Silicon Graphics made no bones about the fact it wanted shot of its MIPS division last year but now, according to reports, it's all got a little closer. The first fracture came the day Compaq's CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer arrived at a posh hotel in London the day the company took over Tandem. Some exec, obviously not press trained, told The Register that day that the Alpha architecture was obviously "more industry standard" than the MIPS architecture. Oops. Now, it seems, SGI is moving fast to divest itself of what remains of its MIPS biz. It will shed its $1 billion stake as fast as possibile between now and Autumn 2000 by a variety of cunning means. Instead it will concentrate on selling "powerful computers" for scientists, engineers and artists. At The Register, we didn't realise that the NSA, GCHQ et al were artists. Does Damien Hurst need Cray technology to dissect cows as part of the neurotic artists movement? ®