Seeking immediate rescue of full-rack SGI ONYX near Northbrook, IL

[ethan at 757.org]

> They're something splendidly entertaining about a big honkin' graphical
> workstation that you can roll up to and poke around the GUI on.

Only the Onyx series has graphics :-) Most of ours at NASA were headless 
with nothing but a serial console, and lots of CPUs. They crunched 
satellite data all day. 96 Processors on Origin 3800, Normally 32 IIRC on 
the Challenge XLs.

> I have one of the full rack 3-phase ones in Seattle which, like the one I
> gave away, has the Audio option.

I didn't know there was a 3 phase option. Was it an Onyx2 or Onyx?

My Cray uses 5 of the Sun E10000 style Pioneer Magnetics 5000 watt 48vdc 
PSUs, and even it was single phase (although I had it sitting across 3 
phases just to get the power to it over a 30 amp cable.)

> J.P. (kiwigeek) helped me re-wire it to split phase, and I love showing
> people Quake, Maya and Photoshop on this giant behemoth from 1993.

Very cool!

> If we're rambling about SGIs now, my all time fav. is the Indigo 2 R1000
> Max Impact. You see one, and it looks normal enough, but when you pop that
> cover- there is so much logic packed into that box! It's one of the densest
> machines I've ever encountered...

Yes, crammed full. The video cards are stuffed!

--
Ethan O'Toole