Comments on: SGI pulls Octane line off the shelf with new deskside

By: InsideTrack: SGI about to launch a new product for SMB | insideHPC.com

InsideTrack: SGI about to launch a new product for SMB | insideHPC.com — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:53:13 +0000

[...] Except it isn’t. While I haven’t heard back from SGI officially, sources inside the company have confirmed for me that SGI is indeed launching a new product, and recycling the name (as they did with the recent Octane announcement). [...]

By: Joseph

Joseph — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 17:42:28 +0000

A tiny rack and a copy of Infiscale Perceus and you have something that is easier to maintain and way less expensive. Would have enough left over to buy a silent case, hehe. This and the CX1 from Cray show these huge companies that use to own HPC can not keep up with the open source stuff anymore, hehe.

By: John West

John West — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:09:21 +0000

Ken – actually, that wasn’t a timeline. Just a walk through my memories about SGI products of yore. I am planning, when I get a chance, to do a visual timeline of SGI’s products. Think that would be fun.

Can you be a little more specific on how this product is differentiated in the market? Clearly not on the graphics configuration, so you must be thinking on the compute side, where I’m thinking of several similar products out there. I’m also thinking of the CloudRack X2 and of the serious amount of overlap with the Octane III.

By: Ken Hill

Ken Hill — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:31:14 +0000

John – you got the time-line all wrong:
It would be: Iris. Indigo. Crimson. Indy. Octane. O2.

Paul: The reason you don’t have what you’re looking for (possibly) is the same reason you didn’t remove the bezels for your
“power wall”. Too much work for little gain. Especially for the price points we’re looking at in this line.

Guys – this is a SOLID attempt at differentiation in an otherwise vanilla market.

Octane III – good for sgi – they haven’t completely lost touch with the spirit of their roots. It is an IO monster.

By: SiliconBunny

SiliconBunny — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:48:09 +0000

SGI launch the Octane III…

Looking for IRIX or Solaris expertise? Visit my UNIX Consultancy website.

SGI have posted details about their new workstation, the Octane III. Although SGI are raiding the ghosts of workstations past for the name, sadly this isn’t heralding a r…

By: PaulAdams

PaulAdams — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:55:49 +0000

Well, I like the Octane !!! with Intel Xeon 5500 processors, so I am not too cranky there. But the 19 (not 20) single-socket, Dual-Core Intel Atom processor based nodes is (frankly) confusing as is the visualization node.

The Intel Xeon 3400 (a.k.a. Lynfield) makes sense for those on a budget, but according to VizWorld, SGI says that it is not available yet.

By: SGI brings back the Octane

SGI brings back the Octane — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:53:17 +0000

[...] John West puts it best [...]

By: John West

John West — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:16:27 +0000

Ah Paul, my resident cranky vis guy. Remember its 10 Atom trays, each tray one socket, each socket 2 cores. So twenty cores, not processors. It’s actually a little worse than your comment indicates, unless I’m just totally doing the math wrong (it happens).

By: PaulAdams

PaulAdams — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:17:51 +0000

Why would anyone want the Octane III, or is it Octane !!!, with a graphics card. That makes no sense whatsoever. You can get the same thing from Dell or Boxx or nearly anyone else.

I am also curious as to why anyone would want 19 Atom processors in the Octane !!!?

The Press Release states that it can handle 19 Intel Xeon 3400s. However, nothing is mentioned of this on their website for Octane !!!. In case you are wondering, the Intel Xeon 3400 is a variant of the Lynfield CPU, much like the Intel Xeon 5500 is a variant of the Nehalem CPU.

Then again, as you say, “I don’t run a multinational technology company” … into the ground … twice.