SGI shows off new server

Silicon Graphics Inc. on Wednesday announced its new 1100 server, a high-performance machine that's already being used by 25 departments at a major New York university.

The new server supports the Linux operating system as well as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 2000 and Windows NT. It can handle a broad range of technical and creative applications, such as electronic design automation, bioinformatics, rendering, digital publishing, Internet infrastructure, Web serving and electronic commerce.

Designed with maximum processor density and manageability in mind, the SGI 1100 server features:

A 1.75-inch chassis optimized for rack mounting. Support for up to two Intel Corp. Pentium III 800 MHz or 1 GHz processors. A 133 MHz front-side bus. Up to 2G of memory. Error-correcting cache memory that can be configured with external SCSI or Fibre Channel Redundant Array of Independent Disks for increased data protection. Remote management tools and easy-to-access internal bays for quick maintenance and lower total cost to own. One of the first installations of this server is at the State University of New York at Buffalo's Center for Computational Research. It is deployed there as a 152-processor Linux cluster and is one of the primary computers supporting 25 university departments, said Greg Slabodkin, public relations manager for SGI Federal.

The company said it has a "very large federal customer" lined up for the new server. The order, which will be announced this summer, consists of thousands of units sold to a systems integrator for a single government agency.

The SGI 1100 server will soon be available on the General Services Administration schedule, and prices start at $2,600. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is demonstrating the new server from Jan. 31 through Feb. 2 at LinuxWorld 2001 in New York.