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SpatialNews.com Press Release
 Wireless News - Business News - Feature Columns
Space Imaging Purchases Satellite Ground Stations Powered by SGI High-Performance Computer SystemsMOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (May 15, 2000)-SGI (NYSE: SGI) announced today that Space Imaging has purchased six satellite ground stations powered by SGITM OriginTM 2000* computer servers to capture and process the high-resolution imagery data transmitted to Earth by Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite, the first satellite to produce commercial high-resolution one-meter geospatial imagery of Earth. The ground stations, developed by Raytheon Company, will be deployed at new Space Imaging regional affiliates overseas. Currently, SGI Origin 2000 servers are used in Space Imaging's primary ground station in Denver and at a Space Imaging regional affiliate ground station located in Greece. "Raytheon is the leader in large-scale, high-volume ground processing systems and they turned to SGI because it has traditionally provided the high-end graphics capability required to process one-meter imagery," said John R. Copple, CEO, Space Imaging. The SGI Origin 2000 systems are used in the Space Imaging ground stations to process the large files of imagery data transmitted to Earth by the IKONOS satellite, which became the first satellite to produce commercial one-meter high-resolution satellite imagery of Earth after its successful launch in September 1999. The availability of commercial one-meter high-resolution Earth imagery promises to open new markets valued at billions of dollars, according to industry analysts. Prior to the IKONOS launch, high-resolution one-meter satellite imagery was available only for military and intelligence community use. The IKONOS one-meter commercial high-resolution imagery can distinguish objects on the earth's surface such as cars and trucks, roads, pipelines, individual trees, houses, large equipment, boats, ships and airplanes, from some 400 miles above the earth. IKONOS is producing imagery that can be used for a variety of market applications, including urban planning, environmental monitoring, mapping, natural disaster assessment, telecommunications network planning, oil and gas exploration, and agricultural monitoring. "Throughout the entire geospatial-imaging food chain, SGI is partnered with world-class system integrators and solution providers to cost-effectively help companies like Space Imaging and their customers solve the world's big data problems like no other," said Anthony Robbins, president, SGI Federal. SGI is the leading provider of commercial off-the-shelf computer systems that are powerful enough to provide real-time image processing in the new emerging commercial one-meter high-resolution geographic imaging market. SGITM systems provide cost-effective supercomputer bandwidth, throughput and processing power to combine image processing, remote sensing and satellite-derived photographic data, producing high-resolution, 3D models of the world that can be managed and presented in real time. In addition to providing the Origin 2000 servers for use in Space Imaging ground stations, SGI also provides computer hardware, software and consulting services to Space Imaging for training, imagery exploitation systems and geospatial visualization applications. The SGI Origin 2000 server family is used for high-performance, computationally intensive applications in business, government and the scientific and technical communities. Use of SGITM MIPS® processors, combined with its IRIX® operating system and ccNUMA architecture in a 64-bit scalable server environment, allows Origin 2000 servers to scale to thousands of processors, providing the opportunity to seamlessly grow as customer requirements demand. Space Imaging, based in Thornton, Colo., is a leading supplier of space imagery, aerial photography, mapping services and derivative geographic information products and services. SGI provides a broad range of high-performance computing and advanced graphics solutions that enable customers to understand and conquer their toughest computing problems. Headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., with offices worldwide, the company is located on the Web at www.sgi.com. *Origin 2000 is now being marketed and sold as the SGITM 2000 series. www.sgi.com |
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