No OpenGL support in Windows2000 ??

[Per Ekman]

klaatu <klaatu at clark.net> writes:

> On Thu, 2 Dec 1999, Will Schroeder wrote:
> 
> > Hi Simon-
> > 
> > A very interesting article, thanks for sending it along.
> 
> > 
> > Another nail in SGI's coffin, I'm afraid. And, I'm sure Microsoft will
> > generate it's usual share of animosity with this.
> 
> Actually, I can see SGI becoming much more profitable by tightening its
> focus into being very lean and mean, ditching most of its core hardware/OS
> business, and specializing on being the Very Best manufacturer of extreme
> high-end graphics cards. They've clearly got the personnel and experience
> and if they started aggressively courting the sort of government and
> research folks who can spend top-dollar on hardware but who prefer the
> cost-free Open Source OSen, I think they can carve out a handsome little
> niche.

I think this would be a big mistake. A high end graphics card by itself
can only do so much, what is needed in the high end is balanced machines
with good I/O performance and memory bandwidth coupled with good graphics.
It's apparent that SGI have a hard time competing with the PC graphics card
manufacturers, nVidia designs sell by the millions and so they can afford to
put in a lot of effort into putting together the fastest chips possible.
I don't think SGI can compete in terms of graphics performance, certainly not
in price/performance. SGI will have to offer unique solutions, computer
graphics systems, not PC graphics cards, that outperforms PCs no matter what
the graphics card in order to have a future. In fact I think SGI should do
the opposite of what you are suggesting, namely concentrate more on building
scalable I/O- and bandwidth-monsters and get the graphics from someone else.
And, happily, recent public announcements indicate that this is roughly where
they are heading.

*p



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