Redefining The Ubiquitous Computer Display - The Sgi 1600sw
Although best known for it’s powerful graphics workstations and supercomputers, SGI regularly produces related items of high technology. Back in 1998, SGI gave the monitor industry a boost by introducing the ground breaking 1600SW monitor.
The Silicon Graphics 1600SW is a flat panel monitor with a resolution of 1600×1024. It was, and remains, the only monitor to offer a full 16:10 aspect ratio, allowing exact work for computer effects artists, as well as being able to display two A4 pages of text side by side. The 1600SW won several awards for it’s innovative design, and the monitor’s brightness and high resolution still places it at the top end of monitor design, over 10 years later.
The monitor used the all digital OpenLDI interface, which required special graphics cards. Several models of SGI machine had the required connector either builtin, or available as an add-in card. Companies like 3D Labs also produced dedicated graphics cards with the special connector, allowing the 1600SW monitor to be used with standard PCs.
Since it’s introduction, many companies have also produced convertors, allowing modern video cards to be used with the OpenLDI interface. Over a decade after it’s introduction, the SGI 1600SW remains a high quality monitor that is very sought after by graphics professionals.