An old dream come true: Iris Indigo! - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

22 Oct 2007

...
      - 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 LG1 and LG2 (Entry 8-bit 2D graphics options) have DE15 VGA 
connectors alongside the 13W3, it isn't multisync but does do the 
PC-standard 1024x768. Express graphics (XS, XS-[24, 24Z], XZ, Elan) 
have sync-on-green 13W3 output in more resolutions (and 24-bit for 
XS-24 and up).

...
  You should be able to run any MIPS based/IRIX software
for SGIs.  I
 don't know what IRIX release you'll need; perhaps someone else can
 provide that info. 
For the Indigo R3k (33MHz R3000/3010, which uses proprietary SIMMS in 
sets of 4) you'll probably want IRIX 5.3 (and you can download the 
development option from ftp.sgi.com for free). The other possible 
option would be IRIX 4.0.5F if you want to be old-school. Any other 
functional IRIX release will not be as satisfactory (you can't run IRIX 
3.3.x on LG or Express graphics, and R3000 support was dropped in any 
version of IRIX 6).

For the Indigo R4k you can run IRIX 6.5.22 (get any version of the IRIX 
6.5 disks at 6.5.22 or earlier and you can download the overlays for 
free from Supportfolio at SGI), IRIX 6.2 (if it's a low-end 
configuration with 128MB or less of RAM this would be better), or IRIX 
5.3 (which can run the older ECOFF binaries from IRIX 4). You can also 
run IRIX 4.0.5F if you want, but the newer the IRIX the more standard 
it is and the more software there is. IRIX 6.2 headers and the MIPSpro 
toolchain can be downloaded from ftp.sgi.com (no compilers, though), 
and for IRIX 6.5 the headers/toolchain is included in the CD-ROM 
distribution. The Indigo R4k can have either a R4000 at 100MHz (will 
show as 50MHz in the PROM 'hinv') or a R4400 at 150MHz (will show as 
'R4000' at 75MHz in the PROM hinv). The IP20 uses parity 72-pin 
(36-bit) SIMMS in groups of 4.

Ray wrote:

...
  I have plugged a PC kybd/mouse into a SGI Crimson and
an Octane
 and they seemed to work OK. 
Octane, yep. Crimson, definitely not (uses a DA15 keyboard port) Onyx2, 
maybe- since that uses a PS/2 interface (along with Indigo2, Indy, 
Octane, O2 and all things newer _except_ the original Onyx. All of the 
SGI-proprietary keyboards/mice (apart from being very well built) use 
the same signalling and protocol so you can use one with plug 
converters to DA15 (Professional IRIS, PowerSeries, Crimson), DE-9 
(Personal IRIS 4D/2x), and the Mini-DIN 6 (Personal IRIS 4D/3x, Indigo, 
Onyx1).