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The Rise and Fall of Silicon Graphics

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346 points BirAdam | 1 comments | 05 Apr 24 16:42 UTC | HN request time: 0.213s | source
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martinpw ◴[05 Apr 24 18:13 UTC] No.39945361[source]▶
Whenever this topic comes up there are always comments saying that SGI was taken by surprise by cheap hardware and if only they had seen it coming they could have prepared for it and managed it.

I was there around 97 (?) and remember everyone in the company being asked to read the book "The Innovator's Dilemma", which described exactly this situation - a high end company being overtaken by worse but cheaper competitors that improved year by year until they take the entire market. The point being that the company was extremely aware of what was happening. It was not taken by surprise. But in spite of that, it was still unable to respond.

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hintymad ◴[05 Apr 24 23:40 UTC] No.39948579[source]▶
I guess an interesting question would be whether Nvidia is SGI in the late 90s or Intel of 80s.
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1. VelesDude ◴[06 Apr 24 07:13 UTC] No.39950617[source]▶
I get the vague feeling they are more like Intel in the 80's. Nvidia has had a real talent partially by their own smart moves and partial just pure luck for stumbling from one win to another. Seeing them fall into the Crypto boom and then straight onto the AI boom has been wild to see.