SGI Unveils Multimedia Workstation - Silicon Graphics' new Indy has a
video camera, advanced sound and animation

THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Monday, July 12, 1993
Author: KEN SIEGMANN, Chronicle Staff Writer

Silicon Graphics Inc., the leading producer of graphics computers, is
unveiling a new workstation today that will compete with Apple
Computer Inc. and other personal computer makers in the market for
multimedia computers.

Dubbed Indy, SGI's $5,000 workstation comes with a built-in video
camera and other equipment for high-fidelity sound and full-motion
video and animation.

The Mountain View-based workstation maker, which is approaching $1
billion in annual sales, unveils its machine just four weeks before
Apple is expected to introduce two multimedia versions of its
Macintosh computers. These are slated to have built-in advanced sound
and video capabilities. Apple's machines also may include a video
camera.

Silicon Graphics, already famous for computer imaging technology that
brought dinosaurs to life in the hit movie ``Jurassic Park,'' has
built a machine that will ``cannibalize Macintosh and other PC
sales,'' said Denise Caruso, editor of Digital Media, a computer
industry newsletter in San Francisco.

Using Indy, named after SGI's more sophisticated Indigo workstation
models, workers will be able to hold video teleconferences and have
colleagues' faces appear on windows on the computer screen.

The machine also can be used to draw and annotate diagrams during a
conference. If someone changes a diagram on the screen, the changes
automatically show up on other computers hooked into the
conference. The machines can also produce electronic mail with video
images and sound.

Video conferencing systems have been on the market for a few
years. But the Indy is the first desktop computer to offer those
features without a lot of expensive add-on equipment.

The Indy is also SGI's lowest-price computer.

``This gives us a whole new price point to compete with,'' said Edward
McCracken, SGI's president and chief executive officer. ``Now our
technology will be more accessible to a broader population.''

McCracken said he expects the Indy machines to compete in desktop
publishing where Apple is the dominant player. He also expects Indy to
enhance SGI's competitive position in scientific and engineering
applications that are currently dominated by Sun Microsystems Inc. in
Mountain View and Hewlett-Packard Co. in Palo Alto.

The Indy computer is also SGI's first release of the technology it
will use to produce set-top cable television decoders for interactive
TV. SGI is working with Time Warner Inc., the No. 2 cable company, on
a pilot interactive TV experiment with 4,000 households in Orlando,
Fla.

McCracken said SGI will produce a smaller and cheaper version of the
Indy machine next year for the Orlando experiment. It will take
another three years for SGI to produce a set-top box the size of
today's decoders for about $500, he said.

Caption: PHOTO 
Silicon Graphics' new $5,000 Indy 
Edition: FINAL
Section: BUSINESS
Page: B1
Index Terms: Silicon Graphics Inc. ; SGI's ; BUSINESS ; COMPUTERS ; VIDEO ; TECHNOLOGY
Record Number: 13007
Copyright 1993 San Francisco Chronicle