(Ad Free) Inside a $50,000 Unix Workstation from 1996
Added 2025-01-10 19:42:59 +0000 UTCToday we're tearing down the SGI Indigo2, checking out its weird architecture, and tossing in some upgrades.
Comments
Hypothetically, yes but it'd be a mess. It has a custom PROM you'd need to understand to kick into a bootrom, then you'd have to write customized drivers for all the hardware. Although the CPU is MIPS, everything else is custom and only used on certain versions of the workstations. You currently need specific installers for each of the hardware configs. I had to play with about 5 different versions of IRIX 5.3 before I could even get it to boot. The defaults in Reanimatoe didn't work.
Bryan
2025-01-16 15:03:35 +0000 UTCCan it run any version of Linux?
Raymond Booth
2025-01-12 20:06:44 +0000 UTCIf it's anything like the zuluscsi, there have been leaps in getting scsi rates up to 20MB. I can get it stable at 10MB, but have seen repeated lockups even with a small overclock and cooling. Still, I can have 6 independent SCSI devices off the one card, and can even do CD switching with a physical switch for hypothetical infinite ISOs available at once.
Bryan
2025-01-11 16:56:43 +0000 UTCJoining in as I've been rebuilding my Indigo2 non-impact. I've been using the ZuluSCSI and it's working great. I've been buying some parts from a guy in Australia and he has tons of stuff, and likely isn't as expensive as Ian at SGI depot in the UK. For your front cover, I can photograph or 3D scan my hinges if you want to try and repair yours. Just let me know! -Bryan
Bryan
2025-01-11 16:53:55 +0000 UTCTaking a risk to install 1 GB of RAM on a RISC system ^_^
Linh Pham
2025-01-11 03:15:00 +0000 UTCVery interested in the Blue SCSI speedup - will that be something that only works with the SGI, or will it be generic to Blue SCSI v2 in anything?
Jack Beckman
2025-01-11 00:18:38 +0000 UTC
