thoughts from that G4 poll thread...

chad.channing

Registered
Talk about Think Different...lol

We are all kind of agreed that the current G4s, while great, are lacking in certain areas if they are to really take advantage of OSX for a start.... I was reading the posts here when I got an email from SGI ( I am on the developer list and they are really great with info and mailshots..). I am also on a few Unix/SGI boards and there is a lot of concern that SGI is going to try to move to Wintel to make a quick profit. The 540 and such are good, but they are really just highly specialised PCs..the O2, Octance, Onyx, etc are the real pieces of quality kit.
As SGI has had a bit of a beating in the low end 3d arena, with companies like Dell, Armari, Intergraph, etc taking a bit of a share, I had a thought. (no, it didn't hurt. lol )
The SGI boards all worry that the company has lost sight of the vision that inspired the "Attitude Inside" campaign and brought thigns like the Crimson and Indigo to the market. They are worried, in short that they are going to go the way of Apple after Steve Jobs left - run by accountants who see that the market share is for office PCs, when the actual market for the machines is specialised, but secure...DTP=Mac...high-end visualization=SGI, etc.

Apple is at a point where, A) motorola is not really too interested in computers, rather in embedded technologies. B) Wintel is stealing a major jump on them and, C) the motherboard, etc simply doesn't do the OS (meaning OSX any justice ).

Hmmm...hang on, Unix based machines that run a proprietary GUI for ease-of-use and are use by creative people who are fanatical about their hardware and brand loyal...sounds familiar? Yep, it's the SGI guys again.
Rather than gamble on Motorola picking up the pace when it really isn't interested, or being stuck with ATI (or, yes Nvidia if you replace your 6 month old G4 for a new one that can run a geforce3...), why don't they siply use some of the massive profit they are making to buy over SGI (or merge, whatever...)?
Hell, even a joint machine would be awesome..think of it - a trluy OpenGL compliant machine with a system board part way between an O2 and a MP G4 - 2GB ram max, 128mb video ram merged across the system bus as full bandwith speed (no separate bus, all on the same plane, effectively) with say a combo drive, zip and 2 *733MHz G4.... I reckon that it could be sold with a 21" monitor for maybe £3500-£4000 inc VAT. bearing in mind the current O2 clocks £5000 due to SGIs financial woes, bad marketing and the fact it is selling machines that are used for ten years and come with upgrade packages.....
It would also mean that Apple developers would know that the code would work for games as long as it was written to be OpenGL compliant. Throw in a Soundblaster Live1 and you have a world-beating Mac that could stand toe-to-toe with anything up to an Octane2 (which incidentally costs at least £25000).
If steve Jobs is listening - think of this, NeXT was good, but flawaed, SGI has a customer base that would buy the machines, and high-end mac users (and anyone in the 3D/SFX world) would flock to them as they would be able to run Maya as it should be run and render a lot faster than a pc with a Nvidia Quadro, etc.

I know I would buy at least one.

Just a thought....I can dream can't I? :)
 
sounds lika prety good idea lol

and get sgi to run on os x haha

did u suggest this to apple?
 
not yet, but I think I might...I haven't mailed Apple for a while, so I
think that a mass mailing campaign is in order.. :D
After all, who wouldn't want to see Deus Ex on a 32-CPU Onyx infinite
reality? And Cray-Link would mean REALLY fast LAN games.. :D

Seriously, I think it wouldn't be too hard for Apple to justify, or indeed
too difficult for them to implement. The SGI machines would simply take the
place that used to be occupied by the old Apple AIX-based servers, etc. It
would also put apple's home/pro desktop machines in a position to get a
massive jump on the Wintel competitors...oh, and they wouldn't have to make
do with what Graphics cards a (predominantley) PC orientated manufacturer
can be bothered to make Mac-compatible. How can Apple seriously hope to
compete at the high end of 3d/SFX, etc when cards like the Fire GL, etc are
totally unavailable?
I say that if they had a high end MP G4 with a graphics board similar to
the O2 or a cut-down Octane then it would be worth a £500-£1000 total
premium over a Dell PC to get hold of. as it is, I feel a bit let-down. Just
as when they speed bumped my G4 from 450 to 400 mhz without telling me and
stuck with the Rage Pro for the G4 until ATI finally released the Radeon....
ho hum. Still, I love my mac, despite it's (few) flaws and I do think that
OSX is the best OS around..and as it matures the sceptics will soon be few
and far between.
Imagine if the new iMac was an O2 with the wide-screen SGI flat panel
moulded to the case....and an apple badge on the case. it would be cool,
sexy, powerful. oh, and it would be an end to those "sure, it's prety, but
it just isn't as good as my athlon at games, etc.." arguments... lol

Maybe we should do a poll and then mass-mail to apple?
 
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