GOVERNMENT

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA -- SGI's (NYSE: SGI) long-time customer Pixar Animation Studios (Nasdaq: PIXR) has created a monster box office hit, Disney and Pixar's Monsters, Inc., using Silicon Graphics® Octane2TM IRIX® OS-based visual workstations. In preparation for the production of Monsters, Inc. Pixar Animation Studios purchased 250 Silicon Graphics Octane2 visual workstations in July 2000, barely a month after the powerful new line of high-performance visual compute workstations was introduced. Pixar used SGI® workstations for interactive graphics applications throughout the studio, including 3D modeling, painting, compositing and animation. Silicon Graphics® Octane® and Octane2 workstations were also used to create and run new lighting tools designed for the film. The Silicon Graphics Octane2 visual workstation is a desktop system with more visualization power than any other UNIX® operating system workstation. Octane2 brings together the most robust implementation of SGI® VProTM graphics, an optimized crossbar architecture, the latest high-performance MIPS® RISC processor, and multiple industry-first features for power users in technical and creative professions. "We bought a population of Octane2 systems just before the heavy crunch period on Monsters, Inc. and they were the predominant desktop that we used, along with some original Octane workstations," said Darwyn Peachey, vice president of technology, Pixar Animation Studios. "We were already using SGI Octane systems, and the Octane2 workstations gave us a significant performance gain without the need to change our software." Building the final character models for Monsters, Inc. was a difficult and complex task, performed using the Silicon Graphics Octane2 workstations. "Sulley [the monster voiced by John Goodman] is covered with shaggy blue fur consisting of millions of individual hairs," said Peachey. "All that hair was positioned and styled interactively on the Octane2 workstations, and the motion of the hair was computed using our proprietary algorithms for dynamics simulation." In addition to the 250 Silicon Graphics Octane2 visual workstations, Pixar Animation Studios uses a Silicon Graphics® Onyx® system with InfiniteReality® graphics for high-resolution display and playback. "Every aspect of our architecture, from the IRIX operating system to the high-definition video, complex data management and graphics capabilities of the workstations is engineered to meet the needs of the most demanding and cutting-edge customers in the industry," said Greg Estes, vice president of corporate marketing, SGI. "We're of course very proud that Pixar has chosen Octane2 as the primary tool for their artists and animators to create such compelling characters and do such groundbreaking work."