SGI: hinv

I asked Ian Mapleson to part of his last R8000 Indigo2, and he was kind enough to accept. Thanks a million, Ian!

Hi Miod,

That's pretty darn nifty. Got any real-world benchmarks you can run on it to compare the FPU to some of the other kit around the place?

Will the R8k's work on R10k i^2 systems or is it a case of different prom, board etc?

Al.

uridium wrote: Will the R8k's work on R10k i^2 systems or is it a case of different prom, board etc?

Al.

I don't think they are transferable - IP22 for R4K, IP26 for R8K and IP28 for R10K. An IP26 board fits in a teal case, as does an IP22. Since purple I2s were supplied in R4K and R10K variants, I infer that an IP26 board would also fit, but have no authority for that - and no ideas whether one could have R8K plus IMPACT.

It would be a useful reference page (for maintaining I2s as the stock of available spares shrinks over time) to list what components do work together - for instance, can one fit a 4GIO/3EISA backplane into a teal/IP22 box? The additional power connections would not be used, but you might get more flexible access to both GIO channels. Similarly for PSUs - will an IMPACT-style PSU work with a pre-IMPACT I2? (albeit with several spare leads that supply power to the IMPACT boards). Will a pre-IMPACT PSU power an IP28 board with (say) XZ/Elan graphics?

All good points. A big one would be PSU's. I've had a few Teals and one 250Mhz R4400 Impact over the years .. and the PSU's tend to go. Heck..when they're off they consume a lot of power and after a few hours with no fan turning they're positively hot so it'd be good to assemble things such as "this is how you hack a commodity stink-box ATX psu to it".

Currently I'm trying to work though this on one of my pdp-11's. Been through it with older Sun's, HP's and the intergraphs.

The Indigo2 cases are all exactly the same pattern, only the color of the plastic is different. Besides teal and purple, there was actually a blue color and all of the R8000 Power Indigo2s I've seen have been blue.

The two types of midplane (non-Impact and Impact) are compatible with all the main board types (IP22, IP26, and IP28) since they are electrically the same. IP26 is not, however, compatible with Impact graphics (no driver was written).

The Impact power supplies have a dummy load board that needs to be hooked up when no Impact graphics boards are in the system. Aside from that they are compatible with any configuration of gfx and cpu, except that IP28 machines use specific power supplies.

The power supply shouldn't be hot when the computer is off. Sounds like a broken shutdown circuit.

miod wrote: I asked Ian Mapleson to part of his last R8000 Indigo2, and he was kind enough to accept.

Excellent find. The R8000 is a rare beast, especially a working one.

Some of the many chips that make up an R8000 assembly are cooled with some sort of copper (?) foil. It tends to peel off with age. If you want to keep yours going, better check it's still firmly connected, and use some thermal glue to correct if necessary. IIRC the R8000 is also very sensitive to ESD so take precautions.

robespierre wrote: The Indigo2 cases are all exactly the same pattern, only the color of the plastic is different. Besides teal and purple, there was actually a blue color and all of the R8000 Power Indigo2s I've seen have been blue.

I think you're referring to the Challenge M or the corresponding Vault-M . I own two R8000 Power Indigo2's (and used to have a third), they are all teal green.

There used to be an IP26 PowerChallenge M too. I've never seen an R10000 PowerChallenge M, even though an IP28 IMPACT Indigo2 will work fine without the graphics board.

Some R8000 Power Indigo2's were sold in purple cases, with Extreme graphics (and matching badges). Despite the purple color, they are not IMPACT capable.

robespierre wrote: IP26 is not, however, compatible with Impact graphics (no driver was written).

Even worse. There are two (released) PROM revisions for IP26, and neither recognizes IMPACT graphics so it powers up headless. The earlier PROM revision sometimes (incorrectly) fails the CPU POST , or it takes ages to POST. This happened to me, and considering the fragile nature of the R8000, it isn't funny. If you dig through an old copy of the developer toolbox you'll find the exact explanation. A new PROM fixed that.

I've had some good fun optimizing the ATLAS math library for the R8000. And now I've got three IP21 boards for my deskside Power Challenge too! Vintage number crunching all the way

Yes, it may be that the ones I saw began life as PowerChallenge Ms. Graphics can drop right into the *-Challenge Ms, unlike Challenge S.

Thanks, robespierre, good to know what the options are.

One more detail: there are four types of Impact power supply, two of them are specified for "dual head" graphics (i.e. High+High, Max+Solid, or High+Solid). So if you run these Impact graphics combinations you need the higher rated supplies.

Pics, pics, pics, pics!!!

Nice machine!

Its a great collectors item ^^

jan-jaap wrote: IIRC the R8000 is also very sensitive to ESD so take precautions.

Well, aren't R8000 sensitive to everything, given how prone they are to die? I am wondering whether it is a good idea to let an R8000 system powered on during a full moon

Titox wrote: Pics, pics, pics, pics!!!

Coming as soon as there is a sunny enough day to get proper lighting.

Looking at the picture Jan-Jaap posted, the copper foil doesn't appear to have enough surface area for an effective heat sink. Could it be they are really for RFI? Was there a RFI shield on the tin gutter around the two large chips?

miod wrote:

Titox wrote: Pics, pics, pics, pics!!!

Coming as soon as there is a sunny enough day to get proper lighting.

And here they are.

Front:


On the back, it's a Power model number indeed!


Cover removed:


``Criticle''


The bottom of the processor board, with the warning paper removed:


The top of the processor board, with the CPU and FPU engulfed in a large heatsink:

...and with the heatsink removed, quite close to Jan-Jaap's picture earlier in this thread:


And just for fun, here is what the heatsink looks like from within: