Subject: indigo2 extreme

From: Mike Shaver <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 00:03:10 -0500

So I've got a decent deal on an indigo2[*] with the extreme kit lined
up, and I'm wondering how much I'll regret it if I go ahead and purchase
it.  Will I live to see it run Linux?  Will I be able to use the x86
EISA code to get started?

[*] R4400 @ 200 MHz, 80 MB RAM, 1GB drive, SCSI floppy, internal zip
drive, 20" monitor, $1250 US + shipping.  Good deal?

Mike

-- 
121025.89 101644.27

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From: "William J. Earl" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 21:53:29 -0800

> EISA code to get started?
...

      As has been discussed here a number of times, the Indigo2 is
not too different from an Indy.  The Extreme graphics, however, are
a challenge to support with open source software, and I do not yet
have authorization to release the hardware specifications for the
EISA interface either (although I keeping working on being able
to release all the hardware specifications).

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 11:13:57 +0100

> EISA code to get started?

Bill Earles already answered the rest of the question.  As far as EISA
goes I cannot imagine that there will be serious problems, EISA support
for other machines was pretty much straight forward.

The unfun part of dealing with (E)ISA cards in such an environment will be
to fix byteorder problems and the cache coherence in all DMA drivers.  The
really unfun part will be to deal with boards which need to be initialized
by the BIOS or needs BIOS access otherwise.

  Ralf

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From: [email-masked] (Dave Olson)
Date: Tue, 19 Jan 1999 08:52:43 -0800 (PST)

[email-masked] wrote: 
|  On Tue, Jan 19, 1999 at 12:03:10AM -0500, Mike Shaver wrote:
|  
|  > So I've got a decent deal on an indigo2[*] with the extreme kit lined
|  > up, and I'm wondering how much I'll regret it if I go ahead and purchase
|  > it.  Will I live to see it run Linux?  Will I be able to use the x86
|  > EISA code to get started?
|  
|  Bill Earles already answered the rest of the question.  As far as EISA
|  goes I cannot imagine that there will be serious problems, EISA support
|  for other machines was pretty much straight forward.

I would expect significant problems.  There is a reason that there are
very few EISA cards for the indigo2.

Dave Olson, Silicon Graphics
http://reality.sgi.com/olson   [email-masked]

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From: "Andrew R. Baker" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 15:15:25 -0600 (CST)

This is a somewhat official announcement about work being done to port
Linux to the Indigo2.  

Here at UAB, we have received a grant from SGI to implement a Beowulf
cluster out of a group of Indigo2 machines.  As part of this project, we
will be porting the Linux kernel to the Indigo2.  The current status of
the project is that we are unpacking boxes and setting up the systems.
We received a collection of Indigo2 High Impacts, Extremes, and XZs, all
with (2) 2Gig drives and 128MB RAM.  The people involved with this project
here at UAB are myself (a graduate student and campus network analyst),
Mark Zottola (Adjunctssociate Professor of Computer Science and
supercomputer analyst), and Bob Hyatt (Associate Professor of Computer
Science).  

Any information people have collected that may help us in this effort
would be much appreciated.  And I'm sure you all will be hearing more from
us in the future.

Andrew and Mark 

(hehe I'm special so my name came first....)