The collected works of jan-jaap - Page 16

I've used HP branded disks in SGIs before. An O2 is not *that* picky...

It's possible that something else is going on, better check before you spend money for nothing.

* I believe the U320 spec makes 'narrow' SCSI support optional, but I've never seen an LVD disk that had issues negotiating SE mode. The O2 is ultra-wide (SE, 40MB/s).

* Maybe the disk doesn't insert securely into the backplane -- you could try to clean things or try with an external disk.

* Maybe these disks are from sort of array and have a non-standard sector size (other than 512bytes/sector)?. This usually affects FC disks, though. With 'fx' you can verify this, 'options' > 'show' > 'geometry', look for data bytes/sec.

* Maybe you should boot the O2 into 'fx' and run a disk wipe: 'exercise' > 'sequential' > 'write-only' > from 0 to whole disk range. See if that works. You have to re-create a disklabel before you can start the IRIX installation.

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
I bought several 300GB Seagate 10K.7 disks (both SCA and 68pin) @ EUR 25 each last year, I consider that cheap. I also got a dozen or so 300GB 10K FC disks for my SAN for even less (I think it was a little under 20EUR each, the proper IBM/Hitachi parts, including the brackets for the IBM DS4300). Maybe I'll get another dozen, max out the thing 8-)

The world moved on to SAS/SATA, everything else is unloaded at scrap prices if you look around. This doesn't stop others from asking way too much, of course. No shortage of people dreaming to get rich off of other people's waste.

It helps to buy in quantity to keep the overhead of shipping costs per disk low.

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
I think you'll find out that a low level format works just fine. And then the install will still fail.

A low level format works like this: computer says to disk: plz format yourself and report back when you're done. And then it sits there for a couple of hours until the disk says it's done.

In your case, I have the feeling it's the SCSI bus that's causing the problem. You're better served with a disk exercise test which stresses the bus while the test is running. Read my previous post about how to use 'fx' to exercise the disk. Choose the sequential read and/or write tests to move lots of data fast, the butterfly test will waste lots of time doing the same thing because it does random access.

An individual disk may fail, but if you have a number of (different!) disks and none work, it's very unlikely that the problem is with the disk(s). And a new disk shouldn't need a low level format anyway.

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
That's it! You can't get away with an unterminated bus. Well, you could with a 4D/35 maybe but not with ultra/wide SCSI ...

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
In my case, the DS4000 FC disks came from eBay DE or FR, the SCSI disks from our local Dutch market place (marktplaats.nl). Saves shipping :)

I'm considering THESE or THESE for my TP9100: 146GB 15K, @9EUR. That's FC, of course

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
Nooooooo!

FC != SCSI, like SATA != SCSI

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
hamei wrote:
(Here is China, the Assistant used to insist on plugging in light bulbs in the store to make sure they worked before we took them home. And yes, they were set up for that because so did everyone else. Ah, the good old days :) )

You can do that where I live too. Of course the Dutch are even cheaper than the Irish, maybe that's why :mrgreen:

About the disks: it helps to figure out the exact part# of what you want. For example, the 300GB Seagate 10K.7 w./ SCA interface is part# ST3300007LC.

If you feel like bidding, here's two, current bid $15: http://www.ebay.com/itm/360707650819
Or here, BIN, two for $60: http://www.ebay.com/itm/130959232995
Or brand new for $80: http://www.ebay.com/itm/321129728092

It sometimes helps to search for the HP or Dell part# of these disks. You'll find the super expensive people targeting the sysadmin looking for a specific HP part (on eBay, really?) but also the 'I don't know what this is but it says this on the label, start bid $0.99' auctions that might go under the radar.

Since this was for an Indy (which has narrow SCSI, which can be problematic with U320 disks), I'd google around to see if the device of your choice is going to work in the first place.

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=468510

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
Winnili wrote:
Recently I acquired a 4-Gbit FC-AL storage enclosure (a Huge Systems/Ciprico MediaVault 4210, to be precise) and attached it to an LSI dual-port 4-Gbit FC (LSI7204XP-LC) HBA.

Did you update the LSI firmware? See man lsflash, the LSI7204XP uses the '949' firmware.

Winnili wrote:
The array volume size is about ~1250 Gbytes per channel (and as such, as far as I recall, this shouldn't be even close to exceeding any IRIX XFS storage boundaries/limits). Furthermore, the volumes are set up with 512 bytes per block.

There's an upper limit of 2TB per LUN, the limits of XFS are in the exabyte range I think.

A couple of other observations:

[1] I have my Tezro hooked up to a SAN server (IBM DS4300, similar to SGI TP9300). Using the same LSI7204XP-LC adapters, btw. The DS4300 allows me to set the client OS when exporting a LUN. It offers about a dozen OSes, including IRIX. Anything like that in your unit?

[2] A quick search showed MediaVault 4210s with 10TB of storage. If your array allows LUNs > 2TB, does it offer options to limit volumes to 2TB? It might be serving up 64bit sector numbers (even if the most significant 32 bits are all zero) to IRIX, confusing fx and/or the kernel.

[3] As a variation on #2: maybe it will use 32bit sector numbers if you limit the total capacity to 2TB? Pull all disks and try with 2 disks on 1 channel?

[4] Maybe you can configure the array as a JBOD and use IRIX XLV/XVM software to create a volume?

[5] There's a patch that will upgrade the IP35 PROM to revision 6.211. It has to do something with 4Gb FC, but IIRC it had to do with booting over 4Gb FC, so it's probably unrelated.

[6] Have you tried with another FC adapter like a QL2342?
Winnili wrote:
I also get the warning that the ‘volhdr’ exceeds 2 Gbytes.

Sounds like a geometry problem after all.

I think you have #2 on your hands.

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
Attachment:
DSC_2478.JPG
DSC_2478.JPG [ 93.75 KiB | Viewed 214 times ]

This is an Origin 200. I thought I'd start with a picture of what one of these is supposed to look like. :mrgreen: Because of the ridiculously fragile skins, most of them look a little different... search eBay.com if you know what I mean.

Attachment:
DSC_2454.JPG
DSC_2454.JPG [ 91.55 KiB | Viewed 214 times ]

This is a detail of an Origin 200 foot. The foot itself is ~ 1mm thick ABS plastic, the little knobs are all there is to fixate the 25kg system. Brilliant design ... not . That's why most of them look like this:
Attachment:
DSC_2459.JPG
DSC_2459.JPG [ 79.06 KiB | Viewed 214 times ]

Believe me, I'm very careful and protective of my systems, but this is just too much. It's like balancing a 19" rackmount server on 4 crystal glasses -- no matter what you do, you will loose.

Here's how I fixed the feet. Carefully drill a 5mm hole though the broken knob. Flatten the remains of the knob to roughly the thickness of the bottom plate of the Origin. Now it looks like this:
Attachment:
DSC_2460.JPG
DSC_2460.JPG [ 97.93 KiB | Viewed 214 times ]

Now you can put an M5 * 15mm bolt (with a washer) through the foot. Use a washer and a self locking M5 nut on the other side. Much more solid than the original design!
Attachment:
DSC_2462.JPG
DSC_2462.JPG [ 104.08 KiB | Viewed 214 times ]

Finally, a shot of the last original knob left in my Origin 200:
Attachment:
DSC_2464.JPG
DSC_2464.JPG [ 91.51 KiB | Viewed 214 times ]

Really, what were they thinking??

I should have just reworked that one too, but I couldn't. Of course I'm going to pay dearly for this mistake because it will self destruct in a year or so, and then I'll have to take the front off (which will splinter into many fragments when I do) in order to remove the bottom plate. The front door is an even bigger catastrophe then the feet :oops:

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
Pontus wrote:
I have an O200 which came to me in very good condition. When moving houses I took great care to ensure that only I handled the O200. But I looked away for a few seconds and my father picked it up with one hand on the door.... sigh..

Same here. Found an intact O200, seller demonstrated it, and broke the hinge of the door right there and then :(

Glued it back together, it was fine for a while, then one day my wife walks along my desk and lightly brushed the side of the O200 -- *snap* the other hinge :(

Left it like that during the construction of my new computer room but now I wanted to put it back together again (it's my install server). Glued the hinges again, try to click the door in -- *crack* door broken.

Glued that, try again the next evening real careful, *crack* the other side of the door breaks :cry:

This time I glued it 'in place'. That thing is maddening. It's just crazy. I hear people complain about the fragility of O2s, but really, the O200 is in a class of it's own. I've never seen anything like it.

That's why no cats & no kids are allowed in my computer room, and the O200 is 'out of the way' in the room. Actually, I think I'll hook it up to one of my APC PDUs and a console server so I don't have to touch it *at all* to power it or operate it 8-)

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
SAQ wrote:
R4000PC XL-8 Indy with 8MB is the king of low end. Practically unusable from day one without upgrades.

Don't think they ever shipped 8MB Indys, but 16MB was equally unusable, mostly because IRIX 5.1 was awful. Tom Davis of SGI wrote wrote an interesting memo about it. The 16MB Indy was referred to as the Indigo without the 'go' . :lol:
hamei wrote:
An R5-180 O2 must be the crown prince, then. Man, are those things awful.

I've used both and the 16MB Indy 'wins'. I used to do software development back in the day on a 32MB Indy running IRIX 5.1.1.x We had to reboot it regularly because it would run out of memory just sitting there. Then I managed to borrow an IRIX 5.3 disc from a friendly sysadmin at the local Uni and talked someone into buying an extra 64MB RAM for the thing. Now *that* made a difference :)

Oh, and the Indigo R3000 is a cool little box. It's like they took the Personal Iris and transformed it from a roaring brown monster into this cute little desktop. And it really works well with IRIX 4.x. You just have to find the contemporary software or build stuff from source.

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
vishnu wrote: Here's a totally off topic question, did Visual C++ exist on AlphaNT?

Yes, up to version 4.2, IIRC
To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. ( IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report )
miod wrote: Funny enough, on the identification sticker, some of them sport `0410' on the top right corner, while the others sport `0411', but there are no other visible differences.

Probably different production dates, week 10 resp. week 11 of 2004.
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
If the scrap value of an Onyx2 is > $300 then there must be more gold in my computer systems than in my wife's jewelry box :mrgreen:
To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. ( IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report )
BetXen wrote: Did you also see that the processor speed is 50MHz ? In the OS, hinv correctly reports 100MHz. Why ?

Before the R4000, the internal and external clock of the CPU was the same, e.g. a 33MHz R3000 runs internally at 33MHz and so does the mainboard (or at least the bits interfacing the CPU).

R4000 (and contemporary Intel CPUs) introduced clock doubling : the internal frequency is a multiple of the external bus frequency.

In case of the first R4000 SGIs, the tech guys referred to the CPU by it's external frequency (50MHz), the marketing folks went with the highest number (100MHz). In the end, everybody went with the highest number, but the PROM still mentions the external frequency. Nothing to worry about.

These days with multi-GHz CPUs, the multiplier is of course much higher than 2 or 3x.


PS: nice looking Indigo!
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
jodys wrote: Then again, I can't put a R5K in an Indigo which means the Indigo doesn't run mips4, limiting the nekoware I can run. Thus, perhaps the Indigo should be a Indican't ;)

That's hardly the fault of the poor Indigo.

Just install IRIX 5.3 or 6.2 and TGCware. Enjoy the increased speed and responsiveness of your Indigo-go-go :mrgreen:
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
I paid €250 for my own Onyx2 deskside. At the time it was a dual R10K config with IR2E graphics, but with pristine skins. I sold a couple of Onyx2's a while ago for prices between €200 - €350, or traded them for something 'interesting', like a pair of Challenge L desksides. These were mostly 'rackmount deskside' 300MHz R12K systems with IR2E graphics.

guardian452 wrote: How to get a good price is (a) know where to look (industrial/university surplus auctions, etc) , or (b) know somebody who wants to get rid of one.

Don't forget (c) plain luck or (d) someone who tips you off. Thanks to option (d) I picked up a purple O2+ a couple of weeks ago for €25.

And that was only because I was generous (the money was going to someone's kid). The asking price was ..... <insert drum roll> ... 10 bucks. :shock:
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
VenomousPinecone wrote: As for the very fine black dust, it is probably just run of the mill toner.

No, I've seen that in Onyx2's etc as well. I believe that in a system with sufficient airflow the larger dust is simply blown out, and only the smallest particles remain.

You can clean it off with a clean paint brush.
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
These patches were superseded by others.

patchSG0003236 replaces patchSG0000956
patchSG0002605 replaces patchSG0001003
patchSG0001826 replaces patchSG0001015

Those are (were ?) available from Supportfolio

EDIT:
Which patches are needed for 5.3 XFS?

I assume the recommended/required patch set for IRIX 5.3 w./ XFS. There were two of them: 5.3xfs_Challenge_Onyx.tardist . and 5.3xfs_Indigo_Indigo2_Indy_ChallengeS.tardist .

PS: Yeah, that's my FTP server. Those patch sets used to be widely mirrored on anonymous FTP but they seem to have disappeared so this is my service to the public.
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
jpstewart wrote:
jan-jaap wrote: Now if only I could shut up that bloody Silkworm, it is absolutely intolerable....

What model of Silkworm? I recently acquired a pair of 32-port Silkworm 4100s (well, actually, the IBM-badged equivalent) that are intolerably noisy for about 2 minutes after powering them on. Then once their embedded operating system has booted (and the fans are under control of the environmental monitoring software) they quiet down to a much more reasonable level. Maybe a newer Silkworm (or even a firmware update for yours) would help your situation?

I'm happy to report that the HP SANswitch 2-16 (a.k.a. Silkworm 3800) has been replaced with a shiny new^H^H^H second hand EMC DS-5000B (a.k.a. Brocade 5000). The 5000 is the successor to the 4100. It's also noisy at start-up (though less than the 3800), and then settles down. It's still an 1U unit and those fans still run at ~ 7500RPM, but it's much much more agreeable.

Strangely, the airflow is back-to-front. Ideally I should mount it in the back of the rack, but that's not very convenient. Think I'll ignore that for now.

As a side effect of this noise canceling effort I now have 32*4Gb connectivity instead of 16*2Gb :D Took me a while to find one with 32 (licensed!) ports for an acceptable price, and on the right continent. As a bonus, it also come with Extended Fabric, Fabric Watch, Performance Monitor and Trunking licenses. That should keep me busy for a while 8-)
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
vishnu wrote: What kind of storage are you going to feed with that beast? :shock:

Uhm, I've got an IBM DS4300 SAN server (with an extra EXP710 disk tray) and an SGI TP9100 JBOD. Both have dual 2Gb attachments.

I'm gradually upgrading my infrastructure to 4Gb. Several of my SGIs have dual 4Gb cards already. I don't expect to upgrade to 'real' 4Gb FC SAN hardware anytime soon. All disks are 2Gb as well, for example so I'd have to throw out everything. A more likely upgrade path would be that my next file server will run an FC adapter in target mode. With a half decent RAID adapter and SSD caching that should be plenty fast. And I wouldn't need 28 spindles to get 8TB of storage capacity ;)
jpstewart wrote:
jan-jaap wrote: Strangely, the airflow is back-to-front. Ideally I should mount it in the back of the rack, but that's not very convenient.

That seems to be somewhat common on switches. I guess in a data centre environment it makes sense to mount the switch at the back of the rack. Putting the switch ports at the back where the servers' ports are can simplify cabling --- no need to pull cables through to the front of the rack. I'll have to check the airflow on my 4100s now. I never thought about that until you mentioned it.


There's another possibility: the only place where this thing generates any significant amount of heat, is the cluster of GBICs at the front. Airflow front to back would draw the hot air through the chassis. Back to front probably results in lower chassis temperature.
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
vishnu wrote: And your main usage of that enterprise-class storage is for photos of the wife and kids, right? :mrgreen:

When I got the DS4300 it had no disks, so I only had the controllers to mess with. I quickly figured out that they run vxWorks. I deal with vxWorks professionally more or less on a daily basis so that got my full attention. Now I have all the optional licensed features like flash copy, volume copy, FC/SATA mix etc etc. 8)

Up until this moment this thing was nothing but yet another way to waste my free time. I got it in exchange for a charity donation so it didn't cost me much. Then I figured out this thing actually works with IRIX clients, unlike some other SAN hardware. It's an Engenio unit, also rebadged as the SGI TP9300. So I bought some disks for it. At some point I found a cheap EXP710 (extra disk tray). If I run into a cheap EXP810 I'll pick that up too -- it supports SATA disks, and if I hack the carrier firmware to accept generic SATA disks I can offload all my old 1TB disks into it.

And it's used to store funny cat pictures, what else? :mrgreen:
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
hamei wrote: I don't suppose that the entire desktop hanging solid when an nfs share disconnects will ever get fixed now :(

My MacBook used to do that, but it's fixed in Mavericks (or the big cat release before that which I skipped). So it can be done :)
To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. ( IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report )
cesss wrote: Most single processor SGI workstations have the limit of 1GB RAM (except the Fuel with 4GB).

What (64 bit) single processor board do you think would need less modifications (mainly in number of chips and ASICs) in order to support a larger number of RAM GBs?

Least modifications would be a single CPU Octane2: zero 8-)

cesss wrote: Possible candidates I think would be the Crimson and the Indigo2, but I don't know how complex is their respective memory logic.

The concept of 8GB RAM in a system with a 100 or 150MHz CPU and a 10MB/s SCSI bus (or was it 5MB/s sync? can't be bothered to look it up atm.) is ... ahem .. interesting :?

cesss wrote: And now... do you think IRIX would be able to use 8GB RAM on a Crimson or Indigo2 if you had such a modified board?

No.

It's physically possible yo install 1.5GB of RAM in an Indigo2 R10000, but if you install more than 1GB it won't boot because something else is mapped into that region of the address space. I tried it myself and it doesn't work.

So, not only would you have to modify the hardware in an incompatible way (new IPxx number), you would have to change the OS as well. While you're at it, you might as well upgrade the SCSI bus, network interface and a few other things. This has been done already and it's called the Octane :mrgreen:

Your best bet would probably be to butcher an Octane and mod it into the Indigo2 chassis. If you dare do this with a Crimson I'll come over and kill you myself ;)

Another, more interesting angle would be to replace the RAM chips of O3K class DIMMs. They are mostly like normal DIMMs: DDR memory, SPD chip etc. but different form factor. Replace the RAM chips and reprogram the SPD to create 4GB RAM kits. Who wants 16GB in their Tezro? I do 8-)
To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. ( IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report )
Jack Luminous wrote: old swiss reel-to-reel machines

Studer/Revox? Kewl. I swear, one day I'll buy a Mk II B77 8-)
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
If nothing happens (no LEDs, fans etc), it's almost certainly the power supply.

This is not uncommon for Indigo2's, there's a guide out there how to recap the PSU. My success rate doing this is ~ 50%
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
With his German email address, THIS might be an idea. That's got to be the biggest cube logo I've ever seen. Think it 'glows', like a Tezro?

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
hamei wrote:
What do you s'pose they are doing with all the internals ?

Same seller has been trying to sell the guts of an Onyx 3800 and various IA64 bits for a couple of years now, but his (her?) prices are an order of magnitude out of my range (8K EUR for the Itanium equivalent of the CX brick, RM11's for a couple of thousand etc). Looking at their other offerings, they probably clean out government labs.

_________________
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
foetz wrote:
vishnu wrote: Now hacking out the accursed variadic macros one by one

why? mipspro does support c99.
to be sure i just ran a quick test and used one from the gcc(!) examples - it worked :-)


Certain headers (stdint.h, for example) are marked as 'C99-only', but only the MIPSpro C compiler supports C99. Try to include <stdint.h> in some C++ code and compiler with MIPSpro to see what I mean ;)

GCC C++ allows C99 features in C++ code.
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
ClassicHasClass wrote: Another year, another machine room panorama.

http://www.floodgap.com/etc/machines.html


Re: the "ghetto halon system": get rid of it. If it's powder at least. That powder is a salt, if the moment ever comes and in a panic you empty that thing, you can write off all your hardware due to corrosion issues 6 months later. For an electronics fire CO2 is best. But big and heavy.

Same for the extinguishers many people have in their car, btw. If you car catches fire: let it burn. Assuming everybody got out, of course ;) Insurance covers it. If you use a powder extinguisher, the insurance will say "thanks", repair your damage, but again 6 months later you will suffer a massive electronics failure, probably write of the car and it will *not* be covered. You did it yourself, after all.
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
Trippynet wrote: Oh! and I also reversed the flow of the fan on my system - default was to blow air OUT at the front, and I don't like fans at the front and back both trying to extract air

Not sure, but I maybe it was originally back to front because of the way the ASICs are placed on the graphics boards. Especially with IMPACT graphics, all the big ASICs, TRAMS etc are located near the front of the machine. So with air flow back to front you don't pull the hot air over the rest of the PCB, but it goes straight out instead.

I've got Brocade 5000 FC switches. They use ~ 50W (which isn't much for a 32 port 4Gb FC switch), and nearly all of it must be consumed by the SFPs. Which are at the front, obviously. So the airflow is back to front. If the hot air were guided out the back, you would need additional airflow to keep the temperature of the internals within bounds.

Oh, and I used to have a cat who loved to sleep in front of my MaxIMPACT 10K Indigo2. Didn't care about the noise, loved the hot air flow :mrgreen:
To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. ( IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report )
I think a new thread is justified here

Subject: WTB: Octane2 2x600Mhz (or 2x400Mhz) R14K with V12 Pro

recondas wrote:
jan-jaap wrote: One of those plus a suitable monitor just might make a decent replacement for a bulky/expensive (HD)SDI monitor.
Nice find - compared to the name-brand-high-priced-spread they are indeed very affordable.

Well, I ordered one (not that one but another, with embedded audio support). I guess it's going to take three weeks to deliver and will arrive in a bubble wrap envelope ;) Still, I'm completely in the dark about many aspects of the DMedia puzzle.

I mean, I've got the SGIs covered:
* Onyx2 with HD-GVO (DG5-TVO) which does 720p or 1080i (amongst others), DM2 (1080p), VBOB w./ DM5 (I hope it matches, borrowed from Octane2). This should give me HD-SDI video in/out at 1080p and HD-SDI GVO at 1080i. Oh, and I still have a DIVO/DVC card somewhere.
* Tezro with V12+DCD and DM3, VBOB (same as the one from Octane2). This should give me HD-SDI video in/out *and * GVO at 1080p (?? not sure about capabilities of DCD, DM5 combo).
* Octane2 with V12+DCD and DM2 for good measure.
* Enough FC interfaces in the systems and disk arrays to provide the required I/O bandwidth.

Now I want to *do* something with them ;) Get some sort of video monitoring, and feed it it video data. This will have to use the SDI and HD-SDI BNC's from the DMedia gear. Let's see what I have already:
* a HD-TV with HDMI inputs (too far away and not portable)
* a mini-DV consumer cam, SD resolution, can play *and* record via 1394, s-video and composite.

Oh, something else: looking at the SDI doc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_digital_interface I need 3G SDI to support 1080p (@50 or 60Hz). The el cheapo converters do that, but the 3G spec is from 2006 so the SGI gear doesn't. It says it conforms to SMPTE-292M (VBOB manual). That spec goes up to 1080i, VBOB claims 1080p ?? While there are two sets of HD-SDI BNC's for each link, I don't think it's dual link HD-SDI (SMPTE 372M). Could it be 1080p@24fps ?? Confusing :roll:

I currently don't own any 1080p or 1920x1200 capable displays, and want to resolve this before choosing one. I can do SDI <-> HDMI format conversion but resolution and refresh rate issues remain. PC display capable of PAL/NTSC or 1080i resolution? 24fps isn't uncommon in TVs, but monitors? The Dell 2407WFP I have at work can do it via analog component in, but monitors supporting that on digital inputs? No clue ...

Or maybe I should go for a small HDMI equipped TV screen rather than a computer monitor.

I'm tempted to simply connect the Onyx2 and Tezro VBOBs and make one capture the other (as a proof of concept). Or source a simple SDI-composite converter and attach to the mini-DV cam.

And I haven't even started with the software side of things. Well, I still have the original Tezro hard disk with a Smoke install. Smoke is supposed to do HD-I/O.

Any hints to get me started? Any idea if ShotMaker works with DM2 and/or TVO? Documentation says it was developed for the older XIO parallel HD I/O board (XT-HD?).

I can spend some money on it but cannot justify the megabucks pro equipment for my hobbyist projects.
To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. ( IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report )
The IBM PC Jr. is turning 30 too :)
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
Nice Challenge, with the SATA mode and the 100Mbit networking. I used FDDI for fast(er) networking in mine.

diegel wrote: This is of course a modified processor board. I was lucky to find a 200mhz R5000 CPU to replace the original 180mhz version. Since the CPU don't become hot, I run it without heat sink. The maximum temperature I was able to measure at the CPU cap was 42 degree Celsius.

I wouldn't worry about the CPU, after all it was designed to run at that speed (although probably design to work with a heatsink...). But I guess you replaced the oscillator and now you're overclocking the L2 cache? Or did you change a divider somewhere?

Did the CPU come from an O2 or something?
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
hamei wrote: But probably enough for two 1920x1200 @ 50hz displays :D

56Hz, IIRC. So close, but no cigar. Most panels wont sync to that.
hamei wrote: Is that the four-RM pipe or the two-RM pipe ? Or does the number of raster managers matter since the limiting factor is the display mangler ?

With more RMs you can have more features (pixel depth etc) and resolution too I think. But the limitation (as Recondas said) is the bandwidth of the pixel bus between the RMs and the DG. A deskside (2 RMs) can push enough pixels to max it out.

FWIW: A couple of years ago I had the opportunity to buy an Onyx2 rack. At the time I had an O2K deskside and an Onyx deskside and thought the rack might save some space (they're stacked after all). Turns out the footprint of the Onyx2 rack equals two desksides. This wasn't an improvement and I passed on the rack.

Me, I prefer the desksides. They allow you to 'taste' the architecture as good as the racks while taking up considerably less space. Which means I can have more :)
To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. ( IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report )
When you press the power button of one O300 module you expect the other module to power up as well? I don't think it works like that.

I have to press the power buttons on both of my O350 modules. Alternatively, you can use an L2 and issue a '* pwr up'.
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)
The problem is that IRIX supports two thread models: traditional (sproc) threads and POSIX threads. You cannot mix thread models in a single IRIX process.

Several libraries in IRIX use sproc threads internally, probably because they date back to IRIX 5.3 or early 6.x days. For a developer this means that if you decide to use this library, and your code is threaded, it must use sproc threads.

Needless to say, these days everything assumes pthreads.
:PI: :Indigo: :Indigo: :Indy: :Indy: :Indy: :Indigo2: :Indigo2: :Indigo2IMP: :Octane: :Octane2: :O2: :O2+: Image :Fuel: :Tezro: :4D70G: :Skywriter: :PWRSeries: :Crimson: :ChallengeL: :Onyx: :O200: :Onyx2: :O3x02L:
To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. ( IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report )
I guess you should run

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/nm -u
against /usr/lib32/*.so and grep for sproc ?

On my Origin 350 (IRIX 6.5.30) these libraries show up:

Code: Select all

libC.so
libcl.so
libdmnet.so
libdplace.so
libdprof.so
libftn.so
libil.so
libinstr.so
libmoviefile.so
libmovieplay.so
libmp.so
libmp_pthreads.so
libnanothread.so
libpthread.so
libss.so
libvkSGI.so

Several of these belong to the WorkShop debugger. Before you ask: I don't know why libmp_pthreads.so and libpthread.so match :P

But man(5) pthreads is clear:

Code: Select all

Using sprocs
The sproc(2) model of threading is incompatible with POSIX threads.
Attempts by an sproc process to create pthreads and vice-versa will
be rejected.
:PI: :Indigo: :Indigo: :Indy: :Indy: :Indy: :Indigo2: :Indigo2: :Indigo2IMP: :Octane: :Octane2: :O2: :O2+: Image :Fuel: :Tezro: :4D70G: :Skywriter: :PWRSeries: :Crimson: :ChallengeL: :Onyx: :O200: :Onyx2: :O3x02L:
To accentuate the special identity of the IRIS 4D/70, Silicon Graphics' designers selected a new color palette. The machine's coating blends dark grey, raspberry and beige colors into a pleasing harmony. ( IRIS 4D/70 Superworkstation Technical Report )
I have an Indigo2 I don't need anymore. R10K, 175MHz, Solid Impact, unknown memory. Hinges of front 'door' broken, otherwise OK condition. No power supply .

Location The Netherlands. Beware: these things are quite heavy.
Now this is a deep dark secret, so everybody keep it quiet :)
It turns out that when reset, the WD33C93 defaults to a SCSI ID of 0, and it was simpler to leave it that way... -- Dave Olson, in comp.sys.sgi

Currently in commercial service: Image :Onyx2: (2x) :O3x02L:
In the museum : almost every MIPS/IRIX system.
Wanted : GM1 board for Professional Series GT graphics (030-0076-003, 030-0076-004)