At a trade show starting Monday in Portland, Ore, the Mountain View, Calif. company will demonstrate a computer built out of 16 next-generation microprocessors from Intel Corp, all running the free Linux operating system. The system will run a program designed to simulate a collision between two black holes. SGI says machines like that, known as a "cluster" computer, will play a major role at the company as it struggles to develop a consistent winning strategy after years of setbacks and sales declines.

The machine uses Intel's Itanium microprocessor, which is due to be shipped next year as a high-end alternative to the company's Pentium line. For its operating system, SGI will use a beefed-up version of Linux, which SGI has said it will devote considerable resources to supporting.

John R "Beau" Vrolyk, a senior vice-president at SGI, said the machine is emblematic of SGI's direction, in which it will provide sophisticated, high-end server computers for use in technical markets, as well as for Internet-based applications. Questions about SGI's future independence were prompted by the summer's departure of Rick Belluzzo, the executive hired to turn the company around but who departed for a job at Microsoft Corp. SGI's stock, which was down 25 cents to $7.8125 at the New York Stock Exchange's 4 pm close Friday, is as low as it has been since the early 1990s.

The company is being run by Robert Bishop, who once headed up its European operations and who is SGI's biggest individual shareholder. While Bishop has told employees and customers he is in it for the "long haul," he has said he was looking to sell SGI's Cray supercomputer business and a Windows NT unit that SGI introduced with considerable fanfare earlier this year. SGI has promised an announcement soon about buyers for the divisions.

SGI's use of Intel and Linux mark a departure for the company, which had relied on in-house chips and software. During its product transition the next few years, SGI said it will still sell systems based on its own proprietary MIPS chips and its Irix operating-system software.

Philip C Rueppel, analyst with BT Alex Brown, said SGI's strategy was technically sound, but the firm could face familiar marketing problems.

The Wall Street Journal