The collected works of orionpi

orionpi
Who joined Jan. 30, 2003, 12:58 a.m.
and authored 110 notes
Wrote on the subject of What we* do for a living... at Feb. 6, 2003, 12:25 a.m...
I've been doing desktop support since I got out of high school (3 years). I recently got a part-time job at a local datacenter as a NOC tech. It's taken 3 years and I finnaly have a job that's not in Houston or has a 2 hour commute.

I've been using linux for about 5 years, picked up my first Indy about 15 months ago, took 5 months to find IRIX, but since then I have transitioned quickly. Now if I can just keep the switches for ps streight between Linux, BSD and IRIX it would be great.
orionpi
From Seattle
Who joined Jan. 30, 2003, 12:58 a.m.
Wrote on the subject of What do you use your SGI for? at March 6, 2003, 4:41 p.m...
Ok, guess I'll add my $0.02:

The number one thing I like about SGI systems is the responsiveness of the OS. This comes from the need to have low latency when dealing with real-time video. That combined with the solid hardware, and a solid OS makes them a joy to work on. Compared the my Sun workstations (Ultra10, SS20's and SS5) the SGI's are much more responsive (and can run ssh much faster). Unfortunatly Mac's can't compare with the SGI and SUN workstations as far as stablitity since they no longer use ECC RAM and SCSI drives. IRIX is also quite light compared to modern OS's, 6.5 has uses arround 55MB on my Indy much less than XP, W2k or OS X. IRIX is also quite full featured, includes features like hot-swap SCSI and PCI support (I've used the hot-swap SCSI on my Indy and Indigo2) and a number of services included with the base OS. On top of that many SGI systems are ture 64-bit workstations, something only avaliable form SUN, SGI and HP (on the PA-RISC and Alpha workstations and servers) and PC's and Mac's are still shooting for (sometime next fall...yah whatever didn't you say that 3 years ago). I've tried using my Ultra 10 (300Mhz, 512MB) as a workstation, but I've found that even my Indy (R5k@180, 192MB) if much more responsive and pleasent to work on. Oh, did I mention real 24-bit audio, not like the "creative" labs Adigity2+Platnium/Super/overdrive/whatever/this_card_cost_more_than_your_CPU_and_has_buggy_drivers :)
orionpi
Big Fan
Who joined Jan. 30, 2003, 1:58 a.m.
and authored 110 notes
Wrote on the subject of name your SGI? at April 23, 2003, 9:46 a.m...
I had a naming sceme (named after stars), but some where in my monthly maintance of my windows boxes I seem to have abandoned it.

Meissa - HP Vectra Dual P-133 - old web/mail/dns server
Mintaka - been through many incarnations, proliant w/ 3ware - fileserver
Rigel - My linux workstation, was a dual P-III-500, but it died and has been reincarnated as a single Athlon on an MPX board
Saiph - new web/mail/dns server - HP LPr
Etheos - Sparc IPX - came labeled, kept name
Tabit - SparcStation20 - DNS, DHCP, TFTP, MRTG

but some where reloading windows boxes I started naming the machines after mainboard model (for PC clones) or model number:

x-class - HP Visulize X-Class - currently my only windows box, fighting w/ HP to get it working properly
ultra10 - SUN Ultra10
indy-r5k - Main Indy, probably main SGI
indy-r4400
indy-r4600 - was going to give this one away, but haven't dropped it off
hpb160l - my PARISC box
i2-r10k - Indigo2 using it more lately
sparcwall - Sparcstation5-170 - firewall/router
o2-r5k
g1 - dell GX1 - testing box
kayak - HP Kayak - needs VRM

Then there are a number of un named boxes which I just haven't gotten to: Challenge-S, another HPB106L, 3 Indigo2's, 2x SparcStation Classic's.

Hmm, I really should get rid of some of these...
orionpi
Who joined Jan. 30, 2003, 1:58 a.m.
and authored 110 notes
Wrote on the subject of xmess emulator at June 30, 2003, 9:59 a.m...
Ok, this is a strange one. Does anyone know what the minimum version of IRIX required to boot an Indy (R4k-100-SC, XL-8, 64MB, 1GB) is? I know 5.3 supports it, and the sticker on the drive says 5.1.1, date stamps in case are late 1/94.
orionpi
From tacoma.wa.us
Who joined Jan. 30, 2003, 12:58 a.m.
Wrote on the subject of Overclocking O2 R5K/180 to 200MHz at July 10, 2003, 9:32 p.m...
akimmet wrote: ...

As for the CPU in the socket they are the same and can be freely exchanged between modules of the same CPU type. This sometimes applies to CPUs of the same pinout too. I’ve heard of people successfully putting an r4700 in their r4600 module for example.
...
If you would happen to have a serial EEPROM programmer it could be easily possible to make a 300+MHz r5k Indy by buying a fast r5k (a r5000a might work too) CPU then modifying the contents of the 8pin serial EPROM to change the multiplier to an appropriate value. This technique also applies to at least all other Indy modules too just keep the replacement in the same CPU family.


R4700???

I belive the R5000a had a differnt physical package, but if you want to fab a PCB a R5500 might work too.
orionpi
From tacoma.wa.us
Who joined Jan. 30, 2003, 12:58 a.m.
Wrote on the subject of Overclocking O2 R5K/180 to 200MHz at July 11, 2003, 12:05 p.m...
akimmet wrote: ...

Althought I have found there ARE some r4600 cpus out there (I have one) with the huge heatsink.


The larger heatsink is not a sure sign of the CPU being 5v. My Indy R4400-175SC says 3.3v on the PCB but has the larger heatsink, I'm assuming that my R4600-100PC is 3.3v even though it has the larger heatsink.

I still can't figure out the voltage requlators on the R5k Indys, mine doesn't have one but I can see where one could be soldered on, maybe it was only needed in early models. To my knowledge all R5000's are 3.3v, the R5000a is the lower voltage model.