On 22/10/2007 22:20, Jan-Benedict Glaw wrote:
On Mon, 2007-10-22 19:05:41 -0300, Alexandre Souza
<alexandre-listas at e-secure.com.br> wrote:
Well, seems that now is my time...
I have the oportunity of - at least - putting my dirty hands into a SGI
indigo! :oD
My questions:
- How fast is it?
Slow. It's a 32bit R3000-based machine IIRC.
Unless of course you have an R4000 Indigo, which is 3-4 times faster
than the 33MHz R3000 ones. Still slower than a 200MHz Pentium, though.
However, it's subjectively not as slow as you might expect if you run
a sensible version of Irix, rather than the bloat that may be found in
some other OSs for other architectures.
- What can
I run on that?
Irix 5.4 is IIRC the last version running on the Indigo. (There is, by
the way, a clone built by Siemens Nixdorf namend RW320.) If memory
serves me correctly, there was also a Plan9 port at some time, but I
won't bet on it to still work.
I think Jan means 5.3 (there is no 5.4). However the R4K version can
run 6.2 and IIRC versions of 6.5 up to 6.5.22, same as an R4K series Indy.
As for applications, a lot of the later Irix freeware (and all the stuff
you'll find on Nekochan) was compiled for later architectures and won't
run on the Indigos. However, there's still stuff to be found on the
net, and I'm sure other list members have copies of things, like me.
Linux won't run on that box, but there are
references for NetBSD on
this hardware.
- Does it use any kind of special memory?
It does.
- Can I use a PC mouse/keyboard with that?
You cannot. You need to use a SGI keyboard and mouse. You can, of
course, access the box via serial console connected to a PC. But keep
in mind that it uses a mini-DIN 7pin connector (somewhat uncommen.)
Also the serial line driver isn't all that well-protected for
electrostatic discharges. I killed one and it was hard to find a new
driver chip...
9-pin miniDIN, actually.
- Are the
monitor frequencies suitable for a modern PC monitor?
They aren't. It's sync-on-green, so you either need a good monitor and
you definitively need an adaptor.
The frequencies are OK, and many modern monitors are fine. There are
several graphics variants for the Indigo, and most of them will drive an
SVGA-type monitor with no problem. We used to use Iiyamas a lot.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York