MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., -- What a difference a year makes. The reinvigorated and refocused SGI regional sales offices throughout Asia and Latin America are winning major multimillion-dollar deals and providing SGI(R) solutions to governments, institutions, and local and multinational corporations. SGI's momentum in the Asia-Pacific and Latin American markets over the past year has been fueled by the recent recruitment of veteran senior executives and a strengthening of the sales and marketing strategy, according to Bill LaRosa, SGI senior vice president of the Intercontinental (ICON) region, which comprises these two markets. "The corporate strategy is to focus on high-performance solutions -- not just products -- but solutions that solve our customers' toughest problems. Our focus is in five key market segments: energy, media, manufacturing, sciences and government," said LaRosa, who joined SGI just over a year ago. "These solutions comprise SGI high-performance computing and visualization systems combined with our partners' application software. In addition, powerful, sophisticated solutions are being delivered by the SGI Technology Solutions division, including solution architecting and the integration of other third-party hardware. And that's what's creating satisfied customers and ultimately driving the bigger deals. The bottom line is all about delivering tangible results: helping energy companies find oil, helping broadcasters deliver content, helping governments bolster their economies." New Management Staff Under LaRosa's leadership, SGI has recruited new, experienced, skilled senior executives to fill out the ICON area general manager (AGM) field positions. The new AGM for China is Stephen Lai. P.S. Shim is the newly appointed AGM for Korea, and John Kan, based in Singapore, is the new AGM for ASEAN (Southeast Asia, which includes Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Philippines, etc.). Filling out the "A" team are computer industry veterans Bill Trestrail (Australia and New Zealand), Jose Carols Goveia (Latin America), and Dr. Prasad Medury (India). Changes are also happening deeper in the organization, as SGI's continued high-profile recruiting permeates all job levels. With senior management in place, the time was right to rebuild SGI's Taiwan initiative, reopening a strategic regional office, helmed by Stephen Lai, last month. SGI Taiwan is exploiting several marketing opportunities aligned with the company's core industries. SGI has succeeded across the board in Asia, Australia and Latin America in the five key areas of government and defense, sciences, energy, manufacturing, and media. The following examples are indicative of the growth potential of the geographical areas, each project valued between $4 million and $8 million (U.S.), during calendar 2002. Energy In Latin America, SGI has had many successes with longtime customers such as Petrobras, the world leader in ultra-deepwater oil exploration. Petrobras produces over 1.5 million barrels of oil a day, and 11 SGI(R) Reality Center(TM) facilities are currently installed in its facilities throughout Brazil. SGI also continues its long-standing account history with PDVSA, in Venezuela, whose numerous SGI Reality Center facilities help the company maintain its standing as the seventh-largest oil production company in the world, delivering 3.9 million barrels a day. SGI has another long-term relationship with PEMEX (Mexico), whose oil and gas exploration efforts are increasing quickly, aided by three SGI Reality Center facilities. With a dominance of the energy market in Latin America, SGI is also achieving success in the science and manufacturing markets -- notably with the Brazilian Meteorological Institute (InMet) and Daimler Chrysler. Sciences In mid-August 2002, SGI contracted with the Beijing Planetarium to install an SGI(R) Onyx(R) family visualization system connected to Zeiss Laser All-Dome projectors. The graphics supercomputing system is the cornerstone of a new planetarium planned for installation at the revered institution, founded in 1957. SGI real-time graphics allow users to navigate through huge science data sets to create a different show for each performance. For this project, the first-ever all-laser dome installation in the world, SGI teamed with leading-edge technology provider Carl Zeiss -- a partner since 2000, with whom SGI has jointly marketed solutions enabling the projection of very-high-resolution real-time 3D graphics in planetariums. The Beijing Planetarium will be used as a flagship during the 2008 Olympic ceremonies in Beijing, People's Republic of China, where the installation will be open for the world to see. Manufacturing Malaysia's Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC) contracted with SGI to deliver a world-class SGI Reality Center facility, a Visual Area Networking solution and rendering services to Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). The SGI Reality Center facility, just outside Kuala Lumpur, is powered by a 16-processor SGI(R) Onyx(R) 3000 series system, making it the most advanced Reality Center facility in Southeast Asia. A milestone in Malaysia's long-term planning to become a fully developed nation and knowledge-rich society by 2020, the SGI project was completed in September 2002. The MDC, a government-owned corporation that was appointed to spearhead the development and implementation of the MSC, is establishing the Creative Application Development Center, to be powered by SGI technologies. In addition, SGI's Visual Area Networking solution will enable MSC's large contingent of high-technology organizations to have universal access to advanced visualization using any computing device over standard networks. Under the collaborative relationship agreement, SGI and MDC will jointly work on positioning, strategy and lead generation in SGI's five key markets for the benefit of MSC status companies, as well as on developing associated products like specialized software applications. These efforts will help bolster the Malaysian economy. Media To reach millions of viewers across India, Sahara India Media Communications Ltd. launched one national and six regional 24-hour news channels in October 2002. Sahara India moved into commercial broadcasting two years ago, with its launch of the Hindi-language Sahara TV entertainment channel. For its major foray into the TV news business, broadcasting in Hindi and English, one of Sahara India's primary goals was to differentiate itself from India's other 24-hour news channels by using eye-popping graphics and true virtual set technology for news, weather and sports. Citing the high performance and quality of the Silicon Graphics(R) Onyx2(R) and vizrt solution, a Sahara India spokesperson said, "We chose Silicon Graphics Onyx2 because it is an extremely stable and reliable system with excellent I/O capabilities for video." The six Silicon Graphics Onyx2 systems are installed at Sahara India's central studio in Nodia, a suburb of New Delhi. Government and Defense Australia's concerns for homeland security and transport safety led the New South Wales State Rail Authority (SRA) to sign a five-year, $17 million contract with SGI in March 2002 to build a state-of-the-art virtual reality and simulation center. The center will enhance training and education levels for all State Rail employees. The SRA is the first ever rail transport network in the world to use this type of collaborative, immersive visualization technology for situation awareness and hazard perception--eradicating the limitations posed by traditional paper-based learning methods and costly "physical" safety testing measures. The center, which went live in late 2002, is the largest, most powerful SGI Reality Center facility to be built in Australia to date. The two large 150? wraparound screens and world-class simulators will provide a collaborative framework that will enable over 6,000 staff members per year to benefit from an immersive training environment. Feeding the Fire "Last year I pledged that SGI ICON would emerge as a highly focused organization, providing high-end solutions, hiring top quality people and investing in those countries that are building momentum. In a nutshell, we are feeding the fire," said LaRosa. "Areas that are 'white hot,' like China, India and Latin America, are where we are going to invest by delivering leapfrog technologies that will help them grow. Reopening the Taiwan office is a manifestation of this strategy, as Greater China continues building momentum. "We at SGI promised that we were going to consolidate. We have. We promised we were going to focus. We have. We promised we'd turn this ship around. We are. And that's what the market wants us to do -- deliver on the promise." "The success we have experienced over the past year with customers in our international geographies is proof positive that we have set ourselves the right long-term mission and are making significant progress towards achieving it. That mission is to deliver maximum strategic value for technical and creative customers," said Bob Bishop, chairman and CEO of SGI. "We are approaching the new calendar year in a position of a clear technology solutions superiority. With new leadership and an intensive focus on delivering extraordinary value to customers, we have the winning combination to build powerful results in the ICON region."