10 May
2006
10 May
'06
9:32 p.m.
Hi,
I've got an Indy that I would like to get working.
The first thing I notice is a *slot* (in the plastic
housing) for some sort of removable media (floppy?)
but no corresponding drive inside.
Is this intended for a floppy? Or, some other
similar (physical) sized medium? I assume that
whatever sort of drive it is, it uses a SCSI interface
(I don't see any other provisions)?
How is (whatever) *mounted*? There is a sled for
hard disk in the "slot" below this but no obvious
clues as to how to mount anything *above*!
And, what sorts of add-ons (?) mate to the main
board (I see what appear to be two daughtercard
conectors).
Lastly, is any of this worth playing with?
Thanks!
--don
10 May
10 May
10:03 p.m.
Hello Don,
Thursday, May 11, 2006, 3:32:47 AM, you wrote:
Is this intended for a floppy? Or, some other
similar (physical) sized medium? I assume that
whatever sort of drive it is, it uses a SCSI interface
(I don't see any other provisions)?
the slot was used for the optional floptical drive.
How is (whatever) *mounted*? There is a sled for
hard disk in the "slot" below this but no obvious
clues as to how to mount anything *above*!
The floptical is mounted in just another drivesled on top of the
existing one. As far as I recall this requires that the drive doesn't
have it's plastic front cover installed:
http://storage.g-lenerz.de/images/sgistuff/indy-1601-drives.jpg
And, what sorts of add-ons (?) mate to the main
board (I see what appear to be two daughtercard
conectors).
This the GIO32 bus. Some cards that could be installed on top of the
graphics board were additional network/SCSI controllers or video
options.
Lastly, is any of this worth playing with?
Depends. If you are interested in UNIX workstations and haven't seen
IRIX then probably yes. All in all it's -depending on the actual
configuration- a decent 10+ year old machine which runs pretty silent
und makes for example a fine X terminal.
--
Best regards,
Gerhard mailto:mail at g-lenerz.de
11 May
11 May
10:20 a.m.
Greetings!
Gerhard Lenerz wrote:
Ah, OK. This looks the same as what I have -- less the
drive, of course.
I can't see any need (for *me*) for a second NIC -- at least
not in *this* box. And, I can probably dangle an external
CD, disk, etc. off the internal SCSI (via the HD50 connector
on the back). Is it safe to assume that the "built in"
video is "good enough"? Or, to get "good" video (wasn't
SGI *known* for "good video"?) do I need to add something?
I am more interested in seeing what IRIX is like and the quality
of the video and audio. I am not (as) concerned with speed.
Thanks!
--don
Is this
intended for a floppy? Or, some other
similar (physical) sized medium? I assume that
whatever sort of drive it is, it uses a SCSI interface
(I don't see any other provisions)?
the slot was used for the optional floptical drive.
How is (whatever) *mounted*? There is a sled
for
hard disk in the "slot" below this but no obvious
clues as to how to mount anything *above*!
The floptical is mounted in just another drivesled on top of the
existing one. As far as I recall this requires that the drive doesn't
have it's plastic front cover installed:
http://storage.g-lenerz.de/images/sgistuff/indy-1601-drives.jpg And, what
sorts of add-ons (?) mate to the main
board (I see what appear to be two daughtercard
conectors).
This the GIO32 bus. Some cards that could be installed on top of the
graphics board were additional network/SCSI controllers or video
options. Lastly, is any
of this worth playing with?
Depends. If you are interested in UNIX workstations and haven't seen
IRIX then probably yes. All in all it's -depending on the actual
configuration- a decent 10+ year old machine which runs pretty silent
und makes for example a fine X terminal. 
10:25 a.m.
Don Y wrote:
I can't see any need (for *me*) for a second NIC
-- at least
not in *this* box. And, I can probably dangle an external
CD, disk, etc. off the internal SCSI (via the HD50 connector
on the back).
SGI machines do seem a bit funny about which CDROM drives they'll work with,
at least at OS installation time. I've seen several drives that work fine on
SGI 4D machines but not on Indys, and vice-versa. (it goes without saying that
you'll need a drive that'll do 512-byte blocks rather than the PC world's 2048
bytes)
Is it safe to assume that the "built in"
video is "good enough"?
Even the standard 8-bit video's pretty responsive. I don't think Indys were
ever aimed at *serious* video though; I think choices are limited unlike a lot
of their bigger machines. They were more intended as affordable workstations
that could act as visual front-ends to bigger and better SGI systems.
cheers
Jules
9:46 a.m.
At 03:25 PM 5/11/06 +0100, you wrote:
lot
Don Y wrote:
that
I can't see any need (for *me*) for a second
NIC -- at least
not in *this* box. And, I can probably dangle an external
CD, disk, etc. off the internal SCSI (via the HD50 connector
on the back).
SGI machines do seem a bit funny about which CDROM drives they'll work with,
at least at OS installation time. I've seen several drives that work fine on
SGI 4D machines but not on Indys, and vice-versa. (it goes without saying you'll need a drive that'll do 512-byte blocks
rather than the PC world's
2048
bytes)
SOME of the SGIs and SOME of the SUN computers suffer from the same
problem. That is that they don't issue a command to the drive to set the
number of bytes per sector but they expect to get X (256 IIRC)
bytes/sector. IF the drive defaults to that then everything is fine. If it
doesn't then the installation aborts with a read error. AFIK this only
happens when you try to install the SW using the built-in ROM software. The
complete running OS doesn't have this problem. Note that later SUNS and
SGIs DO issue the proper command so you can use just about any drive with
them. But if you're using the earlier computers then you need to use a
drive that defaults to the correct number of bytes/sector. Some of the
drives (Toshiba IIRC) have an undocumented jumper on them that allows you
to change the default bytes/sector. Once you do, those drives will work
fine. This is a KNOWN problem in the SUN IPCs but the later IPXs corrected
this problem. Search the net and you'll find it documented with more
specifics in several places.
Joe
Is it safe to assume that the "built
in"
video is "good enough"?
Even the standard 8-bit video's pretty responsive. I don't think Indys were
ever aimed at *serious* video though; I think choices are limited unlike a of their bigger machines. They were more intended as
affordable workstations
that could act as visual front-ends to bigger and better SGI systems.
cheers
Jules
10:42 a.m.
New subject: Stewpit Indy questions <:-/
On 5/11/06, Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Don Y wrote:
I've been using some 12X and 24x SCSI Toshiba's on both of my Indy's
(R4400 and R5000). I did have problems with the same drives on the
Indigo's so I picked up a couple of old external Toshiba's (1x or 2x)
that were the same vintage as the Indigo's. They seem to work well
but they are the older caddy style drives.
--
www.blackcube.org - The Texas State Home for Wayward and Orphaned Computers
www.blackcube.org/personal/index.html - Personal web page
I can't see any need (for *me*) for a second
NIC -- at least
not in *this* box. And, I can probably dangle an external
CD, disk, etc. off the internal SCSI (via the HD50 connector
on the back).
SGI machines do seem a bit funny about which CDROM drives they'll work with,
at least at OS installation time. I've seen several drives that work fine on
SGI 4D machines but not on Indys, and vice-versa. (it goes without saying that
you'll need a drive that'll do 512-byte blocks rather than the PC world's
2048
bytes)
Is it safe to assume that the "built
in"
video is "good enough"?
Even the standard 8-bit video's pretty responsive. I don't think Indys were
ever aimed at *serious* video though; I think choices are limited unlike a lot
of their bigger machines. They were more intended as affordable workstations
that could act as visual front-ends to bigger and better SGI systems.
cheers
Jules
12:11 p.m.
New subject: Caddy CD-ROM drives (was: Stewpit Indy questions <:-/)
In article <af4d09740605110742p10c3b4f7j248e084df1c0634a at mail.gmail.com>,
"James Rice" <james.rice at gmail.com> writes:
I've been using some 12X and 24x SCSI
Toshiba's on both of my Indy's
(R4400 and R5000). I did have problems with the same drives on the
Indigo's so I picked up a couple of old external Toshiba's (1x or 2x)
that were the same vintage as the Indigo's. They seem to work well
but they are the older caddy style drives.
Speaking of which...
I never understood why CD-ROM drives used the caddy thing. Why not
just use a tray like the drives have now?
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ:
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/>
Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty
<http://pilgrimage.scene.org>
1:12 p.m.
New subject: Caddy CD-ROM drives (was: Stewpit Indy questions <:-/)
On Thu, 11 May 2006, Richard wrote:
Speaking of which...
I never understood why CD-ROM drives used the caddy thing. Why not
just use a tray like the drives have now?
Most of the content media used to be fairly expensive. With the exception
of shovel-ware, even trivial products were in the hundred-plus dollar
range.
The perception was that caddies would protect the valuable discs.
Eventually it became clear that CDs could usually handle the level of
abuse of users changing them in a tray.
What was even funnier was that most libraries would dedicate a machine for
each disc! Thus, a request to purchase any CD-ROM was budgeted as a
complete system. They couldn't understand that that was like having a VCR
for each VHS tape.
I offered to donate a small collection to the college, but they couldn't
"afford to buy that many more machines"!
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com
1:38 p.m.
New subject: Caddy CD-ROM drives
Richard wrote:
In article
<af4d09740605110742p10c3b4f7j248e084df1c0634a at mail.gmail.com>,
"James Rice" <james.rice at gmail.com> writes:
I never understood why CD-ROM drives used the caddy thing. Why not
just use a tray like the drives have now?
I believe that the DVD-RAM that pioneer pushed required a carrier, and
it was
done on those drives so that the same form factor carrier was used on
both, read
only and read/write.
Jim
2:02 p.m.
New subject: Caddy CD-ROM drives
> I never understood why CD-ROM drives used the
caddy thing. Why not
> just use a tray like the drives have now?
One imagines that they were invented for _Radio Stations_ for CD audio
that had to be changed quickly and basically "thrown around" in heavy use.
Nowadays they just use a big harddrive with menuselects.
John A.
1:53 p.m.
New subject: Caddy CD-ROM drives (was: Stewpit Indy questions <:-/)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard" <legalize at xmission.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2006 12:11 PM
Subject: Caddy CD-ROM drives (was: Stewpit Indy questions <:-/)
In article <af4d09740605110742p10c3b4f7j248e084df1c0634a at mail.gmail.com>,
"James Rice" <james.rice at gmail.com> writes:
Early CDROM drives (and CDR drives) were expensive and the caddy system was
rated at 2x or more insertions compared to other types. I guess they were
under the impression that those drives would be used for a decade and should
last a long time. Once CDROM speed started going up, prices started to drop,
and trays became more reliable caddy drives disappeared.
I've been using some 12X and 24x SCSI
Toshiba's on both of my Indy's
(R4400 and R5000). I did have problems with the same drives on the
Indigo's so I picked up a couple of old external Toshiba's (1x or 2x)
that were the same vintage as the Indigo's. They seem to work well
but they are the older caddy style drives.
Speaking of which...
I never understood why CD-ROM drives used the caddy thing. Why not
just use a tray like the drives have now?
-- 
2:13 p.m.
New subject: Caddy CD-ROM drives (was: Stewpit Indy questions <:-/)
At 1:53 PM -0400 5/11/06, Teo Zenios wrote:
Early CDROM drives (and CDR drives) were expensive and
the caddy system was
rated at 2x or more insertions compared to other types. I guess they were
under the impression that those drives would be used for a decade and should
last a long time. Once CDROM speed started going up, prices started to drop,
and trays became more reliable caddy drives disappeared.
My first CD-ROM drive was an NEC that looks like a discman. My
second was a tray loading 4x Panasonic (I still use this drive
regularly as it's external SCSI and does 512-byte blocks). One of my
favorite drives is the 8x SCSI Plextor caddy drive in my PDP-11/73.
My other favorite is a 32x UW-SCSI Plextor in my DEC PWS 433au
(running OpenVMS). I'm also rather fond of the 16x Plextor SCSI
burner :^)
I find the Caddy drive in the PDP-11 to be very useful as I have far
more caddies than I do PDP-11 CD's. That way I just store the
caddies in a CD storage rack, and slip them in the drive when I need
one.
BTW, I've used that Panasonic for over 10 years now.
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
7:28 p.m.
New subject: Now on to sum Indigo 2 questions was Re: Stewpit Indy questions <:-/
I've been successful in actually obtaining IRIX 6.5.?,
being that the gov't took the liberty of wiping the
hard drives clean. Each comes with at least a whopping
2 gig hard drive, some actually have 2 of these.
Egads. I can't imagine this level of storage being
very useful, being that the 6.5.? distribution resides
on 18 compact disks, but what do I know. But I
obtained these bizzarish 9.1 gig SCSI hard drives at a
computer show. They were destined for use in some
Unisys box, and are encapsulated in a plastic
cartridge/caddy thing. I'm guessing the interface is
SCA, although it differs from the plug that accepts
the drive sled in my Indigo 2's (they won't fit, I
tried). I guess I should have secured the part numbers
of the drive at least (Fujitsu), and I'll do that in a
follow up posting. I'd like to use them in these
things, and in fact have no other good use for SCSI
drives these days. Possibly a vintage Mac...the newer
ones, like the G3 Imac I obtained at the same show,
use IDE's IINM. I read somewhere that these SGI boxes
can use ANY? SCSI drive, provided they're not HDV. If
indeed this is true, is it also true for the Indy's,
being I got 2 of those in the same acquistion.
I guess I should summarize what it is I want to know.
Is there a way of adapting these drives for use in the
I2's, and what is it I'll need. I am not adverse to
sawing, filing, etc. if need be to adapt the original
SGI drive sleds to accept these things.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
2:18 p.m.
Jules Richardson wrote:
Ah, OK. I know the VW320 is allegedly pretty capable.
I had assumed this was a "family trait". :>
<shrug> I'll see once I get it running...
Don Y wrote:
I think I should be OK, there. I've been through the same
issue with Sun machines... :-(
I can't see any need (for *me*) for a second
NIC -- at least
not in *this* box. And, I can probably dangle an external
CD, disk, etc. off the internal SCSI (via the HD50 connector
on the back).
SGI machines do seem a bit funny about which CDROM drives they'll work
with, at least at OS installation time. I've seen several drives that
work fine on SGI 4D machines but not on Indys, and vice-versa. (it goes
without saying that you'll need a drive that'll do 512-byte blocks
rather than the PC world's 2048 bytes) Is it safe to
assume that the "built in"
video is "good enough"?
Even the standard 8-bit video's pretty responsive. I don't think Indys
were ever aimed at *serious* video though; I think choices are limited
unlike a lot of their bigger machines. They were more intended as
affordable workstations that could act as visual front-ends to bigger
and better SGI systems.
1:15 p.m.
Hello Don,
Thursday, May 11, 2006, 4:20:20 PM, you wrote:
I can't see any need (for *me*) for a second NIC
-- at least
not in *this* box. And, I can probably dangle an external
CD, disk, etc. off the internal SCSI (via the HD50 connector
on the back).
no real problems to be expected with that.
Is it safe to assume that the "built in"
video is "good enough"?
Depends. Assuming there is one large daughtercard installed towards
the back of the machine and it *has* the two connectors on top (as
shown in the picture) then it is either 24bit or 8bit XL graphics
which is in any case pretty nice for 2D, but does not really do 3D in
hardware. 8bit graphics isn't all too bad on SGIs unless you really
need a lot of color.
Or, to get "good" video (wasn't SGI
*known* for "good video"?) do I
need to add something?
Talking of video I was thinking of for example S-Video / Composite
Video In/Out for some more advance capturing and stuff like that.
--
Best regards,
Gerhard mailto:mail at g-lenerz.de
2:28 p.m.
Gerhard Lenerz wrote:
There are a bunch of connectors on the rear. One, I am told, is
for a camera. Another RCA jack I assume is RS-170 (?) out.
Another 4 pin mini-circular DIN is perhaps "camera control"?
Aside from audio in, out, mic and headphones, there is something
that appears (from the icon) to be "bidirectional audio"?
And, an intriguing connector that suggests control for LCD glasses??
I assume the AUI connector shares the same network I/F as the
RJ45?
Hello Don,
Thursday, May 11, 2006, 4:20:20 PM, you wrote:
A large card ("Newport Graphics"?) but appears that 4 RAMs (?)
were not populated at initial manufacture (which suggests it
is a lower-end card?)
I can't see any need (for *me*) for a second
NIC -- at least
not in *this* box. And, I can probably dangle an external
CD, disk, etc. off the internal SCSI (via the HD50 connector
on the back).
no real problems to be expected with that.
Is it safe to assume that the "built
in" video is "good enough"?
Depends. Assuming there is one large daughtercard installed towards
the back of the machine and it *has* the two connectors on top (as
shown in the picture) then it is either 24bit or 8bit XL graphics
which is in any case pretty nice for 2D, but does not really do 3D in
hardware. 8bit graphics isn't all too bad on SGIs unless you really
need a lot of color. Or, to get
"good" video (wasn't SGI *known* for "good video"?) do I
need to add something?
Talking of video I was thinking of for example S-Video / Composite
Video In/Out for some more advance capturing and stuff like that. 
2:32 p.m.
On 5/11/06 8:28 PM, Don Y wrote:
A large card ("Newport Graphics"?) but
appears that 4 RAMs (?)
were not populated at initial manufacture (which suggests it
is a lower-end card?)
Yeah. XL-8: 8-bit, non-accelerated video.
There are a bunch of connectors on the rear. One, I
am told, is
for a camera. Another RCA jack I assume is RS-170 (?) out.
Another 4 pin mini-circular DIN is perhaps "camera control"?
No, S-video.
Aside from audio in, out, mic and headphones, there is
something
that appears (from the icon) to be "bidirectional audio"?
Digital (S/P-DIF) audio I/O.
And, an intriguing connector that suggests control for
LCD glasses??
Correct.
I assume the AUI connector shares the same network I/F
as the
RJ45?
Correct.
You might want to read this:
<http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/tpl/cgi-bin/browse.cgi?coll=hdwr&db=bks&cmd
=toc&pth=/SGI_EndUser/Indy_OwnerGd&html=1&srch=indy>, or download the PDF
version.
,xtG
.tsooJ
--
I got kicked out of Barnes & Noble once for moving all the bibles
into the fiction section
--
Joost van de Griek
<http://www.jvdg.net/>
11 May
11 May
7:12 p.m.
Thursday, May 11, 2006, 8:28:43 PM, you wrote:
A large card ("Newport Graphics"?) but
appears that 4 RAMs (?)
were not populated at initial manufacture (which suggests it
is a lower-end card?)
Newport is XL graphics. If there is free space where memory would fit
then it is 8bit otherwise 24 bit. You could also try and google up the
part number (the 030-xxxx-yyy number).
There are a bunch of connectors on the rear. One, I
am told, is
for a camera. Another RCA jack I assume is RS-170 (?) out.
Another 4 pin mini-circular DIN is perhaps "camera control"?
Sounds like pretty standard. The 4 pin mini DIN connector located near
to the RCA jack is S-Video input. The strange connector left of that
one (just before the ISDN port) is for the IndyCam.
Standard graphics output is 1280*1024 and if possible 72 Hz using
Sync-On-Green. Should work fine with any SOG capable display.
Aside from audio in, out, mic and headphones, there is
something
that appears (from the icon) to be "bidirectional audio"?
Hmmm... right now I'm not sure about that one. I never really bothered
too much with audio functions.
And, an intriguing connector that suggests control for
LCD glasses??
Yup.
I assume the AUI connector shares the same network I/F
as the
RJ45?
Indeed. You can use either of the two but not both at the same time. I
*think* if RJ45 is used, the AUI port is disabled.
Regarding CD-ROM drives I wouldn't give too many thoughts about that
problem. I usually use a variety of 32x and 40x Plextors with my old
SGIs including a batch of Indy and Indigo 2 systems as well as even
older iron. No unexpected troubles... so far.
--
Best regards,
Gerhard mailto:mail at g-lenerz.de
8:36 p.m.
some good sites for info on the SGI stuph would be:
siliconbunny.com
obsolyte.com - kewell dude, gave me an IBM System/23
Datamaster phor phree!
http://vintagecomputers.info/sgi.html - if you google
"Ian Mapleson" you'll find a course by this guy on
YEWNIKS administration. Some of these SGI goorews are
pretty sick...
Gerhard's site looks exceptionally interesting too,
haven't been there before. Of course, I have to be the
one to issue the link though, jeez:
http://sgistuff.g-lenerz.de/
__________________________________________________
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10:43 p.m.
Gerhard Lenerz wrote:
Thursday, May 11, 2006, 8:28:43 PM, you wrote:
I seem to remember that it is possible to turn an 8-bit board into a 24-bit
one if you fancy some surface-mount soldering and have a couple of surplus
8-bit boards for the chips...
(Pete Turnbull will know more; I believe he's got a board that he put together
in such a way)
A large card ("Newport Graphics"?) but
appears that 4 RAMs (?)
were not populated at initial manufacture (which suggests it
is a lower-end card?)
Newport is XL graphics. If there is free space where memory would fit
then it is 8bit otherwise 24 bit. You could also try and google up the
part number (the 030-xxxx-yyy number). The strange connector left of that one (just before
the ISDN port) is for
the IndyCam.
Oh, the shells on those Indycam connectors are pretty flimsy - although it's a
D shape they *will* fit on upside down! Luckily I didn't fry anything when I
made that mistake once, but it took me a while to work out why a known-good
camera wasn't working... :-)
Regarding CD-ROM drives I wouldn't give too many
thoughts about that
problem. I usually use a variety of 32x and 40x Plextors with my old
SGIs including a batch of Indy and Indigo 2 systems as well as even
older iron. No unexpected troubles... so far.
Yes, Indys are probably a little less picky than 4D or Indigo machines. It's
just a FYI really - I seem to recall that if you have an incompatible drive
then the install semi-works before dying (which tends to make it appear more
like a media fault or user error than a hardware problem)
cheers
Jules
13 May
13 May
2:26 p.m.
Jules Richardson wrote:
Gerhard Lenerz wrote:
I've got a Leister but I'm not anywhere near motivated enough
to invest the time and effort :> I mainly want to get a feel
for what IRIX is (was?) like...
Thursday, May 11, 2006, 8:28:43 PM, you wrote:
I seem to remember that it is possible to turn an 8-bit board into a
24-bit one if you fancy some surface-mount soldering and have a couple
of surplus 8-bit boards for the chips... A large card ("Newport Graphics"?) but
appears that 4 RAMs (?)
were not populated at initial manufacture (which suggests it
is a lower-end card?)
Newport is XL graphics. If there is free space where memory would fit
then it is 8bit otherwise 24 bit. You could also try and google up the
part number (the 030-xxxx-yyy number). (Pete Turnbull will know more; I believe he's got
a board that he put
together in such a way)
I've seen folks manage to get the (keyed) 4-pin power connector
on a disk drive in "backwards". :-( It's unfortunate that the
pinout wasn't "pwr gnd pwr gnd" instead of "pwr gnd gnd pwr"...
the former would typically cause a power supply to shut itself
down if plugged backwards -- while the latter happily toasts
the load!
The strange connector left of that one (just
before the ISDN port) is for
the IndyCam.
Oh, the shells on those Indycam connectors are pretty flimsy - although
it's a D shape they *will* fit on upside down! Luckily I didn't fry
anything when I made that mistake once, but it took me a while to work
out why a known-good camera wasn't working... :-) 
12 May
12 May
3:27 a.m.
On Thu, 11 May 2006 04:03:00 +0200
Gerhard Lenerz <mail at g-lenerz.de> wrote:
This the GIO32 bus. Some cards that could be installed
on top of the
graphics board were additional network/SCSI controllers or video
options.
I have a FDDI board in my Indy to get nice and fast 100 MBit/s
network...
As we are talking of Indys: What is the max. SIMM size for the Indy?
I had 8 x 32 MB in mine. I got some 64 MB SIMMs so I threw them into the
Indy to get even more RAM. But the Indy saw only 4 x 16 MB instead of 4
x 64 MB. The SIMMs worked well in a Indigo2 R10k but showed the same
problem in a Indigo2 R4k.
--
tsch??,
Jochen
Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/
1:07 p.m.
Friday, May 12, 2006, 9:27:39 AM, you wrote:
I have a FDDI board in my Indy to get nice and fast
100 MBit/s
network...
I've got one of these in my Challenge S and two more for my Indigo 2s.
But alas, I currently don't have the appropriate cabling on the
external side complete.
As we are talking of Indys: What is the max. SIMM size
for the Indy?
32MB. I think there won't be a trick as there is with R10K Indivo 2s.
--
Best regards,
Gerhard mailto:mail at g-lenerz.de
4:20 p.m.
On Fri, 12 May 2006 19:07:16 +0200
Gerhard Lenerz <mail at g-lenerz.de> wrote:
Shitt. Now I
have no suitable RAM for the Indy. (I gave the the old 8 x
32 MB from the Indy to a friend together with a Indigo2 R10k...) Hmmm.
Maybe when I rearrange the RAM in the Alphas... I have to see.
--
tsch??,
Jochen
Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/
As we are
talking of Indys: What is the max. SIMM size for the Indy?
32MB 
4:05 p.m.
On Friday 12 May 2006 03:27 am, Jochen Kunz wrote:
On Thu, 11 May 2006 04:03:00 +0200
Gerhard Lenerz <mail at g-lenerz.de> wrote:
I ran across that same problem with some of my stuff, and it turned out that
in at least one case the issue wasn't so much the size of the ram as it was
the type -- if the board is expecting EDO and you put SDRAM in there (or
maybe that was the other way around?) you'll see just that sort of a
response...
Might be worth a shot, anyhow.
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
This the GIO32 bus. Some cards that could be
installed on top of the
graphics board were additional network/SCSI controllers or video
options.
I have a FDDI board in my Indy to get nice and fast 100 MBit/s
network...
As we are talking of Indys: What is the max. SIMM size for the Indy?
I had 8 x 32 MB in mine. I got some 64 MB SIMMs so I threw them into the
Indy to get even more RAM. But the Indy saw only 4 x 16 MB instead of 4
x 64 MB. The SIMMs worked well in a Indigo2 R10k but showed the same
problem in a Indigo2 R4k.
4:28 p.m.
On Fri, 12 May 2006 16:05:52 -0400
"Roy J. Tellason" <rtellason at blazenet.net> wrote:
if the board is expecting EDO and you put SDRAM in
there
We are talking about PS/2 SIMMs. There are no SDRAM PS/2 SIMMs, only FPM
and EDO. As the SIMMs work in a Indogo2 R10k I asume they are FPM and
that is what the Indy should accept. But it seems thay are just to big.
--
tsch??,
Jochen
Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/
4:39 p.m.
On Friday 12 May 2006 04:28 pm, Jochen Kunz wrote:
On Fri, 12 May 2006 16:05:52 -0400
"Roy J. Tellason" <rtellason at blazenet.net> wrote:
Oh. I guess I must have missed that part...
I do remember running across some a while back that were marked "IBM" and had
a pinout that was different enough from the usual kind that they would not
work in most equipment that they were tried in. Is that what those were?
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin
if the board is expecting EDO and you put SDRAM
in there
We are talking about PS/2 SIMMs.
5:21 p.m.
Friday, May 12, 2006, 10:28:05 PM, you wrote:
Yup... that's the problem. It's FPM to go with all the ARCS SGIs that
have 72pin "PS/2-memory" slots. No need for ECC RAM, no support for
EDO at all.
My understanding so far is that Indy and true R4K Indigo 2 share quite
a lot of concepts on the hardware level. R5K Indy is basically the
same machine, but with a different PROM and CPU. All these old
machines apparently can't go beyond 32MB per SIMM resulting in a max
of 256 MB for any Indy and 384 MB for R4K Indigo / Indigo 2.
Right from the start only the 64bit machines like R8000 or R10000
Indigo 2 support larger modules, leading to the GigaRAM Indigo 2 at
least.
Aside from the apparent great feeling of running a Crimson my
favourite for months is the R10000/195 High Impact Indigo 2 I have.
Runs not too hot, not too loud for my taste... and delivers decent
performance even under IRIX 6.5.$somewhat.
As for 24/7 business a R5000 Indy is my choice. Silent and with low
power profile, yet more than fast enough for what I do on my server on
a daily basis.
--
Best regards,
Gerhard mailto:mail at g-lenerz.de
if the board
is expecting EDO and you put SDRAM in there
We are talking about PS/2 SIMMs. There
are no SDRAM PS/2 SIMMs, only FPM
and EDO. As the SIMMs work in a Indogo2 R10k I asume they are FPM and
that is what the Indy should accept. But it seems thay are just to big.
13 May
13 May
3:32 a.m.
On Fri, 12 May 2006 23:21:10 +0200
Gerhard Lenerz <mail at g-lenerz.de> wrote:
No need for ECC RAM
ECC == parity? I always
thought the SGI machines need ECC / parity RAM.
(I.e. SIMMS with 36 data bits.)
my favourite for months is the R10000/195 High Impact
Indigo 2 I have.
I have one too (Solid IMPACT "only") and still use it on
a regular bais.
--
tsch??,
Jochen
Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/
11 May
11 May
10:16 a.m.
Don Y wrote:
Lastly, is any of this worth playing with?
An Indy with a R5k CPU and 24-bit graphics is pretty nice, and still a fun
(and responsive) box to play with. IRIX 5.3's probably the best choice for it
- later releases might be a bit too heavyweight.
Most Indys I've seen just have the 8-bit framebuffer, though - and R4k CPUs
are way more common (but still pretty capable, particularly if you get one
with secondary cache)
Overall, yes, they're darn good machines.
cheers
Jules
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