CAN ROCKET RICK LIGHT A FIRE UNDER SILICON GRAPHICS?
Edited by Douglas Harbrecht Colleagues call him “Rocket Rick” Belluzzo. So it’s no surprise that Silicon Graphics Inc.’s new CEO is about to propel the ailing graphics computer maker on a blazing future course. On Apr. 14 — just 81 days after he left Hewlett-Packard Co. to take the helm — Belluzzo will announce sweeping plans for a new SGI. Company insiders say SGI, whose computers help create movie special effects and design industrial products, will detail a broad technology-exchange deal with personal-computer chip giant Intel Corp. By summer, that will help SGI start selling a new engineering workstation that combines its hot 3-D graphics with Intel’s Pentium II chip and other closely guarded Intel PC technologies. The result: a machine that’s expected to run popular programs based on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows NT software up to three times faster than those of most rivals — and at about $6,000 fully outfitted — for less than half the average price of SGI’s current low-end works
