SGI Indy
| SGI Indy | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Manufacturer | Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) |
| Type | Graphics workstation |
| publication | July 12, 1993 |
| End of production | June 30, 1997 |
| Factory price | from US $ 5000 |
| processor | MIPS R4000 , R4400 , R4600 or R5000 |
| random access memory | 16 or 32 MB (up to 256 MB) |
| graphic | 1280 × 1024, 8-bit XL, 24-bit XL or 24-bit XZ |
| Sound | |
| Disk | SCSI-2, CD-ROM, floptical |
| operating system | IRIX 5.1 to 6.5.22 |
| predecessor | SGI indigo |
| successor | SGI O2 |
The Indy was a graphics workstation from Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) and was launched in the United States in September 1993. At the time, the device was touted as an affordable entry into the world of 2D and 3D graphics workstations. From the outside, the Indy was quite eye-catching due to its very flat, bright blue desktop case made of recycled plastic, the shape of which resulted from two half-shells slightly twisted against each other. It had the intense blue or violet housing color in common with the other representatives of the MIPS -based workstation series from SGI (including SGI Challenge , SGI Indigo , Indigo2 Impact , SGI Onyx , SGI O2 ).
Like all SGI workstations at the time, the Indy used the IRIX operating system , a UNIX variant with a GUI based on the X Window System . These workstations were designed for particularly high 2D and 3D graphics performance and are therefore predestined for visualization and image synthesis applications in research, development and the entertainment industry. The Indy offered graphics performance that far exceeded the capabilities of the PC hardware available at the time; however, only a few years later, high-performance 2D and 3D accelerator hardware was established for ordinary desktop computers (initially Intel-based PCs, shortly afterwards also Apple Macintosh ), so that they were soon able to match the performance of SGI's special hardware to reach and finally to overtake. Measured against the 3D performance of today's graphics cards, the 3D graphics performance of the Indy can be described as rudimentary, although relatively powerful 2D graphics acceleration was used even then. When the Indy was launched in the US, complete systems including a monitor were available from around US $ 5,000.
hardware
SGI used a modular concept in their workstations at the time; so with the Indy, both CPU and graphics hardware were housed on interchangeable components. The available CPU modules were equipped with MIPS processors of the type R4000 , R4600 , R4400 and R5000 , with the R4000 being the weakest end of the series. The R4000 and R4600 were each available in an SC and PC version, which differentiated the cache configuration; SC stood for secondary cache (L2 cache) and PC for primary cache (L1 cache). The SC type contained an L2 and L1 cache and was therefore more powerful than the PC type, which only had an L1 cache. The CPUs worked with clock frequencies from 100 MHz to 200 MHz; so there was B. an R4600 board with 133 MHz. Computers with newer processors, such as the R5000, were significantly faster than devices with older processors at the same clock frequency.
There were inexpensive graphics modules that could only display 8-bit colors, right up to high-end modules with 24-bit color capability ( true colors ) and simple 3D hardware acceleration. The graphics modules could in turn be equipped with daughter modules for additional graphics capabilities, e.g. B. for video output or extended 3D graphics acceleration ( XZ Graphics with up to 4 geometry engines, but without texture memory).
The Indy used 72-pin single-row RAM modules ( SIMM ) with a capacity of up to 32 MB and had space for 2 banks of 4 SIMMs each, so that the Indy could be expanded to 256 MB RAM.
The housing contained two 3.5 ″ drive bays for SCSI mass storage devices, which were connected via 50-pin ribbon cables. The hard drive was in the lower bay; in the upper part, usually a so-called floptical drive, a hybrid drive that could write and read both ordinary 3.5 ″ disks and special floptical disks with a capacity of 21 MB. Floptical technology was not able to establish itself, nor did the drive work particularly reliably with normal floppy disks.
Connectivity
The Indy was not stingy with connections, especially for video / audio input and output, and also offered some options for connecting special hardware for 3D visualization purposes. Depending on the equipment, the following connections can be found on an Indy (on the back of the housing from top to bottom and left to right):
- above:
- GIO32 slot 1 (empty here)
- GIO32 slot 0 (here with an additional SCSI-2 connection)
- center:
- Stereo Sync Signal: 3D Specs Connector for connecting LCD shutter glasses to be able to view monitor images stereoscopically
- 13W3 monitor video output: 13W3 VGA connector
- AUI - Ethernet
- PS / 2 mouse (most programs, especially 3D graphics applications, required a 3-button mouse)
- 8 pin mini-DIN serial interface 1
- DB-25 parallel port
- below:
- microphone
- Line-in
- Line out
- headphone
- AES digital input / output
- Composite video input
- S-Video input
- IndyCam input: the 60-pin SGI digital video connector is actually intended for two video connections, but the IndyCam version only supports the first input.
- ISDN (S / T interface, masked here)
- 10BASE-T Ethernet
- PS / 2 keyboard
- 8 pin mini-DIN serial interface 2
- SCSI-2 connection 0 (high density, 8 bit bus width, narrow, single-ended)
The video skills were excellent for the time:
- The video hardware enabled the Indy to record video signals and generate QuickTime and MPEG video files from them.
- The Indy came standard with a simple video camera, very similar to today's webcams . Even the less powerful Indys could record the signal from this camera with the Capture program in real time and use it to create individual images or video files. In connection with the network connectivity, the Indy could already be used for video conferences back then .
- IndyPresenter: An approx. 12 ″ (approx. 30 cm) large transparent liquid crystal screen was optionally available in two versions, which only differed in resolution (1024 × 768 or 1280 × 1024 pixels). With the help of a daylight projector , the display could be used for video projection or with the (removable) backlight as a monitor. A special expansion card was required to connect the display, which was plugged into the graphics card. The display could therefore only be operated in conjunction with the Indy, Octane or O2 . For the film Twister , a dummy SGI laptop was built from an IndyPresenter.
