SGI: Hardware

600MHz O2 Is Up And Running!! - Page 1

chicago-joe
From Chicago, IL
Who joined May 9, 2003, 4:01 p.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 4, 2003, 12:51 a.m...

The cpu boards come back from North Carolina this morning, I put on the reprogrammed EPROM, adjusted the voltage reg for 1.2V on the core, put it in my O2 and:

o2 11% hinv -mv
CPU: QED RM7000 Processor Chip Revision: 5.1
FPU: QED RM7000 Floating Point Coprocessor Revision: 5.0
1 602 MHZ IP32 Processor
Main memory size: 512 Mbytes
Secondary unified instruction/data cache size: 256 Kbytes on Processor 0
Ternary unified instruction/data cache size: 1 Mbyte on Processor 0
Instruction cache size: 16 Kbytes
Data cache size: 16 Kbytes
FLASH PROM version 4.18
Integral SCSI controller 0: Version ADAPTEC 7880
Disk drive: unit 1 on SCSI controller 0 (unit 1)
CDROM: unit 4 on SCSI controller 0
Integral SCSI controller 1: Version ADAPTEC 7880
On-board serial ports: tty1
On-board serial ports: tty2
On-board EPP/ECP parallel port
CRM graphics installed
Integral Ethernet: ec0, version 1
Iris Audio Processor: version A3 revision 0
PCI Adapter ID (vendor 0x9004, device 0x8078) PCI slot 1
PCI Adapter ID (vendor 0x9004, device 0x8078) PCI slot 2
Video: MVP unit 0 version 1.4
AV: AV1 Card version 1, O2Cam type 1 version 0 connected.
Vice: TRE
o2 12% :shock:

The only thing I have seen so far, is a warning at startup about the "fast clock" not being able to run faster than 1000Hz

I'm not sure what this means, but I will look into it.

I ran some quick numbers:

mpeg movie conversion:
350 - 2.72 min
R12K-270 - 2.60 min
400 - 2.42 min
600 - 1.70 min

xmahjongg-3.6.1 gmake:
R12K-270 - 2.25 min
350 - 1.97 min
400 - 1.73 min
600 - 1.27 min

These were quick numbers, I will rerun them later this weekend.

I will put some pictures of the finished cpu boards up on my website later.

Joe

nekonoko
Site Admin
From Pleasanton, California
Who joined Jan. 23, 2003, 9:31 a.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 4, 2003, 1 a.m...

That's amazing work - I seriously want one of those

Twitter: @neko_no_ko
IRIX Release 4.0.5 IP12 Version 06151813 System V
Copyright 1987-1992 Silicon Graphics, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

DaJuice
From Arizona
Who joined May 10, 2003, 6:51 a.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 4, 2003, 4:02 a.m...

Freaking awesome! :shock:

chicago-joe
From Chicago, IL
Who joined May 9, 2003, 4:01 p.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 4, 2003, 4:25 a.m...

Here are a couple of pictures of the cpu boards without the cpu heatsinks. (these pictures are about 100KB each in size)

This is the RM7000A-350 MHz board upgraded to an RM7000A-400MHz.
http://users.rcn.com/joepage/rm7000_400.jpg

This is the RM5271-300MHz board upgraded to an RM7000C-600MHz.
http://users.rcn.com/joepage/rm7000_600.jpg
In the red box on the left of the picture is the PROM, this sets-up the cpu chip at start-up and has to be programmed for the specific cpu chip. The red box on the right side is the cpu core voltage regulator, there are two small resisters to its left that have to be changed so the output to the core is 1.20V.

I'm doing all this on the 600MHz system and it has been rock solid all evening (about 5 hours) and Mozilla now feels very close in speed to my 360MHz Octane. That means it's now useable as a browser. :wink:

Joe

bobflappy
From France
Who joined Jan. 24, 2003, 9:32 p.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 4, 2003, 9:31 a.m...

semi-fly
From Ypsitucky, MI
Who joined Feb. 21, 2003, 1:29 p.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 4, 2003, 12:41 p.m...

that is some amazing work.

wolflord
From Maryland
Who joined April 3, 2003, 7:31 p.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 4, 2003, 1:15 p.m...

That's really sweet! Don't suppose you'd consider selling one of them by any chance?

WolfLord - :4D70G:

"Two Minus Three Equals Negative Fun" - Troy McClure

Shtoink
From Port Orchard, WA
Who joined Jan. 27, 2003, 9:46 a.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 4, 2003, 2:52 p.m...

Very PRO looking job there. It looks like that's how it's supposed look. I'm not sure that I could pick it out of a line of CPU board hacks.

Are these proc with or w/o cache? I couldn't tell if the second heatsink was for the cache or they were PC processors. You can see some blank spots where there is an option for cache modules on either side of the proc, but wasn't sure there was a second mounting point that had something resident.

chicago-joe
From Chicago, IL
Who joined May 9, 2003, 4:01 p.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 4, 2003, 5:33 p.m...

Shtoink Wrote

Are these proc with or w/o cache? I couldn't tell if the second heatsink was for the cache or they were PC processors. You can see some blank spots where there is an option for cache modules on either side of the proc, but wasn't sure there was a second mounting point that had something resident.

The 7000A/C cpu chips have 16K/16K pri. cache and 256K sec. cache (running at full proc. speed) on the chip, and the 5271 had 32K/32K pri. cache on the chip. There is 1MB cache on the cpu board running at 60MHz that is ter. cache for the 7000 and sec. cache for the 5271.

As you look at the picture of the cpu board, the heatsink is on the VLSI controller chip on the right side of the picture, and the cache chips (3) are mounted on the bottom of the board.

Joe

vegac
Who joined Jan. 23, 2003, 7:34 p.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 4, 2003, 7:50 p.m...

I'm very much so envious...

I think these boosts in cpu speed are really what we need to be more viable as a desktop platform, and especially the O2, while not a 3d beast, I think it works quite well for a small all-in-one machine for desktop Irix use, that is, if you have a decent speed cpu.

Unfortunately my O2 is a mere 175mhz r10k, so it's been delegated to Webserver duties for the time being

coredog64
From Phoenix, AZ
Who joined May 21, 2003, 12:02 a.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 5, 2003, 4:54 a.m...

I'm soo jealous. If only the base RM5200 boards weren't so hard to come by. And now that your secret is out, I expect a run on them :cry:

dexter1
Moderator
From Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
Who joined Feb. 20, 2003, 2:57 p.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 5, 2003, 1:16 p.m...

chicago-joe wrote: The only thing I have seen so far, is a warning at startup about the "fast clock" not being able to run faster than 1000Hz
I'm not sure what this means, but I will look into it.

A strings from the 6.5.21 O2 firmware:

Code: Select all


neo:~/prom/ip32prom>strings ip32prom.image | grep -i fast


Ph_LogFast20Map: map 0x%x reg_value 0x%x


neo:~/prom/ip32prom>strings ip32prom.image | grep -i clock


clock: /2


clock: /3


clock: /4


Warning: time invalid, resetting clock to epoch.


Initialized tod clock.

So nothing in the PROM, must be IRIX then.

BTW a grep on '5200' displays nothing. Apparently by the firmware, a RM5200 is identical in PROM functionality compared to the R5000.

chicago-joe
From Chicago, IL
Who joined May 9, 2003, 4:01 p.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 14, 2003, 3:04 a.m...

I ran some quick numbers:

mpeg movie conversion:
350 - 2.72 min
R12K-270 - 2.60 min
400 - 2.42 min
600 - 1.70 min

xmahjongg-3.6.1 gmake:
R12K-270 - 2.25 min
350 - 1.97 min
400 - 1.73 min
600 - 1.27 min

A few people (including one with an SGI email address) emailed me asking how these numbers would compare to a more "mainstream" O2. I put my original 200MHz cpu board back in and ran the same two tests:

mpeg movie conversion:
200 - 6.53 min
R5K-300 - 4.53 min
350 - 2.72 min
R12K-270 - 2.60 min
400 - 2.42 min
600 - 1.70 min

xmahjongg-3.6.1 gmake:
200 - 3.60 min
R5K-300 - 2.80 min
R12K-270 - 2.25 min
350 - 1.97 min
400 - 1.73 min
600 - 1.27 min

Joe

wolflord
From Maryland
Who joined April 3, 2003, 7:31 p.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 14, 2003, 12:12 p.m...

chicago-joe wrote: A few people (including one with an SGI email address) emailed me asking how these numbers would compare to a more "mainstream" O2.

Hmmm...I wonder(hope) if the person with the SGI email address is considering helping us all out with this information in some way. Board fab info perchance, slim though it may be. I'd jump at the chance to give my R5k 200 O2 that kind of performance boost though.

WolfLord - :4D70G:

"Two Minus Three Equals Negative Fun" - Troy McClure

radrob
From italy
Who joined April 6, 2003, 7:09 a.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 14, 2003, 4:05 p.m...

hi chicago-joe

i've one o2 RM5200 @300...[my o2 was one of the R7k recalled]

i'm interested in your post.. and a bit of power would be great..
so test after test.. have you checked the termal differences between
r7k@350 and your 400-600mhz monsters?

rob

chicago-joe
From Chicago, IL
Who joined May 9, 2003, 9:01 a.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 14, 2003, 8:34 p.m...

radrob wrote

so test after test.. have you checked the termal differences between
r7k@350 and your 400-600mhz monsters?

As the cpu speed goes up the core voltage goes down and the amps go up, so, the wattage (heat dissipated) of the chip stays about the same, about 3W. After 5 days of running (with the stock heatsink from the 300MHz chip) the 600MHz chip was no more than warm to the touch, a little less warm than the memory chips.

Joe

radrob
From italy
Who joined April 5, 2003, 11:09 p.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 16, 2003, 12:52 a.m...

..that's a dumb question..

but i think a lot of o2 users it's still thinking:

..if i'll want upgrade my o2 RM5200 cpu board...

-what i must do?
-the mods it's reversible? ...i'll get back the parts changed?
-have you detected "floating point" problems?
-what's the price?
-news from the 900mhz ?

thx
rob

acronym
Who joined Sept. 27, 2003, 8:11 p.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 18, 2003, 8:03 a.m...

radrob wrote: but i think a lot of o2 users it's still thinking:

..if i'll want upgrade my o2 RM5200 cpu board...

-what i must do?
-the mods it's reversible? ...i'll get back the parts changed?
-have you detected "floating point" problems?
-what's the price?
-news from the 900mhz ?

thx
rob

being someone that has 2 @300 5200 boards idling, i'm quite interested in this

andreas@rootprompt
From Germany
Who joined Feb. 2, 2003, 5:49 p.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 22, 2003, 9:41 a.m...

acronym wrote: being someone that has 2 @300 5200 boards idling, i'm quite interested in this

c'mon you don't need two, why not sell me one this r5k@200 Mhz O2 is driving me insane :mrgreen:

Brombear
From Frankfurt (Rhein-Main Area) / Germany
Who joined Oct. 5, 2003, 8:42 a.m.

Wrote the following at Oct. 22, 2003, 10:44 a.m...

andreas@rootprompt wrote: c'mon you don't need two, why not sell me one this r5k@200 Mhz O2 is driving me insane

Ah, cmon Andreas, there have been more than enough 300Mhz O2s on german ebay recently ...

Matthias

Life is what happens while we are making other plans