx visualization systems, the GR is aimed
at researchers and others for whom visualization is a crucial tool but not
the central focus of computation. This contrasts with applications like
animation and the design of products for manufacture. In these cases,
visualization is central to the entire process, so a machine like the Onyx
may be the preferred solution.
  -- SGI has ventured into the field of fault tolerance with a new product,
IRIS Fail Safe, that provides fail-over capabilities for multiple Challenge
servers. For example, two Challenge servers may be working on totally
different applications, but each maintains a mirrored reflection of the
other's computational flow.
  If one is disabled through a system failure, power outage, or other cause,
the other is able to carry on the work without interruption -- while
continuing to accomplish its own task. Jermoluk told the news conference that
the IRIS Fail Safe feature adds about 20 percent to the cost of the systems
on which it is installed.
  Another SGI spokesperson explained that paired systems need not be side by
side but can be separated by a distance typical of the placement of
buildings on a corporate campus.
  The Challenge server line has been upgraded and broadened to include
models based on the R10K and R5000 processors. The Challenge S servers are
said to be the "first fully configured Web server for under $10,000."
  Occupying the Filene's Basement of SGI's multiprocessor products: the
Challenge DM system, a scalable server with one to four 200 MHz R4400
processors. Its price has been reduced 25 percent to $30,000.

GENERAL-PURPOSE MICROPROCESSOR
  Observers focused on the scientific/engineering market have expressed
concerns that the R10000, designed as a multi-processor chip with high
integer as well as floating-point performance, would not be strong enough on
the floating-point side to satisfy the always-growing appetites of
high-performance users.
  SGI claims performance improvement of about 1.4 times over the R8000,
depending upon the application and other variables.
  Further performance increases are anticipated later this year, when SGI's
chip-development subsidiary, MIPS Technology, completes work on a new
compiler optimized for the R10000.
  The R10000 chips now going into production will operate at 200 MHz.
Additional boosts in performance are anticipated when 275 MHz variants become
available later in 1996.

HEAVY-DUTY VIZ BIZ
  Despite its rapid and successful expansion into new market sectors like
high-performance computing, commercial markets (total sales of Challenge
multiprocessor servers are said to have reached 10,000) and Web servers, SGI
still defines itself as a company wedded forever to the viz biz. This is not
only a matter of corporate tradition. Visualization is highly profitable.
Asked about sales so far of PowerChallenge servers, an SGI spokesperson
characterized them as "in the thousands."
  Another SGI officer said recently that sales of SGI's Onyx and PowerOnyx
top-end visualization systems (essentially a Challenge compute engine
coupled closely to a high-end graphics processor) have totaled 8,000 units.
  SGI has made a word game out of attaching increasingly extravagant names
to its successive models of fast graphics systems. Jermoluk was especially
enthusiastic about the new Onyx Infinite Reality, which was described as
"the world's fastest and most innovative visualization server."
  A company announcement asserted that "For complex visualization
applications, Onyx InfiniteReality systems are up to 100 times faster than
the Onyx RealityEngine2 graphics supercomputer."
  The R10000 has been integrated into the Onyx system. It is said to deliver
more than twice the compute power of Onyx systems with the R4400 processor.
The Onyx is available in configurations from two to 24 R10000s or R4400s.
From one to three Infinite Reality or Reality Engine2 graphics subsystems can
be plugged into these multiprocessor configurations.

WORKSTATIONS HIGH AND LOW
  SGI made its reputation with graphics workstations, and these remain a
major source of revenue.
  The latest announcements include the Indigo2 IMPACT 10000, which
incorporates the R10000 microprocessor. Performance is said to be two or
three times as high as previous systems with the R4400 processor.
  Indigo2 High IMPACT 10000 and Indigo2 Maximum IMPACT 10000 systems are to
be available during the second quarter of 1996, priced at $43,000 and
$55,000.
  Another model, still using the R4400 chip (at 200 MHz), is the Solid
IMPACT, specifically designed for 3-D solid modeling. It is said to provide
four times the overall graphics performance of its predecessor, the Indigo2
XZ, at a lower price -- $22,000.
  The simpler, less costly R5000 chip will be used for new models in SGI's
Indy line.
  New products are said to outperform previous Indys by up to 97 percent on
3-D graphics and up to 86 percent in CPU performance.
  Indys are now available at prices from $6,500 with a relatively slow 33 MHz
R4600 microprocessor to $14,000 for a 180 MHz R5000SC (meaning that it
has a secondary cache).
  SGI also announced an integrated authoring server for content creation on
the Web. Called IndyStudio, it includes an Indy server plus a package of six
authoring applications said to be worth $4,500.
  In an introductory offer good until June 30, the entire bundle is priced
at $14,000.

----------------------------
Norris Parker Smith  is a journalist who specializes in
HPC and high bandwidth communications. Reader comments are welcome.