These were not standalone workstations, but rather raster display units intended to be connected to more general-purpose machines like the DEC VAX. SGI released its first-generation IRIS systems (models 10) in 1984. The Geometry Engine managed 3D modeling primitives at the hardware level - the geometry pipelines that handled model space to screen space viewing transformations.
SILICON GRAPHICS ONYX 2 SOFTWARE
Having achieved his Masters in electronics and software engineering, Kuta joined Clark and helped design the Geometry Engine. He later moved on to work for Digital Equipment (DEC) and then Sun Microsystems.Īnother key player in the founding of Silicon Graphics was Charles Kuta. Brown created the "PM1" processor boards for the first SGI workstations. Clark also co-founded Mosaic / Netscape.ĭavid Brown, another Stanford alumnus and co-founder of SGI, had previously helped develop the SUN workstation over 10 years prior to the founding of Sun Microsystems. He also created the RealityEngine for the Crimson and Onyx "visualization supercomputers" and was integral in the development of the OpenGL graphics specification.įrom left to right: Jim Barksdale, Marc Andreessen, and James Clark in 1995. Among them was Kurt Akeley, who engineered the frame buffers and processor subsystems in the first SGI IRIS terminals and the CAD systems used to develop them. On his departure from Stanford, Clark took seven talented graduate students with him. James Clark left his job at Stanford University, where he was an associate professor of electrical engineering with the vision of creating powerful computers that could perform the complex computations required in 3D animation. Silicon Graphics got its start in a day when most people did not even have a home computer. Up to 16 racks could be connected together and act like a single computer. SGI's Onyx2 system (1996) contained 8 MIPS R10000 CPUs, 16GB RAM and two graphics pipelines. The legacy of Silicon Graphics can still be seen in the Nintendo 64, which they helped develop, and several Hollywood movies, including Jurassic Park, Twister, Congo, Toy Story, and many others, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. That's because SGI was dedicated to manufacturing high-performance workstations, software design, and supercomputers for professionals specializing in 3D graphics.Īt its peak in the 1990s, Silicon Graphics had legendary status among 3D and graphic designers who leveraged the unique power of these workstations that were at cutting edge of visual computing. The name “Silicon Graphics” is printed above the words “Computer Systems” in the upper left-hand section of the system’s front face.You may have heard of SiliconGraphics, later known as Silicon Graphics, Inc, and then simply SGI, but few home users outside of an enthusiastic hobbyist community ever used its computers. The Silicon Graphics Onyx system includes the name “Onyx” in capital letters in the upper right-hand corner of the system’s front face. Some third parties are licensed to manufacture these memory modules, which are available in 16 MB, 64 MB, and 256 MB sizes. The Onyx system uses proprietary memory modules, which are patented by Silicon Graphics. A deskside Onyx system can hold one CPU board (up to four CPUs) while a rackmount Onyx system can hold up to six boards for a total of 24 CPUs. One CPU board can hold up to four R4400 or R10000 processors, and up to two R8000 processors. The system was sold with four processor families, the R4400, R8000, and R10000. The SGI Onyx remains a powerful graphics server that can have up to four CPUs and four raster managers. The SGI Onyx was succeeded by the SGI Onyx2 in 1996 and was discontinued in March 1999. Because the technology was so new at the time, the Onyx was noted as the main factor for the high price for such development kits (USD $100,000 to USD $250,000). The Onyx system was employed in 1995 for development kits used to produce software for the Nintendo 64. The Onyx’s system architecture is based on the SGI Challenge servers, but also includes graphics hardware. The SGI Onyx was introduced in 1993 and sold in two models, deskside and rackmount. (SGI), an American high-performance computing manufacturer that produces computer hardware and software.
SILICON GRAPHICS ONYX 2 SERIES
The SGI Onyx (or Silicon Graphics Onyx) is a series of visualization systems designed and produced by Silicon Graphics, Inc.
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