SGI Taps ATI For High-end Graphics

Published by

Silicon Graphics today announced a new high-end visualization machine line-up called Onyx4, that marks a major change for the company: reliance on mainstream video technology from ATI. On the desktop side of products SGI introduced the Tezro workstation. The new Onyx4 UltimateVision systems use ATI workstation video cards instead of the SGI-designed graphics systems the company has relied on for years, said Shawn Underwood, marketing director for SGI's visual systems. The systems start at less than $45,000 but in high-end configurations with 64 of SGI's MIPS 16000A processors cost well over $300,000. Rancho*: Interestingly SGI states on the "Configurations" subsite that Onyx4 systems have future compatibility with OpenGLĀ® 2.0. More over SGI does not reveal which ATI VPU is used in the Onyx4 setups. Let us assume that ATI has an OpenGL 2.0 (driver) present for us in the not too far away future...