mental images Purchases 16-Processor SGI Origin 3400 System to Further Develop mental ray, mental matter and Reality Server Software

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, IBC 2001, Stand 7.431 (Sept. 14, 2001)— SGI (NYSE: SGI) today announced that long-time customer mental images of Berlin, Germany, recently purchased a 16-processor SGI™ Origin™ 3400 server with 4GB system memory network interface cards and storage system. The modular SGI™ IRIX® OS–based SGI Origin 3400 server is currently being used as mental images's main platform for the development of its host and thread parallel software products, including the high-performance, photo-realistic rendering software mental ray® and mental matter®, proprietary, highly modular modeling technology. Users of mental images products include most of the leading visual effects and digital film studios, game developers and companies in the automotive and aerospace industries. mental ray 3.0, the most recent version of mental ray, will be released commercially in October and will feature expanded capabilities developed on the SGI™ 2000 series and SGI Origin 3400 servers.

mental images and incremental images (a subsidiary of mental images) will also use the new SGI Origin 3400 system to further develop Reality Server TM , the interactive, scalable, server-based, multiuser 3D graphics platform for Internet and intranet applications. Those applications include, among others, remote wireless repair and maintenance using handheld devices; collaborative engineering, design and medical applications; and online interactive multiuser games.

"For the purposes of development of scalable parallel software, SGI Origin 3400, with its powerful IRIX OS software environment, is superior to any other platform today. In terms of scalability, the machine performs excellently," said Rolf Herken, president and director of R&D, mental images. "We needed a 64-bit large parallel system with at least 16 processors for debugging highly complex parallel codes. The flexibility of the SGI NUMA system architecture of the SGI Origin 3400 server enables us to use 64-bit MIPS processors now, and later on we'll be able to use the Intel 64-bit processors that SGI is working on incorporating in a CPU module for the SGI Origin 3000 series servers. In addition, we believe that using SGI IRIX together with ProDev WorkShop, the sophisticated software development and debugging tool from SGI, is still the best development environment in terms of productivity gains for the initial development of such software as mental ray before the software is subsequently ported to all other supported platforms. Also, every night the SGI Origin 3400 server is used to compute several thousand images from as many well-defined test scenes using the most recent build of the software under development in an automated process to detect any regression and to evaluate performance gains."

An SGI customer since opening its doors in 1986, mental images developed its high-end mental ray software predominantly on the SGI IRIX platform. Replacing an SGI 2000 series server, the high-performance SGI Origin 3400 system easily integrated into mental images' heterogeneous development and computing environment, which also includes several Silicon Graphics® Indy®, Silicon Graphics® Indigo2™ and Indigo2™ Extreme™ workstations; Silicon Graphics® Octane® and Silicon Graphics® O2® visual workstations; and an SGI™ Origin™ 200 system.

"SGI is very pleased that mental images, a high-end software developer serving virtually all of the same markets where SGI workstations and servers are used by the world's most demanding creative and technical users, has once again looked to SGI and chosen the SGI Origin 3400 server as its development platform," said Mark Miller, vice president, business development, media industries, EMEA, SGI. "The inherent scalability of the SGI Origin 3000 server series is based on the SGI NUMAflex approach, which allows systems to increase shared memory to meet the growing CPU-to-memory bandwidth demands of additional processors. As mental images's computational needs grow, the SGI Origin 3400 can easily and affordably scale to a 32-processor machine and beyond."

About SGI
SGI, formerly known as Silicon Graphics, Inc., is the world's leading provider of high-performance computing, complex data management and visualization products, services and solutions that enable its technical and creative customers to gain strategic and competitive advantages in their core businesses. Whether being used to design and build safer cars and airplanes, discover new medications and oil reserves, help us to understand and better predict the weather or entertain us with thrilling movie special effects, SGI™ systems and expertise are empowering a world of innovation and discovery. The company, located on the Web at www.sgi.com, is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and has offices worldwide.

About mental images
mental images GmbH & Co. KG is a privately held company formed in 1986, headquartered in Berlin, Germany. mental images is a recognized leader in providing rendering technology to the entertainment, computer-aided design, scientific visualization, architecture, Internet-based and other industries that require sophisticated images. The main product of the company, mental ray, is distributed in an integrated form by the company's OEM/VAR partners Alias|Wavefront (a division of SGI), Autodesk/Discreet and Avid/Softimage in the entertainment markets and by Dassault Systemes in the CAD market. mental images also has a number of high-profile direct customers in both market segments. mental images can be accessed on the Web at www.mentalimages.com.

Silicon Graphics, Octane, O2, Indigo and IRIX are registered trademarks and SGI, the SGI logo, Indigo2, Origin, ProDev and NUMAflex are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Extreme is a trademark under license used by Silicon Graphics, Inc. Indy is a registered trademark used under license in the U.S. and owned by Silicon Graphics, Inc., in other countries worldwide. mental images, mental ray and mental matter are registered trademarks and Reality Server is a trademark of mental images GmbH & Co. KG. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. MIPS is a registered trademark of MIPS Technologies, Inc. used under license by Silicon Graphics, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.