WhereIsAtlas · Computers

Silicon Graphics

Jim Clark's 3D workstation company that put the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, helped define OpenGL, and was sold in 2009 for $42.5 million to a server maker that took its name

Defunct — Silicon Graphics, Inc. was an American maker of high-performance computing hardware and software, founded in Mountain View, California in 1981 by James H. Clark and a group of Stanford graduate students and research staff. Its early systems were built around the Geometry Engine, a VLSI implementation of a geometry pipeline that Clark and Marc Hannah had developed at Stanford, and the company dominated the market for high-speed 3D rendering through the 1990s. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on 1 April 2009 and agreed to sell substantially all of its assets to Rackable Systems; the sale closed on 11 May 2009 for $42.5 million, and Rackable adopted the name Silicon Graphics International. The remnant of the old company was renamed Graphics Properties Holdings. Silicon Graphics International was itself acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprise in November 2016.

Silicon Graphics, Inc. was founded in Mountain View, California in November 1981 by James H. Clark, a computer scientist and electrical engineering associate professor at Stanford University. Its early systems were based on the Geometry Engine, a very-large-scale integration implementation of a geometry pipeline that Clark and Marc Hannah had developed at Stanford — specialised hardware that accelerated the inner-loop geometric computations needed to display three-dimensional images. Wikipedia's own history section dates the founding to 1982, when Clark left Stanford along with a group of seven graduate students and research staff: Kurt Akeley, David J. Brown, Tom Davis, Rocky Rhodes, Marc Hannah, Herb Kuta and Mark Grossman, together with Abbey Silverstone and others. The company's California business registration gives 9 November 1981. The tension between the two dates is not resolved by either source, and the company itself was consistent only about the year being 1981 to 1982.

Its initial market was 3D graphics computer workstations, and for much of its history that is what it did. Silicon Graphics systems dominated the market for high-speed rendering of three-dimensional graphics, an area rivals such as IBM and Sun Microsystems avoided. The company reincorporated as a Delaware corporation in January 1990.

Ed McCracken was chief executive from 1984 to 1997, and during those years the company grew from annual revenues of $5.4 million to $3.7 billion. With the introduction of the IRIS 4D series it moved to MIPS microprocessors, which were more powerful and came with on-board floating-point capability. In October 1991 MIPS announced the first commercially available 64-bit microprocessor, the R4000, and Silicon Graphics used it in the Crimson workstation. In 1992, to secure the supply of future MIPS processors, it acquired MIPS Computer Systems for $333 million and renamed it MIPS Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary.

The company's other decisive act of 1992 was software. Until the second generation of Onyx Reality Engine machines, its high-performance 3D subsystems were accessed through a proprietary API called IRIS Graphics Library. Rather than defend it, Silicon Graphics cleaned it up, allowed the resulting OpenGL API to be licensed cheaply by its competitors, and set up an industry-wide consortium — the OpenGL Architecture Review Board — to maintain the standard. OpenGL became the portable real-time 3D graphics standard across operating systems, and control of the specification passed to the Khronos Group in 2006.

Silicon Graphics became the machine Hollywood rendered on. In 1993 an SGI Crimson system running the fsn three-dimensional file system navigator appeared in the film Jurassic Park, and the company's association with visual effects work defined its public image. Its products were used for video game development as well, including for the Nintendo 64.

The company also consolidated the tools. In 1995 it bought Alias Research, Kroyer Films and Wavefront Technologies in a deal worth approximately $500 million and merged them into Alias|Wavefront. In February 1996 it bought the supercomputer manufacturer Cray Research for $740 million; three months later it sold Cray's Business Systems Division — the business responsible for the CS6400 SPARC/Solaris server — to Sun Microsystems for an undisclosed sum, later acknowledged by a Sun executive to be significantly less than $100 million. The Cray brand and product lines went to Tera Computer Company on 31 March 2000 for $35 million plus one million shares.

The 1990s turned. Rapidly improving commodity Wintel machines eroded the company's hold on the 3D market, and the porting of Maya to other platforms was a significant moment in that process. Silicon Graphics responded with a series of moves that are generally judged to have made things worse: Visual Workstations running Windows NT, which put it in direct competition with Dell and made its price premium harder to justify; the ex-Intergraph Zx10 range; 1,000-series Linux servers; and in 1998 a premature announcement that it would move from its own MIPS processors to Intel's Itanium, code-named Merced. Funding for its own high-end processors was cut, and when Itanium arrived late the stopgap MIPS chips had to carry the line from 1999 to 2006.

In 1999 the company changed its corporate identity to "SGI" while keeping its legal name, and adopted a new logo. In November 2005 it was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange because its common stock had fallen below the minimum share price: its market capitalisation had gone from a peak of over $7 billion in 1995 to $120 million. In February 2006 it said it could run out of cash by the end of the year.

On 8 May 2006 Silicon Graphics filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for itself and its US subsidiaries as part of a plan to reduce debt by $250 million. Two days later the court approved its first-day motions and a $70 million financing facility from a group of bondholders. On 6 September 2006 it announced the end of development for the MIPS and IRIX lines; production ended on 29 December and the last orders were fulfilled by March 2007. It emerged from bankruptcy on 17 October 2006. The old Pink Sheets stock, SGID, was cancelled and new stock was issued on NASDAQ under SGIC, distributed to the company's creditors — leaving the SGID common stockholders with worthless shares. At the end of that year it moved its headquarters from Mountain View to Sunnyvale.

Two more pieces of history matter for the ending. The first is that the old headquarters buildings went somewhere else: the earlier North Shoreline Boulevard site is now occupied by the Computer History Museum, and the newer Amphitheatre Parkway building was sold to Google, which had already subleased it and moved in during 2003. The second is that the company kept buying to stay relevant — Linux Networx, a small Linux HPC firm, in February 2008, and a re-entered visualisation market in April 2008 with the Virtu range, which were re-badged systems from BOXX Technologies.

The end came quickly. In December 2008 NASDAQ notified the company that its market value had been below the $35 million minimum for ten consecutive trading days and that it met none of the alternative requirements. On 1 April 2009 Silicon Graphics filed for Chapter 11 again and announced it would sell substantially all of its assets to Rackable Systems for $25 million. Court approval came on 30 April after Rackable raised its offer to $42.5 million, and the sale closed on 11 May 2009. At the same time Rackable announced that it was adopting Silicon Graphics International as its global name and brand. What was left of Silicon Graphics, Inc. was renamed Graphics Properties Holdings, Inc. in June 2009, and spent the following years as a patent-holding plaintiff — including litigation against ATI Technologies and AMD that had begun while the company was still operating.

Silicon Graphics International was not the end of the story either. In November 2016 Hewlett Packard Enterprise acquired it, bringing the Pleiades supercomputer at NASA Ames Research Center into HPE's portfolio. The SGI name that survives in the market today is therefore the property of a company that never built a single MIPS workstation.

Timeline

  1. Nov 1981 — Founded in Mountain View: Silicon Graphics, Inc. is registered in California; Jim Clark assembles a team from Stanford around a VLSI geometry pipeline. (Mountain View, California)
  2. 1984 — McCracken takes over: Ed McCracken becomes chief executive and runs the company until 1997, taking revenue from $5.4 million to $3.7 billion.
  3. Jan 1990 — Reincorporated in Delaware: The company reincorporates as a Delaware corporation.
  4. Oct 1991 — The 64-bit R4000: MIPS announces the first commercially available 64-bit microprocessor, and SGI uses it in the Crimson workstation.
  5. 1992 — MIPS is acquired: SGI buys MIPS Computer Systems for $333 million and renames it MIPS Technologies Inc.
  6. 1992 — OpenGL: SGI cleans up its proprietary IRIS GL and licenses the resulting OpenGL API cheaply to its competitors.
  7. 1993 — Jurassic Park: An SGI Crimson running the fsn 3D file system navigator appears in the film, cementing the company's association with visual effects. (Hollywood)
  8. 1995 — Alias and Wavefront: SGI buys Alias Research, Kroyer Films and Wavefront Technologies for about $500 million and merges them into one business called Alias Wavefront.
  9. Feb 1996 — Cray Research: SGI buys the supercomputer maker for $740 million, then sells its Business Systems Division to Sun Microsystems three months later.
  10. 1998 — The Itanium announcement: SGI says its future machines will use Intel's Merced rather than its own MIPS processors, and cuts funding for its own high-end chips.
  11. Nov 2005 — Delisted from the NYSE: The share price falls below the exchange minimum, with market capitalisation down from over $7 billion in 1995 to $120 million.
  12. 8 May 2006 — First bankruptcy: SGI files for Chapter 11 protection for itself and its US subsidiaries, planning to cut debt by $250 million.
  13. 6 Sep 2006 — The end of MIPS and IRIX: SGI announces the end of development for the MIPS and IRIX lines; production ends on 29 December.
  14. 17 Oct 2006 — Out of bankruptcy: SGI emerges, with new NASDAQ stock issued to creditors and the old Pink Sheets shares cancelled.
  15. 1 Apr 2009 — Second bankruptcy: SGI files for Chapter 11 again and agrees to sell substantially all its assets to Rackable Systems for $25 million.
  16. 30 Apr 2009 — The price rises: The bankruptcy court approves the sale after Rackable raises its offer to $42.5 million.
  17. 11 May 2009 — Rackable takes the name: The sale closes and Rackable Systems announces it will be known as Silicon Graphics International.
  18. Jun 2009 — Graphics Properties Holdings: What remains of the original Silicon Graphics, Inc. is renamed Graphics Properties Holdings, Inc.
  19. Nov 2016 — Hewlett Packard Enterprise: HPE acquires Silicon Graphics International, the company that had taken the SGI name in 2009.

Quick facts

Founded
November 1981, Mountain View, California (Wikipedia's history section dates the founding to 1982)
Founder
James H. Clark, with seven Stanford graduate students and research staff
Key design
the Geometry Engine, a VLSI geometry pipeline developed at Stanford with Marc Hannah
Chief executive
Ed McCracken, 1984 to 1997
Growth under McCracken
annual revenue from $5.4 million to $3.7 billion
Peak market capitalisation
over $7 billion, 1995
Delisted from the NYSE
November 2005, with a market capitalisation of $120 million
Acquisitions
MIPS Computer Systems (1992, $333 million); Alias Research, Kroyer Films and Wavefront (1995, about $500 million); Cray Research (1996, $740 million)
OpenGL
released in 1992 and licensed cheaply to competitors
Jurassic Park
an SGI Crimson running fsn appears in the 1993 film
First bankruptcy
filed 8 May 2006, emerged 17 October 2006
Second bankruptcy
filed 1 April 2009
Asset sale
to Rackable Systems, closed 11 May 2009 for $42.5 million
Successor name
Rackable renamed itself Silicon Graphics International
Remnant
renamed Graphics Properties Holdings, Inc. in June 2009
Later owner
Hewlett Packard Enterprise, from November 2016
Old headquarters
the North Shoreline building is now the Computer History Museum; the Amphitheatre Parkway building became part of the Googleplex

Lineage — where the name went

One company from a Stanford chip design to a bankruptcy auction, and the name it sold to the server maker that bought its assets.

  1. 1981 — Jim Clark founded Silicon Graphics, Inc. (with seven Stanford graduate students and research staff)
  2. Marc Hannah founded Silicon Graphics, Inc. (co-founder and co-author of the Geometry Engine)
  3. 1981 — Silicon Graphics, Inc. created Geometry Engine (the chip design behind the first IRIS systems)
  4. Ed McCracken served under Silicon Graphics, Inc. (chief executive from 1984 to 1997)
  5. 1992 — Silicon Graphics, Inc. acquired MIPS Computer Systems ($333 million for the processor maker, renamed MIPS Technologies)
  6. 1992 — Silicon Graphics, Inc. created OpenGL (released out of IRIS GL and licensed cheaply to rivals)
  7. 1995 — Silicon Graphics, Inc. acquired Alias Wavefront (Alias Research, Wavefront and Kroyer Films merged into one business)
  8. 1996 — Silicon Graphics, Inc. acquired Cray Research (about $740 million for the supercomputer maker)
  9. 2009 — Silicon Graphics, Inc. acquired by Rackable Systems ($42.5 million for substantially all of the assets)
  10. 2009 — Rackable Systems rebranded as Silicon Graphics International (took the Silicon Graphics name for the combined company)
  11. 2009 — Silicon Graphics, Inc. rebranded as Graphics Properties Holdings (the remnant left behind by the bankruptcy)
  12. 2016 — Hewlett Packard Enterprise acquired Silicon Graphics International (Hewlett Packard Enterprise's purchase)

Entities in this tree: Jim Clark (person); Marc Hannah (person); Silicon Graphics, Inc. (company, 1981); Geometry Engine (product, 1981); Ed McCracken (person); MIPS Computer Systems (company, 1992); OpenGL (product, 1992); Cray Research (company, 1996); Alias Wavefront (company, 1995); Rackable Systems (company); Silicon Graphics International (company); Graphics Properties Holdings (company, 2009); Hewlett Packard Enterprise (company)

Sources

  1. Silicon Graphics — Wikipedia (2026-09-20)
  2. Once-Mighty SGI Sold to Rackable for $25 Million — The New York Times (2026-09-20)
  3. SGI Lives — or at Least Its Name Does — The New York Times DealBook (2026-09-20)
  4. Microsoft man's shadow over bankrupt SGI — The Register (2026-09-20)
  5. OMG: HPE gobbles SGI for HPC. WTF? — The Register (2026-09-20)
  6. Rackable Retains SGI Name — eWEEK (2026-09-20)
  7. A behind-the-scenes look at the stars of Jurassic Park COMPUTERS — The Baltimore Sun (2026-09-20)
  8. COMPANY NEWS; Lucasfilm and Silicon Graphics Team Up — The New York Times (2026-09-20)
  9. Silicon Graphics International Corp quarterly report, transition period January 4 2009 to June 26 2009 — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (2026-09-20)

Related: sun microsystems · hp · digital equipment corporation