Re: SCSI interface in Indigo 2

On 2009-01-07, Tristram Scott <tristram.scott@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
DoN. Nichols <dnichols@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
First -- is there anyone still here? A few days ago, I read everything
relating to my just acquired Indigo 2 (teal, with the R8000 CPU FWIW),
and then did a catchup.

A fine bit of hardware.

It looks interesting.


Nothing appears to have been posted since.

Activity now -- all it took was questions. :-)

Anyway -- my question:

The internal SCSI connector to the sleds is the same physical
connector as the newer SCA drives, but (from probing from one of a pair
of sleds which I got via eBay), the power pins at least don't seem to
match the SCA pinout. Did I probe incorrectly, or is this truly the
case?


Use an adapter. These are not standard SCA.

O.K. That agrees with my probing of the +12V and ground pins
from the drive power connector. I've got at least one adaptor to use,
maybe two.

What is the latest version of Irix which will install on a
Indigo 2 with the R8000 CPU? I do understand that it is an unusual, and
relatively rare CPU, so I don't really expect the latest Irix to still
support it.

Irix 6.5.22. Note, though, that Irix 6.5.22 comes as a set of four overlay
CDs. These are for upgrading from an ealier full release of Irix. You
will also need the set of CDs from the base installation. Mine are from
Irix 6.5.8. You need:

Irix 6.5 Foundation 1
Irix 6.5 Foundation 2
Irix 6.5 Applications

O.K. A lot of shuffling of CDs then.

Thanks.

And I find that the open source OS's (linux, BSD, etc) don't
support that particular CPU (again, because it is rare).

Ignore those and use Irix.

Just as I use Solaris 10 for my Sun Blade 2000. (I do use
OpenBSD on some older Ultra-5 and Ultra-10 machines, but for other
reasons.)

I don't expect much performance from this (except perhaps in
floating point math), but I am interested to see what the graphics card
(framebuffer) can do. This is the triple-decker one with the 13W3, the
DIN connector for 3D goggles, and a tiny coax connector for who knows
what.


Crystaleyes 3D goggles are most excellent, but rather hard to find at a
decent price. You need the transmitter as well as the goggles.

Aha! A name of something to look for.

But a transmitter? That plugs into the DIN connector, and sends
to the goggles via an IR channel or something like that?

O.K. Yes, IR to the goggles from the computer.

And I see what you mean about the price. None on eBay (at the
moment), and the new price is a killer for a retired couple. :-)

Do you also have the video capture board, then?

"hinv" identifies the graphica board as "GUI-Extreme". No hints
of a video capture board. The "Extreme" is a triple-decker card,
leaving only one free slot in the system.

I can't remember details
but there was a version of the video capture board which did on the fly
jpeg compression. This would let you capture full rate video and save it
to disk even at the slow disk transfer rates of the older SCSI devices.
All of this happened on the video capture board, so it placed virtually no
load on the CPU.

Interesting. I don't think that I need video capture, but who
knows. I've seen the board offered on eBay when searching for Indigo 2
hardware.

Check also to see if you have texture memory for the OpenGL graphics.

How would I tell? I don't see anything suggesting that in the
output from "hinv". And I don't yet have an OS to pass the question to.

Visit nekochan.net, and also http://www.sgidepot.co.uk/sgidepot/ (Ian
Mapleson's site, formerly at furturetech.blinkenlights.nl.) If you want
parts, ask Ian.

All bookmarked.

I may need a genuine SGI supplied DAT drive to access the audio
tapes.

Also visit techpubs.sgi.com for a full set of manuals and documentation
online. Some good video stuff is in the Hardware Developers Handbook.

Bookmarked too. The _Hardware Developers Handbook_ sounds like
my kind of publication. :-)

Thanks,
DoN.

--
Email: <dnichols@xxxxxxxxxxx> | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---
.

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