Avi Bar-Zeev (avib++at++bvr.co.il)
Wed, 01 Apr 1998 16:16:58 +0200
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Mountainview, March 30, 1998 [AP] -- In a press
release, Silicon Graphics (SGI) today announced
that it will be selling off it's popular
Performer Real-Time development toolkit to
interested third parties.
The move comes amidst speculation and innuendo
regarding two recent developments at SGI. First,
rumors of a combined Microsoft/SGI rendering API,
code named, alternatively, "MicroGraphics" and
"SiliSoft" has made the Performer API essentially
obsolete in the eyes of many.
Second, and more importantly to users, the Performer
team has been caught red-handed, as it were,
manipulating polygonal performance numbers. The
scheme, according to industry experts, counted
next frame's rendered polygons in the current
frame's count. And, according to one industry
analysist, "this seems to be a wide-spread trend
at SGI, counting future results in today's
figures."
Details of the sale are not yet forthcoming. But,
according to sources, the buyer is none other
than Ron Popeil, founder of RonCo International,
makers of direct-marketed household devices.
Popeil was not available for immediate comment,
but secret footage of a forthcoming informercial
was obtained, containing key Performer team
members and Popeil in an audience-style setting,
espousing the benefits of using Performer and a
Onyx Rack for drying fruits and vegetables.
A smaller version was shown using an O2 which was
capable of cooking a slice of Canadian bacon in
it's convenient auto-open tray. The same device would
play household audio CDs.
The new unit, according to sources, will be named
Out-Performer and will attempt a more mainstream
consumer appeal, including such features as
tuning Onyx temperature for optimal cooking and
drying time, three-hundred low monthly payments,
and the all-important big-red-stop-switch. The
device is promised to be UL listed and approved
and may come with extra CPUs, but only for a
limited time.
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