Performance and Scalability Packed into New Widely Affordable High-Density Server and Storage Solutions

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (July 11, 2005)—As more high-performance computing (HPC) users flee costly proprietary solutions for those based on industry-standard technologies, Silicon Graphics (NYSE: SGI) today unveiled rackmounted servers and storage systems with its lowest-ever price tag and easily scalable form factor. The powerful new combination enables SGI to bring its acclaimed application performance advantages to more users than ever before.

For the first time, SGI's newly designed systems provide the best of two worlds: the advantages of expand-on-demand rackmountable systems and the productivity boosts that come only with unique SGI high-performance server and storage advances - at price points suited for broader use.

Entry priced¹ under $7,000 (U.S. list) the SGI® Altix® 330 server packs the performance² of the world's fastest Linux server family into a compact 1U (1.75"), high-density chassis practically the size of a pizza box. The SGI® InfiniteStorage S330 storage array is also priced for a workgroup with an entry point of $12,599 (U.S. list) - high-end performance and functionality at less than half the price of previous SGI storage offerings. While small in size, the new products deliver SGI's renowned commitment to HPC-class performance and flexible scalability. These new price points allow users to rely on the Altix 330 and S330 for a broader range of applications and will enable SGI Solution Providers more opportunities to sell SGI technology.

"SGI systems have traditionally sold into higher-end segments of the technical server markets, and with what many users view as a price premium for additional capabilities." said Earl Joseph, vice president of Technical Computer Systems, IDC. "By moving a version of its supercomputer-class technology into systems that fall squarely in the mid-range workgroup category, SGI is demonstrating that differentiation is not only possible in the commodity space, but it can be intriguing to users who need far more than a low-cost solution."

The new SGI Altix 330 and SGI InfiniteStorage S330 systems round out the company's portfolio of low-cost server, storage and visualization products. (See also announced today: SGI Drives Down Price of Acclaimed Server, Storage and Visualization Solutions.)

"With so many customers moving to Linux and away from systems based on proprietary processor architectures, the time is right for SGI to broaden its market for Altix systems and InfiniteStorage solutions," said Warren Pratt, senior vice president, SGI. "These solutions, packaged for today's cost-conscious customers, deliver the kind of performance that many customers felt was previously out of their reach. At the same time, customers can protect their current open-systems solution investments by deploying servers and storage arrays built on industry standards and scalable to the height of today's computing capability."

Supercomputing for the Masses
The SGI Altix 330 leverages the same high-bandwidth SGI® NUMAflex® shared-memory architecture, its fast SGI® NUMAlink® interconnect (6.4GB/s bi-directional) and high-availability data management capabilities as the Altix systems that power SGI's record-setting supercomputers. With an ultra-compact form factor of only 1.75 inches high, Altix 330 requires just a single 1U slot on a rack, enabling users to stack up to 17 servers into a standard 17U rack and up to 39 servers into a standard 39U rack.

SGI Altix 330 systems can be equipped with one or two Intel® Itanium® 2 processors running at 1.3GHz to 1.6GHz, on-chip cache ranging from 3MB to 6MB, up to 16GB of system memory. The Altix 330 has the capability of scaling up to 16 processors with NUMAlink and up to 128GB of memory - far greater memory than many competitive systems.

Supporting the same applications as all of Altix systems, Altix 330 will offer users the flexibility of running Novell's SUSE® LINUX Enterprise Server and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® implementations. Altix 330 also offers users the SGI® ProPack™ software option, which offers additional performance and functionality enhancements for SUSE® LINUX Enterprise Server Linux environments.

Scalable Storage for Altix 330 and Workgroup Environments
The new SGI InfiniteStorage S330 disk array is an enterprise-class storage solution at a price that makes sense for small- to medium-scale workgroup environments. While a low-cost solution offering features and functionality that users expect from mid-range storage products, the S330 offers superior performance, data protection and availability in an easily scalable package.

The S330 is adept at sustaining data transfer rates of up to 485MB/second for bandwidth-intensive applications such as video streaming and seismic processing , and at delivering efficient input/output performance for transactional applications such as databases and OLTP (online transactions processing).

Unlike most systems in its class, the S330 allows users to store and manage from 2.8TB to more than 16TB of data in direct-attached storage (DAS), network-attached storage (NAS), or storage area network (SAN) configurations. This scalability and flexibility is designed for users who depend on the ability to efficiently storage and manage data.

For Altix 330 users, S330 storage arrays can be configured in the same rack as the servers they support. The S330 also features management software to monitor performance, while an enterprise management window provides a comprehensive view of all S330 systems in the management domain.

Resellers Poised to Sell New SGI Servers and Storage
Global resellers, system integrators and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are poised to take SGI Altix 330 servers and S330 storage arrays to their customers. Resellers have indicated they see immediate value in bringing to market SGI's renowned server and storage technology to a broad audience seeking leading price/performance and a cost-effective way to introduce SGI technology to their workgroup environments.

To make it easier than ever to obtain Altix 330 servers, SGI intends to offer "Quick Ship" options on two basic dual-processor configurations with 2GB of memory and a 160GB hard drive. SGI anticipates that Quick Ship units will ship within three business days of order acceptance. The units will ship within three business days of order receipt. SGI will also customize Quick Ship configurations as requested; shipping times may vary based on the configuration.

SGI Altix 330 midrange servers and SGI InfiniteStorage 330 storage disk arrays will be available this summer through SGI sales offices and SGI Solution Providers worldwide. For additional pricing and product information visit: www.sgi.com/partners/resellers.

SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery™
SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc., is the world's leader in high-performance computing, visualization and storage. SGI's vision is to provide technology that enables the most significant scientific and creative breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether it's sharing images to aid in brain surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate, providing technologies for homeland security and defense or enabling the transition from analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to addressing the next class of challenges for scientific, engineering and creative users. With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at www.sgi.com.

Silicon Graphics, SGI, Altix, the SGI cube and the SGI logo are registered trademarks and The Source of Innovation and Discovery are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Intel and Itanium are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. Novell is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. SUSE is a trademark of SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, a Novell business. Red Hat is a registered trademark of Red Hat, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

This news release contains forward-looking statements regarding SGI technologies and third-party technologies that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements. The reader is cautioned not to rely unduly on these forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of future or current performance. Such risks and uncertainties include long-term program commitments, the performance of third parties, the sustained performance of current and future products, financing risks, the ability to integrate and support a complex technology solution involving multiple providers and users, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's most recent SEC reports, including its reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q.

¹ All prices mentioned are in U.S. Dollars based on entry-level U.S. list pricing. Prices may vary depending on configuration. Prices subject to change.
² In tests based on SPECfp_rate_2000) 47.5 2 copy rate run on a 2 processor Altix 330 machine results that have been submitted. For more information on SPEC CPU2000 benchmarks, visit www.spec.org.