I'm trying to set up my Silicon Graphics IRIX Indigo with the MIPS
R4000 CPU (the first 64bit CPU from the MIPS, from ~1991, it runs on
100MHz). It has the IRIX 5.3 OS (it is not the best or the newest that
it can run but it is the best compromise between speed and features).
I normally use my older Indigo with the R3000 CPU (an older 32bit CPU
at 33MHz). I consider this system to be relatively fast and I'm
generally happy with it. The main proble here is its insufficient disk
space (512MB is not that much for both programs and data these days).
Of course there are programs which are slow here. But disk space is the
main problem: I am not able to install some larger programs here. Even
the Tcl/Tk distribution does not fit. At the moment I do not replace
the HDD because it's the original one and it fits the system very well.
The newer R4000 Indigo has bigger drive so I'm now installing some
additional stuff here. I already tested the Tcl/Tk (it's 8.0 which
should be enough) and it works. I was also able to compile the C-Kermit
9.0. It took some time but it proceeded without issues. The only
surprise was the name of the binary. It was the "wermit". I searched
for the usual "ckermit" or the "kermit"...
Unlike the R300 Indigo (which is rebranded model from the
Siemens-Nixdorf and it was used by that company itself - it sill has
part of a their inventory label) I don't know who used this newer
system. It has the latest possible CPU (well, there is possible upgrade
to the MIPS R4400 !150MHz but now Indigos were never shipped with it)
but the "Entry" graphics (the LG1 board) which can only do 1024x768 in
8bit and does no 3D accelerations. So I assume that someone got this
desktop for 2D works.
The "hinv" command says this:
------------------------------------------------------------
1 100 MHZ IP20 Processor
FPU: MIPS R4010 Floating Point Chip Revision: 0.0
CPU: MIPS R4000 Processor Chip Revision: 3.0
On-board serial ports: 2
On-board bi-directional parallel port
Data cache size: 8 Kbytes
Instruction cache size: 8 Kbytes
Secondary unified instruction/data cache size: 1 Mbyte
Main memory size: 128 Mbytes
Integral Ethernet: ec0, version 1
Integral SCSI controller 0: Version WD33C93B, revision C
Disk drive: unit 1 on SCSI controller 0
Iris Audio Processor: revision 10
Graphics board: LG1
------------------------------------------------------------
As you can see, the CPU has a massive secondary cache (1 MB) and has a
good amount of RAM (128 MB). I have put here as much RAM as I was able
to find. It is not necessary unless I will have to run some bigger
computations or the Netscape (which is not installed here, yet).
One can find a some reviews on the internet which say that LG1-based
systems are almost unusable and that the R4000 does not help too much.
One can also find meanings that the R4000 CPU (as the very first 64bit
CPU) has weak performance and that it is almost unusable.
That are complete lies. It runs fast and its very pleasant to use. The
Lynx starts instantly and CPU performance is not bat at all (for its
time). I'm not sure it its on par with the Pentium 100 (which was
itself released years after the R4000) or the first PowerPC CPUs but
the system is much more responsive than, for example, my Power
Macintosh 6100 (even if it runs the 233MHz Crescendo CPU upgrade).
Unfortunately, my old good Toshiba Satellite with the 90MHz Pentium CPU
died years ago so I cannot measure it's performance with the Indigo.
Even the LG1 board is not bat at all. It usees quite smart color
swapping technique so it does not feel like just 8-bit board with 256
colors only. Of course, it's not the right system for work with
colorful JPEG files.
As I plan to locate this system in a remote place without network
connection I will have to find a way how to get data from and to
system. It has no removable media drive (my long-term attempts to
obtain a working floppy/floptical drive are still failing; I had one in
the dark past but because I was an idiot I sold it). I should be able
to communicate with other older devices via the serial port (that's a
reason why I compiled the Kermit) but use of old PSION devices or even
the Z88 as a data media is not the sanest idea...
It should be able to use the IOMEGA ZIP device (I do have a SCSI
version) but the IRIX 5.3 cannot read FAT format and I shill have to
research if the EFS format of the IRIX can be read elsewhere... (I of
course have the USB version of the ZIP drive, too).
The another problem is the CD drive. The Indigo can use SCSI drives. I
have several one: an original SGI-branded Toshiba (I don't use this one
too much because it's the only SGI-compatible drive which can boot IRIX
CDs and it's obviously not new). I also have some HP-branded drives.
Two are form UNIX systems and are read-only. They have noisy fans which
are always running. I also have an old PC-style HP CD-RW drive which is
quiet and works with IRIX (except it cannot boot CDs). It should be
sufficient as a CD music player, I think.
