SGI, Intergraph form alliance

Silicon Graphics Inc. and Intergraph Computer Systems announced Friday that

they will form a $100 million supercomputer strategic alliance.

The agreement calls for Intergraph to purchase SGI equipment and services

over a three-year period, and SGI will market the Intergraph Zx10 family

of ViZual workstations and servers under the SGI brand.

The agreement enables both companies to benefit from the other's top-line

products and expertise, according to a statement. Equipment Intergraph will

purchase from SGI includes high-performance graphics workstations and software.

Specific details of the alliance will be released within the next 60

days.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for both companies," said Greg Goelz,

SGI's vice president for workstations and IA servers. "The Zx10 systems

complement our current product offerings very well and enable us to expand

our solution offerings for the digital content creation, print and publishing,

visual simulation and manufacturing markets."

Intergraph's chief executive officer, Jim Taylor, described the alliance

as a natural fit.

"By offering SGI and Intergraph technology to our customers, we provide

a single source for software, services and hardware with the performance

levels that our applications require and our customers need," Taylor said.