SGI livens up Linux

Silicon Graphics Inc. has unveiled its next-generation IA-32 workstations

that bring the company's trademark high-end graphics performance to the

Linux market.

The three new products, SGI's 230, 330 and 550 workstations, all feature

hardware texture mapping, which brings increased realism to 3-D models.

The performance has become a staple in the Microsoft Corp. Windows NT market,

but is being introduced for the first time to the Linux operating system,

said Ujesh Desai, SGI's IA-32 workstation line manager.

The 230 is SGI's first-ever entry-level model, while the 330 and 550

are the next-generation editions of the company's 320 and 540 workstations

that were introduced in the first quarter of last year [FCW, Jan. 11, 1999].

The new workstations ship with single or dual Intel Pentium III or Pentium

III Xeon processors, a 133 MHz front-side bus, up to 2G of main memory and

up to 80G of hard disk space. They are certified for Windows NT 4.0 and

Red Hat Linux 6.1 operating systems. Windows 2000 models should be available

in the next two months, Desai said.

SGI included security features exclusively for the federal market, including

three different locking mechanisms for the chassis to keep the hardware

secure, Desai said. SGI offers complete support for Linux-based systems.

Pricing for the 230, which is available immediately, begins at $2,725.

Pricing for the 330 and 550, which will begin shipping by the end of June,

begins at $3,825 and $4,825, respectively.