Graphic Display

Forget the Information Superhighway. A select few computer 
whizzes have grown weary of the slow pace and have forged 
onto their own byway: The Infobahn, one writer has called it. 
And nobody is cruising the 'bahn faster or with more flash 
than 1966 electrical engineering graduate Edward McCracken.

Uncannily, McCracken's company, Silicon Graphics Inc., has 
managed to emerge far ahead of the rest of the computer 
industry's traveling-at-the-speed-of-light pack. Mountain 
View, Calif.-based SGI may not yet have the name recognition 
of an Apple or an IBM, but, especially since McCracken's 
ascension to chairman and CEO early last year, it has swept 
over the computer industry like a tsunami.

In a cover story last July, Business Week magazine described 
SGI as "the most magical computer maker on the planet," one 
that is "pushing the computer industry into a new dimension."

Namely the third dimension. From bringing JFK and 
velociraptors back to life in the movies Forrest Gump and 
Jurassic Park to helping doctors locate tumors and designers 
minimize ice cream bar meltdown, SGI technology has hurled 
computing into 3-D like none of its many predecessors.

While the '90s have produced their share of computer crashes, 
McCracken's SGI has soared: After losing $100 million due to 
merger-related costs in 1992, the company will net an 
estimated $200 million this year. Under McCracken, the 
company has grown in revenue from $5 million to $2 billion.

McCracken, who worked for 16 years at Hewlett-Packard, has 
performed the rejuvenation by masterminding an unprecedented 
series of partnerships with the likes of Compaq, Microsoft, 
Time Warner Cable, Sony and AT&T.

And he hasn't forgotten his initial partnership -- that with 
Iowa State. In 1992, he donated more than $5 million in SGI 
equip-ment to the university. The donation has helped the 
university provide its students access to some of the most 
advanced com-puter equipment in all of higher education.

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contact:  Internal Communications, (515) 294-3129
updated:  5-25-95