SGI: Discussion

RHEL or SUSE. I believe you can choose which one. In theory you get the ProPack so you can install whatever you want, but there are support issues.

Cheers,
TOM

I still think it'll only be a matter of time until some one has Windows running on it, dammit!

And this must be why they're calling it a desk side:



Seriously though, I ask you!

That thing is Badass! If I had 8500 I'd buy it. The only question I have is will it be used for Discreet products?

PS Windows XP support has been pulled from the Itanium line so you'll have to run a server version of Windows if it's going to run one.

Indeed Windows 2003 (aka. NT 5.2) quite a decent version of Windows in my experience. My work involves adminstating about 15 Win2k3 boxes. As a tangent the 64bit version of Windows XP (for AMD64/ i AMD64) is built off the Win2k3 codebase and not the standard XP one (NT5.1)

Yeah, MS dropped support for IA64 XP some time ago. TBH, I thought they'd dropped 2003 too. I can't imagine many people paying for Itanium2 and then installing something as unreliable as Windows on it!

My real question though, is how easy is it to port existing software from other IA64 systems to Prism? Just because it has the same CPU, doesn't mean it can run the same OS. Look back at the old Motorola 68000. I never saw an Atari ST running Mac OS!

well I dunno about xp but longhorn will support ia64. MS stated it abit back.
I dunno about you but windows is reliable when I use it. I've haven't had any problems running XP or 2k, now 98, 95 was different.

Evidently you did not look hard enough, there were packages like magic sac which allowed an ST to run MacOS. You needed the original apple ROMS though to make it legal though...

Well, all we need is for somebody to port vmware or something like that, and you'll be able to run Windows 2003 at fairly decent speeds, compared to a 'real' windows machine. If you so-desire

Couple of thoughts...

The box looks quite baddass, but that's what you expect from SGI.

Dual Itaniums on the desktop sounds pretty cool, but I'd like to see some real bandwidth numbers on the various subsystems to see if the engineers at SGI are earning their T-shirts. This may actually be the case.

The next thought is that if they've designed things right, and if they can run the 'same' software across the whole Prism line, then that's pretty cool. To think that up until 6.5.22 if you ordered a base install set for your Indigo and your buddy ordered a base install set for his 128 processor Origin, that you both got the same box of disks was pretty cool. And you could basically run the same software on both (barring MIPS3/MIPS4 issues).

And at that point, basic compatibility across the entire line makes the $8500 base price pretty palateable, particularly if you use the 'big' iron to run the analysis, and the desksides to build the apps and fine tune them.

And if one showed up at my door tomorrow, I'd use it

Except that SGI uses plain vanilla Intel compilers, so you could actually just use a Xeon machine and use the ICC and do a cross compile, and no need to waste money in a 8.5K developmnet doorstop really. In fact you could just get an Opteron from SUN, run Linux in it... do crosscompiles using ICC, and run it in your Altix if you feel evil enough...

For the Itanium the intel compiler is called 'ecc'

But yeah, it's standard Intel compiler env. Be it with a few advance patches, which regular Intel compiler customers get with later builds.

well i still say the deskside looks like a speakerbox.

and another thing: see my name? well i think that says it all

and i see today sgi got a contract from the DOD, i hope they insist on payment in gold or atleast upfront cash.

Laptop DVD drive, AGP cards despite having PCI-X slots and SATA disks. All for $8,500. No, but really. At least the case looks the business. Can't wait for the Printsm - HP laserjet in a Prism shell.

PCI-X != PCI-Express (PCI-E)

PCI-X is a 64-bit 66/100/133-MHz PCI bus used for highend SCSI controllers, Gigabit, uncompressed HD video etc.

I might be missing something with this... but...

it looks ok...

but reading the (limited) specs that SGI have on the site, it doesnt look like anything more than a fairly ok itainium linux box... nothing amazin, hell, nothing even remotely exciting... 2 ordinary Fire cards...??? 256mb being an option?! AGP??? somewhere i expect there is some decent bandwith for something...

the only use for the entry level machines i see, is if you have a multi processor beast, and are a tart... needing matching boxen for pretty press shots...

Ian Mapleson has told me today that Cordnet are saying the price in the UK will be about £4200.

Oh, and PCI-X and PCI-Express are completely different beasts Shrek. Check this: http://www.pcisig.com/specifications

Oh, and it's not bad. PCI-X is backwards compatible and runs to 533MHz

Which makes it $8,000, quite a scoop there Mr Mapleson

Here's what he said in his email:


I hope he doesn't mind me quoting him now!

I'm not making a judgement on Itanium2 one way or the other, but, what value is SGI offering me to buy an Itanium workstation from them ?
I can get this machine http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 76693&rd=1
and add an ATI Fire graphics card or two, an inexpensive sound card and SUSE or Red Hat and still be a third or half the price of SGI. There doesn't seem to be any shortage of cast off, used and new overstock Itanium computers at eBay at very reasonable prices, that better be one hell of a nice computer case for $4000.

Joe

hehe, ask to Apple users here in Europe about the price Apple has in the States and then the price you get here, being able to get the Prism the same real price here and in the States is way cool.

Let´s see how much one must pay to get the new 2.7 Dual G5

USA -> $2999
EU -> $3720

same thing to get the freaking huge 30 inches Apple Display

USA -> $2999
EU -> $3914

so getting the dream configuration here is $1636 more expensive that there in the USA, that is not funny!