SGI cuts 4-processor system prices to under $1M

Mountain View, 17 November 97 Silicon Graphics and Cray Research price the immediate available 64-processor CRAY Origin2000 Varsity configuration, specifically tailored for the education market. Priced below the one-million dollar mark (U.S. List Price), this system simplifies the purchase approval cycles for academic organizations, and will result in many departments now being able to acquire and directly manage dedicated computing resources.

The high-end Varsity configuration includes 64 180 Mhz processors and 8 Gbyte of RAM. Based on U.S. list pricing and a standard educational discount, the system retails for under $1,000,000. The alternative Varsity configurations include 32 180 Mhz processors and 4 Gbyte of RAM for under $500,000 and 16 180 Mhz processors with 2 Gbyte of RAM for under $250,000. These systems are also based on U.S. list pricing and a standard educational discount. With expandable processor, memory, and I/O power, CRAY Origin2000 systems offer true system-wide scalability. The innovative "pay-as-you-grow" design means that Origin2000 Varsity systems can be confidently expanded without compromising system performance. The high-bandwidth, scalable CrayLinkTM system interconnect and high-bandwidth XIO I/O subsystem guarantee customers a platform that can fully exploit the evolving processor, memory, and I/O technologies. As faster processors become available, Origin2000 Varsity customers can be assured optimal performance.

In separate announcements today, the company announced the introduction of the Cray T3E-1200 system, volume availability of its CRAY Origin2000 64-processor systems and record application performance. The modular cc-NUMA Origin server line provides a simple building-block approach that scales from one- to 128-processor configurations and leads the industry in performance, bandwidth, I/O, scalability and cost structure in a true 64-bit environment. Over 10,000 systems have been sold since its introduction in October 1996.

Sandra Wermer