MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - Silicon Graphics (www.sgi.com) has extended its Prism family with the recent addition of an entry-level deskside system. The "Deskside System" is designed to support up to two Intel Itanium 2 processors and two ATI graphics processors.

SGI sees the Deskside System as a bridge between traditional workstations and its own rackmounted Prism visualization system. The Deskside is priced around $8,500 and offers users HD and 2K capabilities at a lower-cost than the rackmount version, but in a less-expandable configuration.

SGI says the Deskside System can be considered a replacement for the company's Tezro. Software makers, says an SGI rep, are already working on applications for the solution, which is now available.