Struggling enterprise hardware manufacturer SGI is basing its recovery plan around one word: Linux.
The California maker of high-end graphics workstations and servers is betting on the fast-growing operating system to win customers in both the desktop and server arenas.
Its first foray will be a new line of Linux graphics workstations costing between US$2,000 and $8,000 to be released by the first half of next year. That is much cheaper than its traditional high-end line of Irix workstations, which will continue to cost between $6,000 and $40,000.
'We are fully committed to Linux as a company,' David Frederick, senior market development manager at SGI, said.
SGI once dominated the performance market for hardware used to create computer animation and special effects as used by movie makers and architecture firms. But faced with ebbing market share as competitors introduced increasingly powerful Windows NT-based machines using cheap Intel processors, SGI released its first inexpensive line of Windows NT machines this year.
That foray failed to stanch SGI's losses. The company lost $115 million on revenues of $2.7 billion in the year to June 30, excluding a one-time gain.