SGI Indy
Encyclopedia
The Indy, code-named "Guinness", is a low-end workstation
introduced on 12 July 1993. Developed and manufactured by Silicon Graphics Incorporated
(SGI), it was the result of their attempt to obtain a share of the low-end computer-aided design
(CAD) market, which was dominated at the time by other workstation vendors; and the desktop publishing
and multimedia
markets, which were mostly dominated at the time by Apple Computer
. It was discontinued on 30 June 1997, with support to end on 31 December 2012.
" chassis is comparable to a small desktop PC from the same era, and is designed to fit underneath a large CRT monitor. It was the first computer to include a digital video camera, and was built with a (then) forward-looking architecture including an on-board ISDN adapter. With the inclusion of analog and digital I/O, SCSI
, and standard composite
and S-Video
inputs, the Indy was a machine designed for multimedia.
At the beginning of its life, the Indy came standard with 16MB of RAM. IRIX
5.1, the first operating system
for the Indy, did not take full advantage of the hardware due to inadequate memory management. SGI realized this and quickly increased the base specification to 32 MB, at considerable cost. Subsequent IRIX
releases made huge improvements in memory usage. The latest release of IRIX available for the Indy workstations is 6.5.22.
One option for the Indy was a floptical
drive. The floptical
used 21 MB disks, but was able to read and write standard magnetic floppies as well.
R4000
PC microprocessor
, which quickly proved inadequate. The Indy, at the bottom of SGI's price list, was then upgraded with the MIPS R4400 and the low-cost, low-power-consumption Quantum Effect Devices
(QED) R4600
. The R4600 had impressive integer performance, but had poor floating-point capability. This, however, wasn't too large of a problem in a system that was generally not designed for floating-point-intensive applications. For this reason, the R4600 made an appearance outside the Indy line just once, and only briefly, in the SGI Indigo². This series of microprocessor issues, along with the relatively low-powered graphics boards, lower maximum RAM amount, and relative lack of internal expansion ability compared to the SGI Indigo
led to the Indy being pejoratively described amongst industry insiders as "An Indigo without the 'go'."
The R4600 chip itself has no L2 cache controller, external controller was used to add 512K of L2 cache. R4600s processor modules both with an L2 cache
(SC) and without (PC) are common in the Indy. At the same clock rate, the SC version of the processor module is generally 20 to 40 percent faster than the PC version, due to the memory cache.
The Indy was also the first SGI to utilize the QED R5000
microprocessor, which offered significant advantages over the R4400 and R4600 it replaced.
Three graphics subsystems were available for the Indy: 8-bit XL, 24-bit XL, and 24-bit XZ. Each supported a maximum resolution of 1280 × 1024 at a refresh rate of 76 Hz, and had a 13W3 monitor connection. Graphics options were connected to the system using a GIO32bis
bus.
graphics based on the REX3 chipset, these were designed for general 2D X11 applications; no hardware 3D acceleration was included. This was the first accelerator to demonstrate object-based antialiasing and sub-pixel exact Bresenham lines. These worked best for 2D CAD or general office use.
In an Indy with an R5000 CPU, these graphics options are called XGE, because an R5000 CPU can perform 3D geometry calculations faster than the XZ subsystems's four Geometry Engines--as a result, all 3D is done in software. The situation is, however, reversed when the calculations are done for full-screen rendering and involve z-buffer operations (which XL does not possess). XZ graphics were rarely paired with the R5000 for this reason.
) graphics into Indy - they offered very good non-textured 3D performance at the time, sacrificing a bit of 2D performance in return. The XZ graphics option was not widely used in Indy systems that used the R5000 CPU. This was mostly due to extensions of the MIPS instruction set that were implemented in the R5000. With the new instructions, the R5000 CPU could perform coordinate transformations faster than the XZ graphics board. However, using XZ to perform coordinate transforms does free the CPU to perform other rendering-related calculations. If the application is not transform-limited (i.e. limited by the speed of coordinate transformation), then the XZ option can provide significant rasterization performance advantages over the XL boards.
These graphics take the form of two boards, one on top of the other, and block both GIO option slots, making them less favorable since options such as 10/100 Ethernet and JPEG compression boards cannot be installed.
, S-Video
, and digital video input built into the motherboard, which collectively are known as "Vino" (video input, no output) video. None of them are of professional quality, but are still usable. The digital input is a proprietary D-sub
connector with a rectangular array of pins, and is used by the SGI IndyCam
. The connector is the same as serial ports on Cisco routers, however is electrically different.
The maximum supported input resolution is 640x480 (NTSC
) or 768x576 (PAL
). It takes a fast machine to capture at either of these resolutions, though; an Indy with slower R4600PC CPU, for example, may require the input resolution to be reduced before storage or processing. However, the Vino hardware is capable of DMA
ing video fields directly into the framebuffer with minimal CPU overhead.
None of the Indys support a video output by default - that would require the Indy Video GIO32
card. On top of that, there is an optional module called CosmoCompress, which offers on-the-fly JPEG
video compression and decompression and uses up another GIO32 slot.
s for 1-inch tall 3.5" drives. The upper drive bay is externally accessible and may hold a SCSI floptical
drive. All external and internal drives share a single Fast SCSI
bus (unless a GIO32 SCSI card has been installed).
drive connect via SCSI
connector at rear side of the box. Typical drive supports boot, OS install, audio. Special ROM is required to boot from for certain device types. http://www.vigyan.com/~blbates/sgi/hardware_notes/CDROMpoll.html
A small number of CD-ROM
drives have the firmware
needed to do audio over SCSI
.
/10BASE-T
Ethernet
and ISDN as standard equipment. The Ethernet ports are half-duplex
only. The 10BaseT port takes precedence over the AUI port - if the system detects a carrier on both ports, it will use the 10Base-T.
Two different manufacturers produced 100BASE-TX Ethernet cards compatible with the Indy, both of which attached to the system using the GIO32
bus. Set Engineering produced one such fast Ethernet card, based on the Texas Instruments
ThunderLAN chipset, under contract with SGI. Phobos also produced models of fast Ethernet cards for the Indy (the G100 and G130).
The ISDN port provided on the Indy has no NT1
. An external NT1 is required to use the ISDN port in North America.
SGI released a variant of the Indy for low-end server usage. The SGI Challenge S has an identical case as the Indy (except for the name badge), and featured a nearly identical motherboard as the Indy, but without any graphics or sound hardware. Interestingly, there are still volume control buttons on the front of the Challenge S, but they are not connected to anything. The Challenge S comes with an ISDN port standard. Also included is a 10Mbit/s AUI Ethernet port. All local administration is performed by serial console to one of the two DIN-8 serial ports (either one can be used to reach the PROM prompt and uses the same pin-out found on Macintosh modem/printer ports).
/Power General power supply. New power supplies are manufactured by Sony and sold through resellers, however they are expensive.
The Indy's Ethernet address, which doubles as the system's serial number, is stored in battery-backed RAM. This means that when the internal battery dies, so does the system - it will hang at the PROM
monitor and refuse to boot any further as a result of the Ethernet address being reset to FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF (expressed in hexadecimal
). A competent user can replace the PROM battery and reprogram it. The original battery was made by Dallas Semiconductor
, now a division of Maxim Integrated Products
. The original unit was marked the "DS-1386-8K-150", however its replacement unit, the "DS-1386-8K-120" can be directly substituted with no ill effects.
One can set a new MAC address from the Command Monitor with the command "setenv -f eaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx". The -f switch here will force the new MAC address. The MAC address is (usually) on a sticker to the rear of the unit, and hence can be reprogrammed without losing software licences, which often rely on it to verify ownership. Otherwise, any MAC address in SGI's block is usable.
(Originally based upon Alex's SGI page (PageMirror), public domain as of September 7, 2003)
Workstation
A workstation is a high-end microcomputer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at a time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems...
introduced on 12 July 1993. Developed and manufactured by Silicon Graphics Incorporated
Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics, Inc. was a manufacturer of high-performance computing solutions, including computer hardware and software, founded in 1981 by Jim Clark...
(SGI), it was the result of their attempt to obtain a share of the low-end computer-aided design
Computer-aided design
Computer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...
(CAD) market, which was dominated at the time by other workstation vendors; and the desktop publishing
Desktop publishing
Desktop publishing is the creation of documents using page layout software on a personal computer.The term has been used for publishing at all levels, from small-circulation documents such as local newsletters to books, magazines and newspapers...
and multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
markets, which were mostly dominated at the time by Apple Computer
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
. It was discontinued on 30 June 1997, with support to end on 31 December 2012.
Physical traits
The Indy packed a reasonable amount of power into a very small (41 cm × 36 cm × 8 cm), simple, and elegant package. The sturdy, electric-blue colored "pizza boxPizza box form factor
In computing, a pizza box is a style of case for computers or network switches. Cases of this type tend to be wide and flat, normally one or two rack units in height, thus resembling pizza delivery boxes....
" chassis is comparable to a small desktop PC from the same era, and is designed to fit underneath a large CRT monitor. It was the first computer to include a digital video camera, and was built with a (then) forward-looking architecture including an on-board ISDN adapter. With the inclusion of analog and digital I/O, SCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
, and standard composite
Composite video
Composite video is the format of an analog television signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF carrier. In contrast to component video it contains all required video information, including colors in a single line-level signal...
and S-Video
S-Video
Separate Video, more commonly known as S-Video and Y/C, is often referred to by JVC as both an S-VHS connector and as Super Video. It is an analog video transmission scheme, in which video information is encoded on two channels: luma and chroma...
inputs, the Indy was a machine designed for multimedia.
At the beginning of its life, the Indy came standard with 16MB of RAM. IRIX
IRIX
IRIX is a computer operating system developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. to run natively on their 32- and 64-bit MIPS architecture workstations and servers. It was based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. IRIX was the first operating system to include the XFS file system.The last major version...
5.1, the first operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
for the Indy, did not take full advantage of the hardware due to inadequate memory management. SGI realized this and quickly increased the base specification to 32 MB, at considerable cost. Subsequent IRIX
IRIX
IRIX is a computer operating system developed by Silicon Graphics, Inc. to run natively on their 32- and 64-bit MIPS architecture workstations and servers. It was based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions. IRIX was the first operating system to include the XFS file system.The last major version...
releases made huge improvements in memory usage. The latest release of IRIX available for the Indy workstations is 6.5.22.
One option for the Indy was a floptical
Floptical
Floptical refers to a type of disk drive that combines magnetic and optical technologies to store large amounts of data on media similar to 3½-inch floppy disks. The name is a portmanteau of the words 'floppy' and 'optical'...
drive. The floptical
Floptical
Floptical refers to a type of disk drive that combines magnetic and optical technologies to store large amounts of data on media similar to 3½-inch floppy disks. The name is a portmanteau of the words 'floppy' and 'optical'...
used 21 MB disks, but was able to read and write standard magnetic floppies as well.
Processors
Indy's motherboard has a socket for the Processor Module (PM). Early Indys used a 100 MHz MIPSMIPS architecture
MIPS is a reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by MIPS Technologies . The early MIPS architectures were 32-bit, and later versions were 64-bit...
R4000
R4000
The R4000 is a microprocessor developed by MIPS Computer Systems that implemented the MIPS III instruction set architecture . Officially announced on 1 October 1991, it was one of the first 64-bit microprocessors and the first MIPS III implementation...
PC microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
, which quickly proved inadequate. The Indy, at the bottom of SGI's price list, was then upgraded with the MIPS R4400 and the low-cost, low-power-consumption Quantum Effect Devices
Quantum Effect Devices
Quantum Effect Devices was a company originally named Quantum Effect Design, incorporated in 1991. The three founders, Tom Riordan, Earl Killian and Ray Kunita, were senior managers at MIPS Computer Systems Inc....
(QED) R4600
R4600
The R4600, code-named "Orion", is a microprocessor developed by Quantum Effect Design that implemented the MIPS III instruction set architecture . As QED was a design firm that did not fabricate or sell their designs, the R4600 was first licensed to Integrated Device Technology , and later to...
. The R4600 had impressive integer performance, but had poor floating-point capability. This, however, wasn't too large of a problem in a system that was generally not designed for floating-point-intensive applications. For this reason, the R4600 made an appearance outside the Indy line just once, and only briefly, in the SGI Indigo². This series of microprocessor issues, along with the relatively low-powered graphics boards, lower maximum RAM amount, and relative lack of internal expansion ability compared to the SGI Indigo
SGI Indigo
The Indigo, introduced as the IRIS Indigo, was a line of workstation computers developed and manufactured by Silicon Graphics, Inc. . The first Indigo, code-named "Hollywood", was introduced on 22 July 1991...
led to the Indy being pejoratively described amongst industry insiders as "An Indigo without the 'go'."
The R4600 chip itself has no L2 cache controller, external controller was used to add 512K of L2 cache. R4600s processor modules both with an L2 cache
CPU cache
A CPU cache is a cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the average time to access memory. The cache is a smaller, faster memory which stores copies of the data from the most frequently used main memory locations...
(SC) and without (PC) are common in the Indy. At the same clock rate, the SC version of the processor module is generally 20 to 40 percent faster than the PC version, due to the memory cache.
The Indy was also the first SGI to utilize the QED R5000
R5000
The R5000 is a microprocessor that implements the MIPS IV instruction set architecture developed by Quantum Effect Design . The project was funded by MIPS Technologies, Inc , also the licensor. MTI then licensed the design to Integrated Device Technology , NEC, NKK, and Toshiba...
microprocessor, which offered significant advantages over the R4400 and R4600 it replaced.
Graphics
GIO
GIO is a computer bus standard developed by SGI and used in a variety of their products in the 1990s as their primary expansion system. GIO was similar in concept to competing standards such as NuBus or PCI, but saw little use outside SGI and severely limited the devices available on their...
bus.
8-bit XL
Also known as NewportNewport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...
graphics based on the REX3 chipset, these were designed for general 2D X11 applications; no hardware 3D acceleration was included. This was the first accelerator to demonstrate object-based antialiasing and sub-pixel exact Bresenham lines. These worked best for 2D CAD or general office use.
24-bit XL (XGE)
Using an identical circuit board as the 8-bit XL, the 24-bit XL included three times as much framebuffer memory to accommodate 24-bit color. A popular choice for some general graphics work, since its 2D performance is better than the XZ card.In an Indy with an R5000 CPU, these graphics options are called XGE, because an R5000 CPU can perform 3D geometry calculations faster than the XZ subsystems's four Geometry Engines--as a result, all 3D is done in software. The situation is, however, reversed when the calculations are done for full-screen rendering and involve z-buffer operations (which XL does not possess). XZ graphics were rarely paired with the R5000 for this reason.
XZ
These graphics were a port of the Indigo²'s XZ (ElanElan Graphics
Elan Graphics is a computer graphics architecture for Silicon Graphics computer workstations. Elan Graphics was developed in 1991 and was available as a high-end graphics option on workstations released during the mid-1990s as part of the Express Graphics architectures family...
) graphics into Indy - they offered very good non-textured 3D performance at the time, sacrificing a bit of 2D performance in return. The XZ graphics option was not widely used in Indy systems that used the R5000 CPU. This was mostly due to extensions of the MIPS instruction set that were implemented in the R5000. With the new instructions, the R5000 CPU could perform coordinate transformations faster than the XZ graphics board. However, using XZ to perform coordinate transforms does free the CPU to perform other rendering-related calculations. If the application is not transform-limited (i.e. limited by the speed of coordinate transformation), then the XZ option can provide significant rasterization performance advantages over the XL boards.
These graphics take the form of two boards, one on top of the other, and block both GIO option slots, making them less favorable since options such as 10/100 Ethernet and JPEG compression boards cannot be installed.
Video
The Indy was the first SGI to have video inputs by default. Each and every Indy has a compositeComposite video
Composite video is the format of an analog television signal before it is combined with a sound signal and modulated onto an RF carrier. In contrast to component video it contains all required video information, including colors in a single line-level signal...
, S-Video
S-Video
Separate Video, more commonly known as S-Video and Y/C, is often referred to by JVC as both an S-VHS connector and as Super Video. It is an analog video transmission scheme, in which video information is encoded on two channels: luma and chroma...
, and digital video input built into the motherboard, which collectively are known as "Vino" (video input, no output) video. None of them are of professional quality, but are still usable. The digital input is a proprietary D-sub
D-subminiature
The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of electrical connector. They are named for their characteristic D-shaped metal shield. When they were introduced, D-subs were among the smaller connectors used on computer systems....
connector with a rectangular array of pins, and is used by the SGI IndyCam
SGI IndyCam
The IndyCam was a small fixed-focus camera intended to sit on top of the monitor of SGI systems. SGI originally distributed it with the Indy workstation...
. The connector is the same as serial ports on Cisco routers, however is electrically different.
The maximum supported input resolution is 640x480 (NTSC
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
) or 768x576 (PAL
PAL
PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is an analogue television colour encoding system used in broadcast television systems in many countries. Other common analogue television systems are NTSC and SECAM. This page primarily discusses the PAL colour encoding system...
). It takes a fast machine to capture at either of these resolutions, though; an Indy with slower R4600PC CPU, for example, may require the input resolution to be reduced before storage or processing. However, the Vino hardware is capable of DMA
Direct memory access
Direct memory access is a feature of modern computers that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system memory independently of the central processing unit ....
ing video fields directly into the framebuffer with minimal CPU overhead.
None of the Indys support a video output by default - that would require the Indy Video GIO32
GIO
GIO is a computer bus standard developed by SGI and used in a variety of their products in the 1990s as their primary expansion system. GIO was similar in concept to competing standards such as NuBus or PCI, but saw little use outside SGI and severely limited the devices available on their...
card. On top of that, there is an optional module called CosmoCompress, which offers on-the-fly JPEG
JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
video compression and decompression and uses up another GIO32 slot.
Drives
The Indy has two drive bayDrive bay
A drive bay is a standard-sized area for adding hardware to a computer. Most drive bays are fixed to the inside of a case, but some can be removed....
s for 1-inch tall 3.5" drives. The upper drive bay is externally accessible and may hold a SCSI floptical
Floptical
Floptical refers to a type of disk drive that combines magnetic and optical technologies to store large amounts of data on media similar to 3½-inch floppy disks. The name is a portmanteau of the words 'floppy' and 'optical'...
drive. All external and internal drives share a single Fast SCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
bus (unless a GIO32 SCSI card has been installed).
CD-ROM
External CD-ROMCD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
drive connect via SCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
connector at rear side of the box. Typical drive supports boot, OS install, audio. Special ROM is required to boot from for certain device types. http://www.vigyan.com/~blbates/sgi/hardware_notes/CDROMpoll.html
A small number of CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
drives have the firmware
Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...
needed to do audio over SCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
.
Networking
All Indys shipped with AUIAttachment Unit Interface
An Attachment Unit Interface is a 15 pin connection that provides a path between a node's Ethernet interface and the Medium Attachment Unit , sometimes known as a transceiver. It is the part of the IEEE Ethernet standard located between the Media Access Control , and the MAU...
/10BASE-T
10BASE-T
Ethernet over twisted pair technologies use twisted-pair cables for the physical layer of an Ethernet computer network. Other Ethernet cable standards employ coaxial cable or optical fiber. Early versions developed in the 1980s included StarLAN followed by 10BASE-T. By the 1990s, fast, inexpensive...
Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
and ISDN as standard equipment. The Ethernet ports are half-duplex
Duplex (telecommunications)
A duplex communication system is a system composed of two connected parties or devices that can communicate with one another in both directions. The term multiplexing is used when describing communication between more than two parties or devices....
only. The 10BaseT port takes precedence over the AUI port - if the system detects a carrier on both ports, it will use the 10Base-T.
Two different manufacturers produced 100BASE-TX Ethernet cards compatible with the Indy, both of which attached to the system using the GIO32
GIO
GIO is a computer bus standard developed by SGI and used in a variety of their products in the 1990s as their primary expansion system. GIO was similar in concept to competing standards such as NuBus or PCI, but saw little use outside SGI and severely limited the devices available on their...
bus. Set Engineering produced one such fast Ethernet card, based on the Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
ThunderLAN chipset, under contract with SGI. Phobos also produced models of fast Ethernet cards for the Indy (the G100 and G130).
The ISDN port provided on the Indy has no NT1
Network termination 1
Network Termination 1 : In Integrated Services Digital Networks , a functional grouping of customer-premises equipment that includes functions that may be regarded as belonging to OSI Layer 1, i.e., functions associated with ISDN electrical and physical terminations on the user premises.Note: The...
. An external NT1 is required to use the ISDN port in North America.
SGI Challenge S
Continued use
The component of the Indy most prone to failure is the NidecNidec Corporation
is a manufacturer of electric motors in Japan. Their products are found in hard-disk drives, household electric appliances, commercial and manufacturing equipment. The two product groups with the largest sales are hard-disk drive motors and electrical and optical components . The paid-in capital...
/Power General power supply. New power supplies are manufactured by Sony and sold through resellers, however they are expensive.
The Indy's Ethernet address, which doubles as the system's serial number, is stored in battery-backed RAM. This means that when the internal battery dies, so does the system - it will hang at the PROM
PROM
PROM may refer to:*Phosphate rich organic manure*Premature rupture of membranes, an obstetric term*PROM-1 land mine*Programmable read-only memory, related to electronics...
monitor and refuse to boot any further as a result of the Ethernet address being reset to FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF (expressed in hexadecimal
Hexadecimal
In mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal is a positional numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16. It uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols 0–9 to represent values zero to nine, and A, B, C, D, E, F to represent values ten to fifteen...
). A competent user can replace the PROM battery and reprogram it. The original battery was made by Dallas Semiconductor
Dallas Semiconductor
Dallas Semiconductor, now a subsidiary of Maxim Integrated Products, designs and manufactures analog, digital, and mixed-signal semiconductors...
, now a division of Maxim Integrated Products
Maxim Integrated Products
Maxim Integrated Products is a publicly traded company that designs, manufactures, and sells analog and mixed-signal semiconductor products. Maxim develops integrated circuits for the industrial, communications, consumer, and computing markets....
. The original unit was marked the "DS-1386-8K-150", however its replacement unit, the "DS-1386-8K-120" can be directly substituted with no ill effects.
One can set a new MAC address from the Command Monitor with the command "setenv -f eaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx". The -f switch here will force the new MAC address. The MAC address is (usually) on a sticker to the rear of the unit, and hence can be reprogrammed without losing software licences, which often rely on it to verify ownership. Otherwise, any MAC address in SGI's block is usable.
(Originally based upon Alex's SGI page (PageMirror), public domain as of September 7, 2003)
External links
- Extensive information about the Indy: Reputable Systems
- http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/IP22
- http://www.sgistuff.net/hardware/systems/indy.html
- http://www.obsolyte.com/sgi_indy/
- Remotely installing SGI IRIX 6.5 from a GNU/Linux server
- NetBSD/sgimips for Indy & Challenge S