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Giving up IRIX for WinNT? Well. Death to the unbelievers I say. I never forgot the shock when they had those ads with ther PeeCees in the computer magazines.

Giving up IRIX for WinNT? Well. Death to the unbelievers I say. I never forgot the shock when they had those ads with ther PeeCees in the computer magazines. Up until that point SGI and SUN where kind of the good guys to me. Now, how could they have done it differently? I'd say: build up the lead in gaming consoles and developer workstations they had ad the time. IRIX/MIPS had also some technical advantages over Linux-Clusters in some niches like military simulations. They could have become some sort of NVidia in our days. Does any one has a more qualified strategy / commentary about SGI's demise in the markets to offer? Thanks.

donw 18y ago
Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but were I SGI, back when PCs had just started getting to the point of running true 3D games, I would have had the company enter the graphics-card market. The SGI name could have easily carried a premium price-tag, and could have provided a compelling upgrade line for customers when PCs just didn't cut the mustard any longer. This would have also let SGI position themselves to sell Maya across-the-board, giving them yet another solid revenue stream, and could have also let them jump into the console market, becoming the graphics vendor that powered the PlayStation, Sega Genesis, and so on.
- bbgm 18y ago
  Well in a way that's what happened, but that company was Nvidia not SGI, since many of their folks left to join NVidia.
sgoraya 18y ago
SGI clearly had the cutting edge graphics technology and hardware - In my mind, the 3D video cards killed them very quickly and made SGI obsolete. As you may recall, when the 3Dfx Voodoo's were hitting the market, SGI did nothing at all, thinking that they still had the market cornered. Then came ATI, Creative, Nvidia etc. Back then there was the delineation between 'gaming' video cards and 'workstation' video cards, the latter having the premium price. SGI could have positioned themselves in both areas, especially the workstation cards. It was a classic case of a large, entrenched, slow moving company getting thwarted by startups. Too slow or unwilling to act / react...
- dangoldin 18y ago
  Part of it may have been that they didn't want to cannibalize their current business so didn't really know what to do. At that time the 3d cards were low end and not a direct threat. A great example of the "Innovator's Dilemma"
- samlittlewood 18y ago
  It seems a pretty good example of how important talent is vs. the shingle outside the door. 3dfx was founded by ex. SGI talent - Gary Tarolli, Ross Smith and Scott Sellers. (Garry Tarolli wrote dogfight)

donw 18y ago

Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but were I SGI, back when PCs had just started getting to the point of running true 3D games, I would have had the company enter the graphics-card market. The SGI name could have easily carried a premium price-tag, and could have provided a compelling upgrade line for customers when PCs just didn't cut the mustard any longer. This would have also let SGI position themselves to sell Maya across-the-board, giving them yet another solid revenue stream, and could have also let them jump into the console market, becoming the graphics vendor that powered the PlayStation, Sega Genesis, and so on.

bbgm 18y ago
Well in a way that's what happened, but that company was Nvidia not SGI, since many of their folks left to join NVidia.

sgoraya 18y ago

SGI clearly had the cutting edge graphics technology and hardware - In my mind, the 3D video cards killed them very quickly and made SGI obsolete. As you may recall, when the 3Dfx Voodoo's were hitting the market, SGI did nothing at all, thinking that they still had the market cornered. Then came ATI, Creative, Nvidia etc. Back then there was the delineation between 'gaming' video cards and 'workstation' video cards, the latter having the premium price. SGI could have positioned themselves in both areas, especially the workstation cards. It was a classic case of a large, entrenched, slow moving company getting thwarted by startups. Too slow or unwilling to act / react...

dangoldin 18y ago
Part of it may have been that they didn't want to cannibalize their current business so didn't really know what to do. At that time the 3d cards were low end and not a direct threat. A great example of the "Innovator's Dilemma"
samlittlewood 18y ago
It seems a pretty good example of how important talent is vs. the shingle outside the door. 3dfx was founded by ex. SGI talent - Gary Tarolli, Ross Smith and Scott Sellers. (Garry Tarolli wrote dogfight)