US Report: SGI to boost performance of workstations and cut prices

The company will offer the new 250MHz MIPS R10000 processor on its O2 line, boosting performance by about 30 percent, according to officials.

An O2 workstation based on the chip and including a 32-bit graphics subsystem, 1MB of secondary cache, 64MB of memory, a 9GB SCSI hard drive and a CD-ROM drive will sell for $14,495 (£8,840) with a 17-inch monitor.

In addition, SGI will update its Octane line with the 250MHz processors and its E-Series graphics subsystem, previously available only on Octane MXE workstations. A 225MHz R10000-based Octane/SE will replace 175MHz and 195MHz /SI models as the entry-level configuration in the Octane line up.

The new model will be offered with 1MB of secondary cache, 128MB of memory, a 4GB SCSI hard disk and a 20-inch monitor for $19,995 (£12,195). SGI will also offer the new 250MHz MIPS R10000 Octane/SE and Octane/SSE in place of its Octane/SI and Octane/SSI models, officials said.

SGI will reduce prices on some workstation models by up to 28 percent, including the 195MHz MIPS R10000 O2 workstation, which will fall from $14,495 (£8,840) to $10,495 (£6,399).

A UK spokesman could not confirm whether the price changes affect the UK. Confirmation is expected by 1pm when we will post a follow up report.