End of the road for a visualisation giant - SGI leftovers sold to Rackable Systems
After decades of successful innovation, great products and great influence on the visualisation- and high performance computing market, books seems to be closing for the former giant SGI. As part of a deal with Freemont-based Rackable Systems, the remains of the company has been sold for USD 25 million. The story does not tell the future of the remaining 1200 employees of SGI, but given that Rackable Systems is a significantly smaller company (approx. 300 employees), it seems unlikly for them to absorb the workforce.
SGI has made some remarkable innovations over the years, including software such as OpenGL, OpenGL Inventor, OpenGL Performer, graphics engines such as RealityEngine, InfiniteReality(2 and 3), and products such as the mighty Indy and O2 workstations, Origin and Onyx supercomputers and during the later years the Altix linux-based computing powerhouse.
Its is sad that the company is gone, and there is indeed and opening in the market looking for a company to fill SGIs shoes in delivering great innovations that bring the market forward into new paradigms.
Anders Øvreseth
in Khronos, OpenGL, Performer, Rackable, SGI, Silicon Graphics, Visualisation hardware, Visualisation software, company news, hpc, linux
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Reader Comments (3)
You gave me some great years Silicon Graphics. Thanks.
Likewise, it was a great ride for many, many years!
I too had a great time at SGI, living through the heyday of the Indigo and Onyx in the 90s. "Serious fun". The people at the company were just fantastic, and their spirit really was etched into the silicon. I joined the company as a short-term contractor, but ended up as an employee who served for more than a decade. As Anders says "it was a great ride"!