I sat in on a demonstration of an SGI mainframe not too long ago. It was doing rendering in real-time to 3 projectors lined up in a 180 degree theatre...pretty darn amazing. They used it to demonstrate applications in architecture (very cool), flight simulators and other areas. It was a most impressive machine....I cannot remember the name of it. Where I lived their primary market was Universities and oil companies. On Thu, 19 Oct 2000, you wrote: > Hi Michael, > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Michael R. Jinks" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2000 8:58 AM > Subject: Re: BeOs > > > > I've wondered about this myself. SGI based a significant portion of > > their business on multimedia Unix boxes; granted the OS they used was > > IRIX and the platform was mostly MIPS, and SGI is now headed directly for > > the dustbin, so I wouldn't recommend that anybody actually buy an SGI > > machine for anything real these days. (On that note, Be ain't doing so > > hot either last I checked.) > > A few notes about the whole IRIX, MIPS, graphics thing: > > First, If you were implying that IRIX is some arcane, off-the-wall OS that > doesn't resemble any other OS, than your incorrect. IRIX is a full Unix > flavor and you can thank IRIX for the rc.d system we enjoy in Linux. > > SGI boxes achieve their high graphics performance through two things: a) > very high bandwidth i/o and b) not using Xwindows at all! The graphics > functions are handed off to a 'graphics pipe' which is essentially a > computer-on-a-board that does nothing but render images to a display. > Xwindows is used as a terminal for configuration and often isn't even > installed. > > As far as being 'headed directly for the dustbin,' I think it's a little > premature to write off SGI. True, anything's possible in the 'wild west' > financial market, but SGI can still do things that no one else can, and some > of their new products look very promising (www.networkcomputing.com has done > some write ups on Linux recently and were very impressed with SGI's Linux > servers). > > > But SGI proved it could be done long before there was a BeOS. Linux seems > > to be going pretty strong these days, modern hardware is fast enough to > get > > around some of X's bottlenecks (provided you're running X server and > client > > on the same machine, at least), or there are some alternative windowing > > systems coming up (I've not tried any of them) which promise better > > performance than X can put out. > > > > A lot of the development in recent kernel versions has promoted > multimedia. > > Video now has kernel-level support depending on the card you have. Sound > > has been getting better. > > > The problem isn't hardware; it's drivers. > > I think it was put best in an interview with an Nvidia engineer (I don't > remember his name); he said 'we've had ten years to develop Windows drivers > and less than one year to develop drivers for Linx.' All it takes is time > for Linux development to mature. > > You are correct, however that xwindows can be a bottleneck. > > > As SGI spirals downward, they appear to be trying to get as much of their > > technology out in the open as they can, before the company goes away. > > Probably the best example of this is their release of IRIX's filesystem > > and volume management software into open source, but there has been other > > stuff as well IIRC. > > Again, you are corect, but for the wrong reason. SGI is refocusing on their > core strengths and they regard Linux as an essential part of their > strategy. SGI has not only open sourced some of their software, but they > have released entire lines of new machines that run Linux. They have also > pushed Nvidia to support Linux (see www.tomshardware.com for a review of > Nvidia's graphics drivers) and I as a Geforce owner, thank them. SGI's > basic strategy is this: IRIX for the high end, Linux for the middle/low end, > and NT/Solaris for clients. > > I know I'm being a little defensive and I apologise; and no I'm not an SGI > employee. I do work with SGI boxes, however, and can testify to their > potential. Besides, I view anyone that truly supports Linux, rather than > ride on it's coattails (*cough* Dell *cough*) as someone worth supporting in > return. > > $0.02 > > Kevin > > > > _______________________________________________ > Redhat-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list -- Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity. -- Alvy Ray Smith -------------------------------------------------------- This mail proudly composed and transmitted without the interference of any Micro$oft products or protocols. -------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Redhat-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
