26 Nov
2004
26 Nov
'04
6:28 p.m.
Wired is running an article that might be of interest to SGI enthusiasts.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,65834,00.html
They even had a couple links in there that I'm pretty I've never seen before.
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | 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/ |
26 Nov
26 Nov
7:07 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh(a)aracnet.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 12:28 AM
Subject: Wired running SGI Article
Wired is running an article that might be of interest
to SGI enthusiasts.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,65834,00.html
They even had a couple links in there that I'm pretty I've never seen
before.
Zane
One of these days I will have to check out an old SGI to see what the fuss
was about.
7:25 p.m.
One of these days I will have to check out an old SGI
to see what the fuss
was about.
I have two o2's, one of them is a lowly R5000 180Mhz system (the more
pathetic of the two 180Mhz models) with 160MB RAM. This system can
handle *HEAVY* loads more gracefully than any other system I've use,
and X-Windows is unbelievably smooth, even under these heavy loads.
The other is an R12000 270Mhz system, and even better :^)
What I really want one of these days is a nice Dual Processor Octane
with R12000 CPU's. What I'd really like is a nice new Quad Processor
R16000A-based Tezro, but there is no way I can afford a brand new SGI
Workstation.
BTW, I really wish Mac OS X or Linux were half as "smooth" as Irix!
I've gotten a "beachball" twice on my dual 2Ghz G5 while typing this
email thanks to what I have running in the background.
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | 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/ |
7:34 p.m.
On Fri, 26 Nov 2004, Zane H. Healy wrote:
BTW, I really wish Mac OS X or Linux were half as
"smooth" as Irix! I've
gotten a "beachball" twice on my dual 2Ghz G5 while typing this email thanks
to what I have running in the background.
Whaddaya, like, running crypto for the NSA? Global weather prognosis in
real-time? What on earth could keep a G5 that busy???
Enquiring minds...
Cheers
John
8:15 p.m.
On Fri, 26 Nov 2004, Zane H. Healy wrote:
Downloading and exporting a very large Map image using a Java-based
viewing application. I'm also running Eudora, Safari, Firefox, and
Adobe Photoshop CS.
Most of my load problems seem to be largely due to the really sucky
Virtual Memory implementation in Mac OS X. Someone mind telling me
why on earth with 1.5GB RAM I'm using 4GB of VM just by logging in?
Earlier today my VM usage was up over 10GB! I think the "beachball"
can almost always, if not always, be blamed on something swapping in
or out of memory.
Having said that, I don't have much trouble running my G5 at 100%
load on both CPU's. I have several very CPU intensive apps that I
use that make very efficient use of the Dual Processors.
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | 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/ |
BTW, I really wish Mac OS X or Linux were half as
"smooth" as Irix!
I've gotten a "beachball" twice on my dual 2Ghz G5 while typing
this email thanks to what I have running in the background.
Whaddaya, like, running crypto for the NSA? Global weather
prognosis in real-time? What on earth could keep a G5 that busy???
Enquiring minds... 
9:01 p.m.
Most of my load problems seem to be largely due to the
really sucky
Virtual Memory implementation in Mac OS X. Someone mind telling me
why on earth with 1.5GB RAM I'm using 4GB of VM just by logging in?
Earlier today my VM usage was up over 10GB! I think the "beachball"
can almost always, if not always, be blamed on something swapping in
or out of memory.
That doesn't seem right. On my dual G4 running 10.2.8 with 2GB RAM, I get
hardly any pageouts at all running multiple apps at once (I have a
performance monitor running in the menu bar). Where are you getting the
VM figure from?
--
---------------------------------- personal: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser, Floodgap Systems Ltd * So. Calif., USA * ckaiser(a)floodgap.com
-- ACTUAL CLASSIFIED AD: Parachute, used once, never opened, small stain. $100
9:03 p.m.
Cameron Kaiser wrote:
I'm betting on that Java app he mentioned. ;)
I've seen very very few Java anythings that didn't suck memory into
oblivion.
My DP G5 only has a gig-o'RAM, and I almost never page out.
'Course, I almost never open Office X: either. 8-)
Doc
Most of my load
problems seem to be largely due to the really sucky
Virtual Memory implementation in Mac OS X. Someone mind telling me
why on earth with 1.5GB RAM I'm using 4GB of VM just by logging in?
Earlier today my VM usage was up over 10GB! I think the "beachball"
can almost always, if not always, be blamed on something swapping in
or out of memory.
That doesn't seem right. On my dual G4 running 10.2.8 with 2GB RAM, I get
hardly any pageouts at all running multiple apps at once (I have a
performance monitor running in the menu bar). Where are you getting the
VM figure from?
27 Nov
27 Nov
6:17 a.m.
Cameron Kaiser wrote:
> Zane Wrote:
>>Most of my load problems seem to be largely due to the really
>>sucky Virtual Memory implementation in Mac OS X. Someone mind
>>telling me why on earth with 1.5GB RAM I'm using 4GB of VM just by
>>logging in? Earlier today my VM usage was up over 10GB! I think
>>the "beachball" can almost always, if not always, be blamed on
>>something swapping in or out of memory.
>
>
>That doesn't seem right. On my dual G4 running 10.2.8 with 2GB RAM, I get
>hardly any pageouts at all running multiple apps at once (I have a
>performance monitor running in the menu bar). Where are you getting the
>VM figure from?
"Activity Monitor" and "top" both report that.
I'm betting on that Java app he mentioned. ;)
I've seen very very few Java anythings that didn't suck memory
into oblivion.
The Java app was why it got up that high. I made the mistake of
trying to kick the Java app off using Safari. That put it into some
sort of loop where it would attempt to start and fail.
My DP G5 only has a gig-o'RAM, and I almost
never page out.
'Course, I almost never open Office X: either. 8-)
How many users do you have? Both my wife and I are always logged in,
though all she runs normally is Safari and MS Entourage.
I normally have Eudora, Safari, MS Word (originally X, now 2004),
iTunes, X-Windows, and Terminal.app running. Oh, and I just started
running nfsd on the system which has some definite overhead.
I normally run with only about 15MB of my 1.5GB free. Right now my
VM size is 7.21GB.
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | 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/ |
26 Nov
26 Nov
7:36 p.m.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh(a)aracnet.com>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 27, 2004 1:25 AM
Subject: Re: Wired running SGI Article
A few of the 68K Mac loving people I talk to on IRC have been getting into
older SGI machines (Origins and older Indy). So is the Dual G5 worth the
cash? While I like older 68K Nubus Macs, anything from the PPC generation
and beyond never interested me (except for a 7500 PCI powermac I needed to
run a Videovision Telecast Setup).
>One of these days I will have to check out an old
SGI to see what the
fuss
was about.
I have two o2's, one of them is a lowly R5000 180Mhz system (the more
pathetic of the two 180Mhz models) with 160MB RAM. This system can
handle *HEAVY* loads more gracefully than any other system I've use,
and X-Windows is unbelievably smooth, even under these heavy loads.
The other is an R12000 270Mhz system, and even better :^)
What I really want one of these days is a nice Dual Processor Octane
with R12000 CPU's. What I'd really like is a nice new Quad Processor
R16000A-based Tezro, but there is no way I can afford a brand new SGI
Workstation.
BTW, I really wish Mac OS X or Linux were half as "smooth" as Irix!
I've gotten a "beachball" twice on my dual 2Ghz G5 while typing this
email thanks to what I have running in the background.
Zane
8:27 p.m.
A few of the 68K Mac loving people I talk to on IRC
have been getting into
older SGI machines (Origins and older Indy). So is the Dual G5 worth the
cash? While I like older 68K Nubus Macs, anything from the PPC generation
and beyond never interested me (except for a 7500 PCI powermac I needed to
run a Videovision Telecast Setup).
Take a look at the design and architecture of the Dual CPU G5 (the
single 1.8Ghz model they just released is a travesty as the FSB only
runs at 600Mhz, rather than the 900Mhz it should). The only computer
I can compare it to is the SGI Octane.
I've only been running Mac OS X for the last year and a half as my
primary OS. My G4/450 AGP is one of the originals that shipped with
a special G4 version of Mac OS 8.6, and iTunes is the only reason I
upgraded to 9. It wasn't until 10.2 that I considered Mac OS X
usable (I tested every version). What really impressed me was
Safari, as it made it so that my G4/450 was fast enough to surf on
once again.
Personally I think Mac OS X still has a ways to go (see my last email
for my complaints about the VM subsystem), but it's got a Unix Layer,
a usable GUI, a filesystem browser I've become fanatical about :^),
and more importantly it runs the Adobe Apps I need, and has
professional video and audio editing applications. While I'm running
the latest version of MS Office, I'm not sure if that's a plus or a
minus :^)
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | 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/ |
8:43 p.m.
Zane H. Healy wrote:
I have two o2's, one of them is a lowly R5000
180Mhz system (the more
pathetic of the two 180Mhz models) with 160MB RAM. This system can
handle *HEAVY* loads more gracefully than any other system I've use, and
X-Windows is unbelievably smooth, even under these heavy loads. The
other is an R12000 270Mhz system, and even better :^)
That guy has a couple more 400MHz processors up for grabs on eBay.
BTW, I really wish Mac OS X or Linux were half as
"smooth" as Irix! I've
gotten a "beachball" twice on my dual 2Ghz G5 while typing this email
thanks to what I have running in the background.
Got your SIMH instanced niced?
Doc
27 Nov
27 Nov
3:02 a.m.
Zane H. Healy wrote:
I've got eight Indigo's five of which are R4400 three are R4000 and one
is a R3000. Three have full Elan graphics, two have Song and Dance
boards with Personal Video add-on boards and one Elan has a Galileo
board. I have three O2's (2 R5K, 1 R10K), an Octane R12K, two Indigo2
High Impact's, an R4400 Indy, an Origin 200 quad 180 for a web server
and a Visual Workstation 320 dual P3-600 (the bastard child of the
family). I'm looking for a dual Octane2 and a R5000 Indy.
My favorite workstations are the Sgi's and the NeXT's. I looked up
original list prices the other day. With all the accessories, monitors
and upgrades, I own over a million and a half of Sgi equipment (at MSRP).
James
--
www.blackcube.org - The Texas State Home for Wayward and Orphaned Computers
One of these
days I will have to check out an old SGI to see what the
fuss
was about.
I have two o2's, one of them is a lowly R5000 180Mhz system (the more
pathetic of the two 180Mhz models) with 160MB RAM. This system can
handle *HEAVY* loads more gracefully than any other system I've use,
and X-Windows is unbelievably smooth, even under these heavy loads.
The other is an R12000 270Mhz system, and even better :^)
10:01 a.m.
Zane H. Healy wrote:
One of these days I will have to check out an old SGI to see what the
fuss was about.
Of all of the systems I have - including DEC PDP-8 and 11, VAX, NeXT, Amiga,
Apple, S100 systems, HP, etc. - SGI is my hands-down favorite. Perhaps
that's because I love graphics and SGI simply does it best.
I always have tried to collect/restore those systems with the best graphics
and video options...
In my SGI collection I have:
Qty. Description
1 "Personal IRIS" 4D25 with Turbo Graphics
4 "Indigo" with Elan Graphics
3 "Indy" - one with Indy Video, one with Indy Cosmo Compress Video
2 "Indigo2" R10K 195MHz with Maximum Impact Graphics
1 "O2" R5K 200MHz with Video and Presenter options
1 "Octane" with Dual R10K 195MHz Processors, Video Compress option
1 "IRIS Crimson" 100MHz R4000 with Reality Engine Graphics
1 "Onyx" with four R10K 195MHz Processors with Reality Engine 2 Graphics
1 "Onyx" with four R10K 195MHz Processors with Infinite Reality
Graphics, Sirius Video, ASO Audio, FDDI and Multi Channel Option
3 "Origin 200" Dual 195MHz Processors (Two "tied" as NUMA Cluster)
All of the above are restored and running an appropriate version of IRIX.
NOTE: I'm looking for an Origin GIGAchannel Expansion Box and the associated
XIO Interface and cables for an Origin 200. If someone on the list has these
items available, please contact me off list.
Cheers,
Lyle
--
Lyle Bickley
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
http://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"
10:19 a.m.
Lyle Bickley wrote:
Since we're talking about SGI graphics & stuff, does anybody have an
Indy Presenter cable?
I have an R4k Indy with Presenter board and the Presenter panel, all
in a very cool Indy bag. I just don't have the cable to make it happen.
Doc
Zane H. Healy
wrote:
One of these days I will have to check out an old SGI to see what the
fuss was about.
Of all of the systems I have - including DEC PDP-8 and 11, VAX, NeXT, Amiga,
Apple, S100 systems, HP, etc. - SGI is my hands-down favorite. Perhaps
that's because I love graphics and SGI simply does it best.
I always have tried to collect/restore those systems with the best graphics
and video options...
10:32 a.m.
Doc,
It depends on which Presenter Cable you need. There are different cables for
the Presenter 1024 and Presenter 1280, etc. I may have a spare cable - but
I'll need to know what you need at "Both Ends" (i.e., the Presenter Card in
the Indy and the type of Presenter you have).
Lyle
On Saturday 27 November 2004 13:19, Doc Shipley wrote:
Lyle Bickley wrote:
Since we're talking about SGI graphics & stuff, does anybody have an
Indy Presenter cable?
I have an R4k Indy with Presenter board and the Presenter panel, all
in a very cool Indy bag. I just don't have the cable to make it happen.
Doc
--
Lyle Bickley
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
http://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"
Zane H.
Healy wrote:
One of these days I will have to check out an old SGI to see what the
fuss was about.
Of all of the systems I have - including DEC PDP-8 and 11, VAX, NeXT,
Amiga, Apple, S100 systems, HP, etc. - SGI is my hands-down favorite.
Perhaps that's because I love graphics and SGI simply does it best.
I always have tried to collect/restore those systems with the best
graphics and video options... 
4 Dec
4 Dec
10:33 p.m.
On Sat, Nov 27, 2004 at 01:07:22AM -0500, Teo Zenios wrote:
One of these days I will have to check out an old SGI to see what the fuss
was about.
I worked for SGI in the mid 90s (well, contracted, but contractors
were not looked down upon there like they were a lot of other places),
and have a certain fondness for those beasts. The article suggests an
Indy as a cheap introduction, but in keeping with the 10-year-limit
theme of the list, I'd suggest trying to find an R4K Indigo Extreme
if you really want to fool around with one. Those were sweet but
aging machines at the time I worked there, and I'd argue they're
"classic" today. Also cheap, and relatively easy to find.
-Seth
--
"It looks just like a Telefunken U47! Seth Morabito
You'll love it." - Frank Zappa sethm(a)loomcom.com
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healyzh＠aracnet.com -
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