Short answers, pulled from the story.
James H. Clark founded Silicon Graphics in 1981 after leaving his tenure-track professorship at Stanford University. He assembled a team of seven graduate students and research staff to build the Geometry Engine chip.
All films nominated for an Academy Award for Distinguished Achievement in Visual Effects were created on Silicon Graphics computer systems for eight consecutive years between 1995 and 2002. The company's systems became the industry standard for visual effects during this period.
Silicon Graphics signed a deal with Nintendo to develop the Reality Coprocessor in early 1993. The agreement was made public in August 1993, and the Nintendo 64 console was released in 1996.
Silicon Graphics declined due to strategic missteps including abandoning its MIPS architecture for Intel's Itanium processor and financial failures with Windows NT workstations. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on the 8th of May 2006.
On the 1st of April 2009, Silicon Graphics filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy again and announced it would sell substantially all of its assets to Rackable Systems. The sale was finalized on the 11th of May 2009 for $42.5 million.