indigo2 extreme

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

...

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).

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

[email protected] 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 protected]

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....)