SGI RETURNS TO LINUXWORLD WITH NEW ALTIX MODELS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SGI RETURNS TO LINUXWORLD WITH NEW ALTIX MODELS TARGETED AT MIDRANGE
TECHNICAL MARKET

World's Most Scalable Linux Servers and Superclusters Continue To Enable New
Age of High-Performance Computing on Linux OS

NEW YORK, NY, LinuxWorld Booth 459 (January 20, 2004)-Silicon Graphics (NYSE:
SGI) today announced that the worldwide success of its acclaimed SGI®
Altix(tm) family of servers and superclusters has proven that the Linux® OS
is scalable and robust enough for the most demanding high-performance
computing users. Only a year after its introduction at the 2003 LinuxWorld
Conference & Expo-where it was named Best of Show-the SGI Altix family will
return to LinuxWorld in New York City Jan. 20-23 with new midrange models, a
host of 64-bit applications, record achievements in scalability and
performance, and growing worldwide customer acceptance. 

SGI will also debut the new SGI® Altix(tm) 350 server, which was introduced
Jan. 12. SGI Altix 350 is the only midrange system purpose-built specifically
for scientists, design engineers, researchers and other
technical computing users. LinuxWorld attendees can view the 64-bit Linux
solution for technical database servers, departmental servers and throughput
clusters at SGI's LinuxWorld booth, No. 459. 

Since its launch a year ago, SGI Altix has defied industry expectations by
becoming the first Linux system to commercially scale to 128 Intel® Itanium®
2 processors in a single system image-and thousands more via clustering-
using the powerful SGI® NUMAflex(tm) global shared-memory architecture. The
Altix architecture handles large data sets with ease, giving software
developers an opportunity to provide 64-bit Linux applications to customers
in manufacturing, oil and gas exploration, homeland security, earth and
environmental sciences research, and life sciences.

"Only a year ago, the common wisdom held that Linux couldn't scale past
eight processors," said Dave Parry, senior vice president and general
manager, Server and Platform Group, SGI, who will give a technical
presentation on Extreme Linux at 2:45 p.m. Thursday.  "Working closely with
the Linux community, we have spent the past 12 months repeatedly shattering
that misconception with the Altix family. Without doubt, Linux no longer is
relegated to desktop systems or edge servers. Today it's a robust and
field-proven 64-bit environment capable of tackling the world's toughest
computing challenges."

Production-Quality Linux on Display at LinuxWorld At LinuxWorld 2004, SGI and
its partners will spotlight Linux as a production-quality platform for
high-performance and technical computing and database applications. A
64-processor SGI® Altix(tm) 3000 system will demonstrate computational fluid
dynamics, computer-aided engineering, data mining applications, and database
software from Sybase and Objectivity. Several Altix 350 servers also will be
on display, running leading bioinformatics and chemistry applications, in
addition to a rapid
installation demonstration of MySQL® database software. An eight-processor
SGI Altix 350 system will feature  Oracle® Database10g running on SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server 8.  

"Oracle is pleased with SGI's delivery of industry-standard, Linux OS-based
systems that give customers the scalability they need for mission-critical
applications," said Dave Dargo, vice president of the Linux Program Office,
Oracle Corp. "This, combined with Oracle's leading technology and support for
the Linux operating system, offers a compelling solution for enterprise
customers. Oracle customers running on Altix with SUSE Linux Enterprise
Server can benefit from Oracle's OS-level, Unbreakable Linux support, the
industry's most comprehensive technical support offering." 

SGI will also demonstrate the horizontal scalability of its Altix 350
systems. The new mid-range SGI Altix 350 can scale to hundreds of nodes over
standard gigabit Ethernet. In addition, via a new agreement announced today,
SGI and Voltaire intend to easily interconnect Altix 350 systems with
price-performance leading InfiniBand, and to enable easy interoperability
with previously installed 32-bit clusters (See related announcement, "SGI and
Voltaire Bring High-Speed InfiniBand Clusters to Altix family"). A total of
five Altix 350 nodes in two cluster configurations will be interconnected via
Voltaire InfiniBand solutions in the SGI booth, and two other servers will be
interconnected in the Voltaire Booth 861. SGI Altix systems will also be on
display in the Intel, SuSE Linux, MySQL and Wild Open Source booths.	

The SGI booth will also exhibit complete, production-ready storage solutions
for data-intensive environments. The entire SGI® InfiniteStorage product line
for storage consolidation, data lifecycle management, data sharing and
protection is now available for SGI Altix environments. SGI will demonstrate
instant data access among heterogeneous platforms, as well as the performance
and scalability features of Open Source XFS® and SGI® InfiniteStorage Shared
Filesystem CXFS(tm) software. 

Also today, SGI announced an initiative to expand its visualization portfolio
into the Linux market by leveraging its expertise in Linux scalability. Key
to the initiative is the new SGI® Visualization Developer
Tool Kit for Linux, designed to accelerate the pace of innovation for
visualization on Linux. At LinuxWorld, SGI will demonstrate the heart of its
developer tool kit offering-a scalable, multi-CPU, multi-GPU Silicon
Graphics® visualization system for Linux built around SGI® NUMAflex(tm)
shared memory architecture (See related announcement, "SGI Launches
Initiative to Dramatically Improve Linux Visualization Capabilities"). 

Scalability and Performance Lead to Global Success The SGI Altix family is
the most scalable Linux OS-based computer line in history, available this
spring in system configurations of up to 128 processors per node and up to
1,024 processors in shared-memory superclusters. In customer implementations,
the SGI Altix line has scaled even further. In November 2003, NASA announced
the installation of the world's first 512-processor Linux supercomputer
running under a single Linux kernel at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett
Field, Calif. And through the
SGI NUMAflex architecture, multiple SGI Altix 3000 nodes can scale to
thousands of processors. 

In tests against competing systems conducted throughout 2003, SGI Altix
configurations frequently dominated in a broad range of performance metrics,
such as floating-point performance, memory bandwidth, I/O capability, and
shared-memory parallel workloads. And in September, the IDC Balanced Ratings
Report identified SGI systems, including Altix, as the most powerful
computers in five system categories. In July, Altix was named Product of the
Year by the editors of Linux Journal, and in October, Altix earned the
magazine's Reader's Choice award for "Favorite Server." In November, SGI
announced that Altix was voted Most Innovative Overall HPC Technology by
HPCwire subscribers.

Customers and developers in a broad range of technical computing markets and
in every region worldwide have embraced the Altix line. Nearly 100
applications have been certified and optimized for the 64-bit Altix platform,
with leading software solutions helping to drive acceptance of Linux as a
high-performance operating environment.

"We run cutting-edge atmospheric models of our own design that push the
limits of computing resources. We need speed and memory," said Dr. John
Yatteau, Project Scientist in Harvard University's Department of Earth and
Planetary Sciences. "The SGI Altix system's shared-memory architecture has
permitted us to run our codes without major redesign, and the system has
provided us with the performance boost we needed. We can tackle problems now
that were impractical before."
 
Scalable SGI Altix 3000 systems are available today in server configurations
of 4 to 64 processors, and supercluster configurations of 4 to 512
processors. For customers demanding even larger Altix configurations, SGI
plans to support single Altix nodes of 128 processors and superclusters of
1,024 processors in May 2004 and larger over time. 

This release contains forward-looking statements regarding SGI® technologies
and third-party technologies that are subject to risks and uncertainties.
These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results to differ materially
from those described in such statements. The viewer is cautioned not to rely
unduly on these forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of
future or current performance. Such risks and uncertainties include long-term
program commitments, the performance of third parties, the sustained
performance of current and future products, financing risks, the impact of
competitive markets, the ability to integrate and support a complex
technology solution involving multiple providers and users, the acceptance of
applicable technologies by markets and customers, and other risks detailed
from time to time in the company's most recent SEC reports, including its
reports on From 10-K and Form 10-Q.

SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery(tm) SGI, also known
as Silicon Graphics, Inc., is the world's leader in high-performance
computing, visualization and storage. SGI's vision is to
provide technology that enables the most significant scientific and creative
breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether it's sharing images to aid in
brain surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate or
enabling the transition from analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated
to addressing the next class of challenges for scientific,
engineering and creative users. With offices worldwide, the company is
headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at
www.sgi.com.

-end-

Silicon Graphics, SGI, InfiniteReality, OpenGL, OpenML, Onyx, XFS, the SGI
cube and the SGI logo are registered trademarks and Altix, NUMAflex, Open
Inventor, OpenGL Performer, OpenGL Volumizer, OpenGL Vizserver, Onyx4 and The
Source of Innovation and Discovery are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc.,
in the United States and/or other countries worldwide. Intel and Itanium are
registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United
States and other countries. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group
in the U.S. and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus
Torvalds in several countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the
property of their respective owners.


Media Contacts:

Theresa Campbell
theresac@sgi.com
916.419.0281

Doug Black
Noblemen Group
dblack@noblemengroup.com
781.631.2593

SGI PR Hotline:
650.933.7777