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SGI WORKSTATIONS RAISE BAR W/ FASTER MIPS ENGINE

Silicon Graphics announced that its improved workstation lineup achieves a price/performance increase of up to 25 percent in the industry-leading Silicon Graphics Fuel and Tezro visual workstations. To attain the price/performance gains, SGI will deliver its Silicon Graphics Fuel and Tezro workstations with the new faster MIPS R16000A 800MHz processor. In addition, SGI has rolled out new lower pricing on 700MHz processor-based Silicon Graphics Fuel and Tezro systems, delivering increased value at industry-leading performance levels.

Every SGI visualization workstation delivers unparalleled application performance, productivity and image precision to customers in manufacturing, the sciences, defense, energy and media. To make this acclaimed visualization technology even more affordable, SGI will enable customers to trade up their older SGI workstations or competing Sun, HP or other UNIX OS-based workstations for the faster Silicon Graphics Fuel and Tezro workstations. SGI offers trade-up credits of up to $4,000 (U.S.) toward the purchase of eligible configurations.

"With a relentless commitment to satisfy the needs of the most demanding visualization customers, SGI continues to boost performance and price/performance of systems driven by highly regarded MIPS processors and the proven 64-bit IRIX operating environment," said Shawn Underwood, director, product marketing, Visual Systems Group, SGI. "By combining faster processors, attractive pricing and an aggressive trade-in program, we continue our commitment to provide our customers with industry-leading visualization tools."

Silicon Graphics Fuel and Tezro feature a range of MIPS processors, the unparalleled VPro 3D graphics system for the IRIX operating system and a high- bandwidth design based on SGI supercomputers. Due to their high- performance architecture, these workstations are designed to execute demanding applications for creative and technical users, while 48-bit RGBA provides the highest level of image precision available on any UNIX OS-based desktop system today. The single-processor Silicon Graphics Fuel visual workstation complements the Tezro visual workstation, which is offered in single, dual and quad-processor configurations.

Tezro: The Quad-Processor Price/Performance Leader

Tezro, launched in July 2003, delivers the best price/performance of any four- processor system on the market, along with superior graphics quality and performance, high-bandwidth architecture, and a full suite of professional digital media solutions. With a breakthrough entry price point for a system of this caliber, Tezro attains significantly higher value and higher performance with compute-intensive applications, advanced interactivity for high- resolution image manipulation, and real-time visualization of large data sets. Tezro also features industry-leading I/O connectivity for flexibility with storage and peripheral options.

Designed for creative and technical users seeking higher application performance and more advanced levels of capability, Tezro is the industry's only workstation to scale to up to four of the latest MIPS processors. It incorporates a revolutionary 64-bit desktop architecture based on SGI supercomputers, with high memory bandwidth and industry-leading I/O connectivity. Tezro features:

• Up to four 800MHz 16000A MIPS processors for CPU-intensive applications with 700 MHz R16000 MIPS processor configurations also available
• High-bandwidth architecture for high performance and interactivity on the desktop
• VPro V12 graphics for highest quality and visualization flexibility with 48-bit RGBA (or 12-bit per color component) with 16-bit Z buffer capability and support for up to 68 billion colors
• Two form factors designed for serviceability and deployability: a tower system for in-office computing and a rackmount system for flexible configurability
• Industry-leading I/O connectivity with up to seven PCI-X slots
• Richest and most powerful suite of digital media products on the desktop
• Ideal Visual Area Networking platform for personal (one-to-one) or team collaboration
• Up to 16GB memory capacity and Dual Head display capability on the rackmount configuration
• More than 3X price/performance improvement over the highly acclaimed Silicon Graphics Octane2 system

Silicon Graphics Fuel: The Leading Value in 64-bit Single-Processor Systems

The Silicon Graphics Fuel visual workstation delivers the industry's best price/performance value for a single-processor 64-bit system of its class. The Silicon Graphics Fuel visual workstation delivers 64-bit system performance and reliability at an aggressive price-point, along with a broad range of features:

• Single 800MHz R16000A MIPS processor or 700MHz R16000A MIPS processor
• VPro V10 or V12 graphics with 48-bit RGBA (or 12-bit per color component) with 16-bit Z buffer capability and support for up to 68 billion colors
• High memory bandwidth and graphics bandwidth on the desktop
• Dual Channel Display capability for double the screen real estate with a single graphics board at resolutions up to 1920x1200 at 72 Hz on each screen
• A wide range of peripheral options including internal DVD-ROM and four integrated PCI slots
• The fifth-generation 64-bit IRIX operating system offering industry- leading real-time response, serviceability and reliability

Benefits Across Multiple Industries

Silicon Graphics Fuel and Tezro workstations are crucial to power users in a wide range of industries:

• In manufacturing, they power high-end design, MCAE, MDO and workgroup visualization for the automotive and aerospace industries. They also benefit general manufacturing segments, such as bio-medical and consumer goods.
• In life and chemical sciences, they provide capabilities in differentiated visualization of large molecules, molecular dynamics and simulation, and quantum mechanics, which are computationally demanding.
• In government, they benefit many mission-critical defense activities, such as homeland security, defense imaging, and command and control centers working on complex simulations. -- In the media industries, digital content creators appreciate the higher bandwidth and faster processing of the workstations, providing performance and reliability to editing, compositing, and film mastering.

SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery

SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc., is the world's leader in high- performance computing, visualization and storage. SGI's vision is to provide technology that enables the most significant scientific and creative breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether it's sharing images to aid in brain surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate or enabling the transition from analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to addressing the next class of challenges for scientific, engineering and creative users. With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at http://www.sgi.com.