[rescue] Another fine business decision for us axp-lovers

[Björn Ramqvist]

"Joshua D. Boyd" wrote:
> 
> I'd say that the Octane2 is "up to date".  It is also nearly USD$50k at
> the low end the last I looked.  That is probably why it isn't selling.
> 
> I don't get why you would say that it isn't upto date (and by extension
> imply that the Octane and O2 aren't).  All the lowerend SGI workstations
> run a reasonably clock rates, and except for the O2, they all can pump
> reasonably competitive amounts of polygons.  And to my understanding,
> nothing has yet matched the O2s texturing capabilities.  I mean, if I
> wanted 256megs of texture memory, I don't know of any way other than an O2
> or an Onyx2 or better to get it.

Probably because the fact that the Octane-series is based on the same
175MHz R10k Octane that made it's debut in '96-'97, and that's 4-5 years
ago. From what I've been told the only difference is in the processors,
graphics and perhaps some backplane-specific chips. Oh.. and the
blue-ish skin. Same box, but turbocharged with a butt-ugly "SGi" logo.

Somehow that's "peecee-thinking" IMO; a high-end Pentigrum-II
"workstation" is nowhere near capable of running 1.7GHz P4's with a
single processormodule swap. Infact, a whole box-swap would be more
simple. So, in that case, many of the customers thinks that the Octane
looks "dead" and "obsolete", where you infact can upgrade it to current
technology with some simple boardswaps. (and ofcourse blow a hole in you
pocket)
Although, IMO there's no need to upgrade the Octane above the mid-level
specs, cause of it's enormous I/O power. If you need the
latest-and-greatest in graphics, and where money is not an issue, you
could afford a smaller Onyx2 and get some serious graphics horsepower
with guaranteed "investment protection".

Why Sillycone Graphics still keeps their highpriced attitude against
market is a mystery to me.

/Bjorn