Product News |
February 25, 1999 |
Silicon Graphics Introduces CPU for MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, Feb. 22 -- Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) has introduced a new high-performance 300 MHz MIPS® R12000® processor for the company's mid-range OCTANE® visual workstations. According to SGI, the new CPU enables the OCTANE systems to deliver 35 percent better performance, based on industry-standard benchmarks. The company has also announced that it will offer customers a credit of up to $7,500 toward the purchase of a new OCTANE when they trade in any competitive UNIX system. SGI says that the 300 MHz R12000 CPU is fully binary- and pin-compatible with its predecessor, the MIPS R10000 processor. The new CPU is designed to be easily and cost-effectively integrated into any existing OCTANE system running IRIX® 6.5. The company says that for $4,500 (U.S. list), customers can upgrade an OCTANE system and -- in some cases -- realize a 106-percent performance increase. The MIPS R12000 is also designed to run any IRIX application without requiring developers to recompile code. According to Silicon Graphics, the new processor will benefit users of advanced applications such as CATIA® from Dassault Systemes. CATIA solutions are widely used in the automotive and aerospace industries for creating digital prototypes. "By continuing to advance the performance of its hardware platform, Silicon Graphics provides CATIA customers with the most advanced environments available, enabling fast time-to-market and a greater return on investment," said Severin Lanfranchi, director of CATIA Foundation Frameworks, Dassault Systemes. "On standard tests used to evaluate CPU performance, the 300 MHz R12000 OCTANE delivers average gains of 25 percent on frequently used, CPU-intensive CATIA applications." SGI added that the OCTANE architecture has been enhanced to improve application performance of the R12000-based systems. The secondary cache size has been doubled from 1MB to 2MB. In addition, says the company, OCTANE systems will support twice the main memory capacity (4GB) as higher density memory becomes available. | |