SGI Acquires Linux Networx Assets, LNXI Dead?

anzha writes "It seems that that Linux Networx, the pioneering Linux supercomputing company, has gone belly up. SGI announced that it has bought the core assets of LNXI. Furthermore, the rumors are that the doors were locked and employees were just given their paychecks. This analysis, on the other hand, claims that SGI has 'made employment offers to many LNXI engineers.' It's unclear what kind of support will be extended to customers of LNXI's Clusterworx Advanced products. What does this mean for the future of Linux supercomputing?"

"super"computing

[Gothmolly]

Isn't grid supercomputing best done on Macs, or via MOSIX, or a homebrew Beowulf cluster (insert joke here). I don't see this as enough of a commodity product to support a reseller-type market. If you need a linux supercomputer of OTS gear, you probably have enough eggheads on staff to build and support it.

Belly Up?

[eldavojohn]

"It seems that that Linux Networx, the pioneering Linux supercomputing company, has gone belly up."

What causes you to think that? Have they filed for bankruptcy? Is there some indication they were failing?

According to most definitions of 'belly up' [wiktionary.org]:

1. (idiomatic) Dead or defunct, often used with go, went, or turn. (see go belly-up)
After several financial failures, the organization went belly up.

I'm pretty sure that since SGI has slowly become a niche provider for creating solutions for a few specific customers, they see Linux Networx as another good partner in another niche market. SGI isn't at the greatness they once were but it looks like they're holding their own in what they are doing.

The future of Linux supercomputing

[jrumney]

What does this mean for the future of Linux supercomputing?

It means the future of Linux supercomputing will be backed by SGI. You don't think SGI bought an already dead company just to kill it, do you?

Re:Belly Up?

[neurovish]

"It seems that that Linux Networx, the pioneering Linux supercomputing company, has gone belly up."

What causes you to think that? Have they filed for bankruptcy? Is there some indication they were failing?

According to most definitions of 'belly up' [wiktionary.org]:

1. (idiomatic) Dead or defunct, often used with go, went, or turn. (see go belly-up)

                    After several financial failures, the organization went belly up.

I'm pretty sure that since SGI has slowly become a niche provider for creating solutions for a few specific customers, they see Linux Networx as another good partner in another niche market. SGI isn't at the greatness they once were but it looks like they're holding their own in what they are doing.

Since SGI hasn't turned a profit in forever and usually loses about $100M a year, I'd say that having your assets bought by them would qualify you for dead.

Oh fun

[downix]

The last time SGI bought a supercomputing company things did not go well. SGI has managed to shoot themselves in the foot constantly for over a decade. At one time, they were an industry leader (even have an Indy sitting before me now) now they're in trouble and know it. Their abandonment of MIPS and embrace of Itanium gained them short term benefits, but gutted the long term profitability and flexibility of the company. Now they're desperate for growth before the stockholders abandon them utterly.

Suggestion SGI, invest in new CPU's, the market is wide open for a solid x86 competitor now that PowerPC's given up the ghost there. Partner with Sun, use the OpenSPARC, make a consumerish-model that fits into customized Opteron motherboards, do something other than stand there admiring your own navel!