Edward R. McCracken

Last updated
Edward R. McCracken
OccupationExecutive
Known for CEO of Silicon Graphics

Edward McCracken is an American businessman who was CEO of Silicon Graphics (SGI) from 1984 to 1997. [1] Under his leadership, SGI grew from annual revenues of $5.4 million to $3.7 billion. [1] Prior to leading Silicon Graphics, he spent 16 years as an executive with Hewlett-Packard. [1]

Contents

McCracken became Chairman of SGI's board in 1994. [2] He also served on the boards of Digital Research and National Semiconductor. [3]

He was a "White House regular" during the Clinton administration [4] and appeared with Bill Clinton and Al Gore to promote the benefits of technology. [1]

Education

McCracken earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University in 1966 [3] and an MBA from Stanford University. [5]

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MIPS Technologies</span> American fabless semiconductor design company

MIPS Tech LLC, formerly MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. and MIPS Technologies, Inc., is an American fabless semiconductor design company that is most widely known for developing the MIPS architecture and a series of RISC CPU chips based on it. MIPS provides processor architectures and cores for digital home, networking, embedded, Internet of things and mobile applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silicon Graphics</span> 1981–2009 American computing company

Silicon Graphics, Inc. was an American high-performance computing manufacturer, producing computer hardware and software. Founded in Mountain View, California in November 1981 by James Clark, its initial market was 3D graphics computer workstations, but its products, strategies and market positions developed significantly over time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James H. Clark</span> American computer scientist and entrepreneur

James Henry Clark is an American entrepreneur and computer scientist. He founded several notable Silicon Valley technology companies, including Silicon Graphics, Netscape, myCFO, and Healtheon. His research work in computer graphics led to the development of systems for the fast rendering of three-dimensional computer images.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alias Systems Corporation</span>

Alias Systems Corporation, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was a software company that produced high-end 3D graphics software. Alias was eventually bought by Autodesk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Geschke</span> American computer scientist and co-founder of Adobe (1939–2021)

Charles Matthew "Chuck" Geschke was an American businessman and computer scientist best known for founding the graphics and publishing software company Adobe Inc. with John Warnock in 1982, with whom he also co-created the PDF document format.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marc Andreessen</span> American entrepreneur, investor, and software engineer (born 1971)

Marc Lowell Andreessen is an American businessman and software engineer. He is the co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used web browser with a graphical user interface; co-founder of Netscape; and co-founder and general partner of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He co-founded and later sold the software company Opsware to Hewlett-Packard. Andreessen is also a co-founder of Ning, a company that provides a platform for social networking websites and an inductee in the World Wide Web Hall of Fame. Andreessen's net-worth is estimated at $1.7 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Polese</span> American entrepreneur and technology executive

Kim Karin Polese is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and technology executive. She serves as Chairwoman of CrowdSmart Inc., a software products company.

Autodesk Media and Entertainment is a division of Autodesk which offers animation and visual effects products, and was formed by the combination of multiple acquisitions. In 2018, the company began operating as a single operating segment and reporting unit.

NUMAlink is a system interconnect developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) for use in its distributed shared memory ccNUMA computer systems. NUMAlink was originally developed by SGI for their Origin 2000 and Onyx2 systems. At the time of these systems' introduction, it was branded as "CrayLink" during SGI's brief ownership of Cray Research.

Engineering Animation, Inc., or EAI, was a services and software company based in Ames, Iowa, United States. It remained headquartered there from its incorporation in 1990 until it was acquired in 2000 by Unigraphics Solutions, Inc., now a subsidiary of the German technology multinational Siemens AG. During its existence, EAI produced animations to support litigants in court, wrote and sold animation and visualization software, and developed a number of multimedia medical and computer game titles. Part of EAI's business now exists in a spin-off company, Demonstratives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurt Akeley</span> American computer graphics engineer

Kurt Akeley is an American computer graphics engineer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Real3D</span>

Real3D, Inc. was a maker of arcade graphics boards, a spin-off from Lockheed Martin. The company made several 3D hardware designs that were used by Sega, the most widely used being the graphics hardware in the Sega Model 2 and Model 3 arcade systems. A partnership with Intel and SGI led to the Intel740 graphics card, which was not successful in the market. Rapid changes in the marketplace led to the company being sold to Intel in 1999.

Wavefront Technologies was a computer graphics company that developed and sold animation software used in Hollywood motion pictures and other industries. It was founded in 1984, in Santa Barbara, California, by Bill Kovacs, Larry Barels, Mark Sylvester. They started the company to produce computer graphics for movies and television commercials, and to market their own software, as there were no off-the-shelf computer animation tools available at the time. In 1995, Wavefront Technologies was acquired by Silicon Graphics, and merged with Alias Research to form Alias|Wavefront.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Belluzzo</span> American businessman

Richard "Rick" Belluzzo is an American businessman who worked as an executive at Hewlett-Packard (HP), Silicon Graphics (SGI), Microsoft (MS), Quantum Corp. (QTM), and Viavi Solutions (VIAV). He has served on the board of directors of several technology companies. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Golden Gate University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Burgess</span> Canadian businessman

Rob Burgess is a Canadian executive in the technology industry. He was the chief executive officer of Macromedia Inc. from 1996 to 2005 and chairman from 1997 to 2005. Prior to that, he was CEO of Alias Research from 1991 to 1995.

IrisVision is an expansion card developed by Silicon Graphics for IBM compatible PCs in 1991 and is one of the first 3D accelerator cards available for the high end PC market. IrisVision is an adaptation of the graphics pipeline from the Personal IRIS workstation to the Micro Channel architecture and consumer ISA buses of most modern PCs of the day. It has the first variant of IRIS GL ported to the PC, predating OpenGL.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silicon Graphics International</span> Former computer hardware and software company

Silicon Graphics International Corp. was an American manufacturer of computer hardware and software, including high-performance computing systems, x86-based servers for datacenter deployment, and visualization products. The company was founded as Rackable Systems in 1999, but adopted the "SGI" name in 2009 after acquiring Silicon Graphics Inc. out of bankruptcy.

Siemens Digital Industries Software is an American computer software company specializing in 3D & 2D Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software. The company is a business unit of Siemens, operates under the legal name of Siemens Industry Software Inc, and is headquartered in Plano, Texas.

VREAM, Inc. was a US technology company that functioned between 1991 and 1996. It was one of the first companies to develop PC-based software for authoring and viewing virtual reality (VR) environments.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Einstein, David (October 29, 1997). "McCracken leaves SGI; 700 to 1000 laid off". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 30 December 2013.
  2. Galante, Suzanne; Clark, Tim (October 29, 1997). "McCracken: It became personal". CNet . Retrieved 30 December 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Edward McCracken:Developer of 3d Graphics Machines That Helped Launch The World Of "Virtual Reality"". Alumni Profiles. Iowa State University . Retrieved 30 December 2013.
  4. Hof, Robert D. (August 4, 1997). "The Sad Saga of Silicon Graphics". Business Week . Archived from the original on 30 December 2013. Retrieved 30 December 2013.
  5. Pelline, Jeff (March 5, 1996). "Silicon Graphics Tries To Turn the Tide". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 30 December 2013.
  6. "Recipients 1995". National Medal of Technology and Innovation . United States Patent and Trademark Office . Retrieved 30 December 2013.
Preceded by CEO Silicon Graphics
1994–1998
Succeeded by