I wonder if these techniques can be applied to an Indigo2 R10K 195MHz -> R10K 250MHz or an Octane R10K -> R12K?
The collected works of warerat
Shtoink wrote: The limiting factor for the I2 I have seen is everything between the GFX, HDD, and CPU. Once again, that crack pipe might be looming about and clouding my judgment. :D
No reference to any software this time :wink:
Yeah, I know the memory speed on the I2 is awful-- I've got two of 'em. They're showing their age, but I still love them. My R5K-200 O2 is almost as bad.
But it would be funny to see such an upgrade. I'd be compelled to rip the R10K out of my Octane and plug a R12K in there instead. It's just the prices for R12K CPU's are still high.
chicago-joe wrote: warerat wrote
I'd be compelled to rip the R10K out of my Octane and plug a R12K in there instead.
In the O2s, the R10K and R12K (up to 300MHz) cpu chips use a surface array pin system and fit into a socket of sorts, so they are not soldered to the cpu board like the R5K and R7K chips. This would make changing the cpu chips themselves an easy task. The R10K/R12K boards use the same PLL and xtal setup for the external cpu clock but they use a set of 64 tiny resistors tied to the input pins of the cpu to set the initial conditions of the cpu. (the same thing the PROM chip does on the R5K/R7K cpu board) The catch is: the resistors are tiny and not labeled so I am having to map the the individual resistors to the cpu pins so I can figure out which ones to change to set the correct cpu speed. I have taken apart my Octane R12K 360MHz cpu board and it is the same type of setup, just that all the resistors are in different places. :-x I would guess that the I2 cpu board works the same way. So upgrading the O2 or Octane cpu board (at least to an R12K 300MHz) should be a reasonable project. If someone wants to take the cpu board out of their I2, remove the heatsink assy and take some high res pictures, I would be interested to see if it is setup the same way as the O2 and Octane cpu boards.
Joe
I disassembled the R10K module on my Octane and it indeed has the surface array with the socket as you mentioned. I'd assume the R10K in the Indigo2 to be same-- they both have that arrangement of allen head screws that hold the CPU down to the socket and against the heatsink. I'll take my Indigo2 CPU apart and take some hi-res pictures of all the pieces. Whats immediately different about it from the Octane one is that it has this copper tape around the entire perimeter of the heatsink-- probably for RF shielding. I'm just going to have to slice through that stuff to pull the two halves apart.
Octane wrote:warerat wrote: I disassembled the R10K module on my Octane and it indeed has the surface array with the socket as you mentioned.
Any special tricks for disassembling the Octane CPU?
It's really easy to take apart after you pull the CPU module off the motherboard. You just remove the two phillips screws on the voltage regulator, and then remove the 1/4" allen-head screws (make sure they're all the way out). Then the top heatsink will separate from the board-- you might have to gently pry the halves apart as there's thermal compound on the cache chips, it looks like white sticky tape. The CPU will most likely be stuck to the top heatsink because of the thermal grease. You'll notice no pins on it, and the special socket on the board. I was paranoid putting it back together so I plucked the CPU out of the grease and made sure it was in the proper orientation before I screwed down the heatsink again.
acronym wrote: I have a 5k and 12k at work, I'll check tomorrow. I did read somewhere that there were versions of 5k cases that you could remove a screw or two on the bottom, take out the divider and put in a 10k motherboard. I wonder if you can just then use a 10k pci riser to give more space for cooling - or, can you use an 02 without the pci? I seem to remember reading it has to be there.
The PCI riser has a Dallas serial prom (looks like a little TO-92 transistor) on it with the serial number of the machine encoded on it. I think if it's not there the ethernet won't work or some message comes up at the console.
I've been thinking about the same thing lately. On a Tezro (with the built in tg0 interface), here's what "tgcmd inventory" reports:
Chip Chip Sybsys Subsys Board
I/F Vendor Device Vendor Device Rev
=== ====== ====== ====== ====== ======
tg0 0x14e4 0x1645 0x10a9 0x8010 0x0000 SGI 5701 Copper
Are those boards approved for use in the Octane? I remember looking through the strings in if_tg.o and saw several error messages in there complaining if there is no PCI-X bus.
It may be possible, but the driver may need to be modified similarly like the Indigo2 Phobos E100 driver was for a 3Com EISA board.
Chip Chip Sybsys Subsys Board
I/F Vendor Device Vendor Device Rev
=== ====== ====== ====== ====== ======
tg0 0x14e4 0x1645 0x10a9 0x8010 0x0000 SGI 5701 Copper
Are those boards approved for use in the Octane? I remember looking through the strings in if_tg.o and saw several error messages in there complaining if there is no PCI-X bus.
It may be possible, but the driver may need to be modified similarly like the Indigo2 Phobos E100 driver was for a 3Com EISA board.
colin wrote:Intel-OUTSIDE wrote: i have 2 maxed indigo2's, and once i get my octane nice that's it with sgi for a year or 2.
octane2 is too expensive for me at the moment.
i will be aiming for a nice ultrasparc next.
You can get an Ultra2 with dual 300 MHz and creator graphics for $150 these days. If you hunt around you should be able to find a new-in-box keyboard and mouse for $30. Probably your best bet for $200 Unix.
Octane, dual 300, with MXI/MXE or V6 is really nice too. Even Mozilla and MPlayer run great on it, which is saying a lot!
Of course I'm still living in 1998, where Octane was king, NT was still unstable, Pentiums were slow, Apples were beige, and new BMWs still looked cool.
Now where'd I put that CueCat?...
I've got an official SGI Price Book from February 1998. An Octane with a R10K-250, 128MB RAM, 4GB disk, MXE graphics, and a 20" monitor had a list price of $47,995! Double the memory and add dual-CPUs and the price went up to $61,495!
unixmuseum wrote: Yes, 12whitediamonds is back on ebay with his tacky overpriced paint job/LED Octane...
But the main question I want to ask: can I run Linux on it?
Yikes, that guy should be shot for molesting an Octane like that.
Kinda of off topic, but has anyone seen this garbage?
http://quickwired.com/kallahar/smallprojects/indigo2/
The issue you are describing like sounds you need to configure a persistent binding so that a particular WWN binds to the same SCSI id each time. I've done this in the in past on Solaris machines through the driver config file but not sure where that is for IRIX.