5 Jan
2008
5 Jan
'08
8:46 a.m.
On Jan 5, 2008, at 8:20 AM, cctalk-request at classiccmp.org Richard wrote:
Oh, a VGXT. I've wanted one of those in my
collection as its the
first SGI machine with hardware texture. I'm still fuzzy on what the
difference is between a Crimson and a VGXT, aside from the graphics
bits.
Crimson is the base machine, VGXT is the graphics set - similar to what
you get with smaller boxes (i.e. you can have an Indigo2 in XL,
EXtreme, IMPACT, etc.). VGXT is the 3rd generation high end SGI
graphics (1st - IRIS graphics, 2nd - GTX, 3rd - VGX(T), 4th - Reality)
Jason T wrote:
I believe the
Server had no gfx at all? Now inside the door I also found an "Elan"
tag with the glue worn off, so I'm guessing it may have gotten a field
upgrade, video card and label.
I've got a dead Iris 410/VGXT downstairs. Wonder if I can transplant
the gfx board from that into the Crimson?
Servers (S) didn't come with graphics. Later SGI separated out their
server lines even more with a different base name (Challenge/Origin),
but during the late '80s the base model was the same.
Regarding the gfx upgrade:
You can, but SGI never wrote a good OpenGL implementation for the
PowerVision VGX/VGXTgraphics hardware, so much of the work is done by
the main CPU (IRIS GL is fully supported). So, it depends on what you
want to do with it...
Anyone tried to use external SCSI on a Crimson (or Iris?) Mine has
all the drive bays full (3 HDD and a 150mb tape) and I'm trying to get
a CDROM hooked up temporarily so I can reset the root pw on the drive.
There are two external SCSI connectors. If I attach to the left
one, I lose my hard drives (and still no cdrom seen in 'hinv.') If I
attach to the right one, nothing.
It should be the one on the cardcage (make sure termination is good).
If that doesn't work, you can loop it in the two connectors on the
bottom right (one cable from lower connector to CD-ROM, one cable from
CD-ROM to top connector). Is the jumper present? There should be a
short cable between the two, and you might have oddities if this isn't
there (such as the cardcage connector not functioning).
One possible gotcha- IRIX 6.2 fx for the Crimson is broken, so you'll
need to fx with either an earlier IRIX (4.0.5-5.3) or fx on a different
SGI.
All of this is per the SGI hardware developer's handbook, I don't have
a Crimson.