SGI has introduced a new server family, beginning with the SGI 1400, marking the company’s first Intel-based servers.
The SGI 1400L for Linux and the SGI 1400M for Windows NT are the first products in the family to be released, although more servers, such as two-way rack-optimized servers as well as an eight-way server, will appear over the next 12 months.
Previously, all of SGI’s servers have been based on MIPS Technologies processors. The addition of other products — with Intel chips and Linux operating systems — was a simple choice for SGI, according to Courtney Carr, product manager for SGI in Mountain View, Calif.
“It was critical to adopt the industry standards that drive entry-level server markets,” she explained. “We thought it was important to add the two de facto standards in the entry-level space with Microsoft NT and then also Linux.”
Customers now have an option.
“What we hear from our customers is that it’s very challenging for them to find one operating system that fit all their needs,” Carr said.
