Indeed, McKenna has been telling users since February that he has a strategy for SGI. Earlier this year, he restructured the Mountain View, Calif.-based company, laying off about 250 employees -- 12 percent of its workforce -- and installing some new executives. Then came the decision, announced last Monday, to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as part of a reorganization plan that SGI agreed to with its senior lenders and debt holders.

On Wednesday, a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in New York gave SGI initial approval to use US$70 million in financing provided by a group of its bondholders to fund ongoing day-to-day operations during the migration process.

In an interview, McKenna said that no additional cutbacks are planned, and he asserted that the Chapter 11 filing won't disrupt SGI's operations.

"It's business as usual, and we will continue to reinforce that," he said, adding that SGI is moving ahead with plans to broaden its enterprise reach through the introduction of x86-based servers as well as blades running Intel Corp.'s Montecito dual-core processor. The new products will begin arriving next month, according to McKenna.

Analysts have blamed competition from low-cost x86 systems running Linux for SGI's financial plight. The company last week reported preliminary results for its third quarter, which ended March 31, saying that revenue totaled $108 million -- down from $159 million in the same quarter a year earlier. It posted a preliminary net loss of $43 million.