This page was compiled and written by Craig Agamemnon Magaret, an ardent Indigo enthusaist. (With lots of help from online sources and my friend Roy Obenchain.) It was originally written in 4/98, and gets updated whenever time permits. I'm creating this page with the best of intentions, but if you find something wrong, it's probably my fault. However, I'm also open to suggestions. Send me your links, corrections, advice, whatnot. I'll do what I can to accomodate you.
The original site is located at: http://www.agamemnon.org/indigo
This
site is also mirrored at: http://www.reputable.com/indigo
Generic disclaimers: I apologize if any links below are outdated or broken. I try to keep everything in shape, but like everyone else, I enjoy moving on to new things. Also, the name "Silicon Graphics", "SGI", that funky SGI logo, and anything else I'm overlooking are registered trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. (Well, I guess they're officially called "SGI" now. Marketing brilliance in action.)
Table of Contents
General Fun Facts (Indigo FAQ)
But experts agree, the Indigo's most charming quality is its funky blue
case.
And that funky blue case is, by today's standards, pretty large and
heavy.
Word of note: The R3000 and R4000 Indigos are substantially
different machines. It is impossible to upgrade from the R3000 Indigo to the
R4000 Indigo without swapping out the entire motherboard and power supply.
(And, by some accounts, the NVRAM in the backplane.) The easiest (and
cheapest) way to perform this upgrade is to obtain an entirely new system.
Keep this in mind if you ever plan on getting an Indigo.
Word of note: Obtaining installation media for IRIX is not
trivial. SGI will gladly sell you a copy of IRIX 6.5 for $600.00 (including
NFS and NIS, horray!). Their license agreement forbids the resale of
the OS media unless it is in the presence of a computer, so purchasing a
second-hand copy is technically illegal. If you anticipate needing the OS
media -- ever -- make sure you get a copy when you buy the machine.
The take-home message is that IRIX by itself does not come with a
compiler. Some versions of IRIX are more friendly at supporting compilers
than others. So here's the scoop, to the best of my understanding:
Here are some other notes you might want to know:
In my opinion, the best combination is running version 7.1 of the IDO
with IRIX 6.2; this gives you a warning about licensing your software, but
still gets the job done. This gives you the best of both worlds, as you can
use both the IDO and gcc.
The Entry Graphics option has 1024x768 resolution. All other graphics
subsystems (collectively known as "Express" graphics) have 1280x1024
resolution.
(To some degree, the graphics on your Indigo aren't that important. Sure,
it's fun to make an Elan run the gauntlet -- "Wheee! Look at that baby
spin!" -- but in all honesty, you probably shouldn't be getting an
Indigo strictly for its graphics. After all, anything the Indigo Elan can
do, a garden-variety PC with a two-year-old graphics card can do better. But
that aside, here's a personal recommendation: Entry graphics is fine for
servers or machines that don't get much use, while heavy workstations should
have XS-24 and above.)
Word of note: You can freely upgrade from one graphics subsystem
to another, but you will need to reinstall the OS to get it running
properly. (Technically, some systems with Entry Graphics have issues with
the boot EPROM that prevent it from upgrading at all, but that's another
issue.) Also, the graphics hardware itself can be difficult to find. When
you do find it, it is usually expensive. Typically -- as with the processor
-- the cheapest way to upgrade the graphics is to buy an entirely new
system.
Be warned that I've seen people sell Indigos with Entry Graphics as "an
Indigo that can accept two monitors". This is because they have both the
13W3 and DB15 ports. You might be able to run two monitors at once, but if
so, you'll get the same image on each. (I've never tried this, I'm only
speculating.)
Instead of tracking down a dual-head Indigo, I can recommend a good
work-around if you're running Irix 6.2 or above: nds, network
dual-head software, which lets you run a second monitor (connected to a
second machine on the same network) using the same keyboard and mouse. You
just move the mouse back and forth between the displays like you would a
dual-head workstation, and it's pretty sweet. (I do this at home with my
R4400 Indigo and an R5000 Indy. The mouse/keyboard information is sent
across the network via X11, and the performance is startlingly good.) You
have to keep in mind that you're working on two different machines, but if
you're using NFS, that can become quite transparent.
The Indigo uses a proprietary keyboard and mouse. While more recent SGIs
(Indy, Indigo2 and beyond) use the commonly available "PS/2 compatible"
keyboards and mice, these original Indigos do not.
The Indigo also has:
Additionally, the Entry Graphics configuration also has a VGA port, so
almost any old VGA monitor will work with it. Instead of VGA, the Express
graphics options have a "3-D" port, for you to attach a pair of
stereo-vision goggles, and a Genlock port, for synching up with external
video components.
There are no VME, SBUS, PCI, or other common expansion slots on an
Indigo. However, there are two "GIO" slots on the motherboard for nifty,
hard-to-find options such as SCSI and network cards from SGI, and other
3rd-party devices.
SGI, on the other hand, has multiple options available. They actually
actually couple to the graphics subsystems, not the GIO slots on the
motherboard. For instance, the "Entry Graphics" subsystem can be upgraded to
include a "Starter Video" (or SVIDEO) board, which allows for simple video
input, output, and capturing. The quality isn't great, but it's a lot of
fun.
If you need video-in and video-out capabilities that approach broadcast
quality, you can add the SGI "Galileo Video" boards to R4k Indigos that have
Express Graphics (XS8 and above). Please note, if you get ambitious enough
to try to dig up one of these boardsets, (a) they're different from the
"Galileo Video" boardsets that work with the Indigo2, (b) the
Indigo-specific GV is virtually impossible to come by, and (c) if you do
find one, it will probably cost more than the computer itself.
Word of note: I have alluded to this many times, but if you choose
to get an Indigo, it makes more financial sense to get what you want from
the start. Don't pick up an R3000 with Entry Graphics if you ultimately hope
to upgrade it to an R4400 Elan with a DAT and floppy. With computers of this
vintage, the collective parts are definately worth more than the whole. But
with everything getting so cheap, I could be making a big fuss over nothing.
The user base for the SGI Indigo (and IRIX in general) is larger than you
might think, and helpful support can be found (if you ask nicely) in the
comp.sys.sgi.* newsgroups. Software is freely downloadable from every corner
of the globe, ranging from CDR drivers to Quake2. And since SGIs are fairly
common in the workstation world, you can usually find IRIX binaries and
avoid the headaches of porting a wacky software package between different
flavors of UNIX.
If you are looking to get into UNIX for the first time, then you might
find Linux to be a better learning platform, since it has better support and
software availability. But in many regards, IRIX is one of the more
innovative UNIXes out there, and the Indigo is a very fun computer to run it
on.
Word of note: Software availability for IRIX 5.3 is getting
scarce, so the R3000 Indigo is, tragically, showing its age. Much of the
software you find around the Internet, available for download, only have
IRIX 6.2 binaries. So if you intend to get an R3000 Indigo, you'd better
become good friends with the compiler. This is yet another reason why many
people find the R4k Indigo to be a more-useful machine than its R3000
predecessor.
If your computer is running and you're logged in, type "hinv" at the
command line. If the output has a line that says something like, "CPU: MIPS
R3000A Processor Chip", then you have an R3000 Indigo. But if it has a line
that resembles, "CPU: MIPS R4x00 Processor Chip", then intuitively enough,
you have an R4k Indigo.
If your computer isn't running, then inspect the motherboard. The R4k
Indigo has the processor mounted on a daughtercard near the front of the
motherboard. (It's very easy to spot. Just look for the ugly-mutha heat
sink.) The motherboard for the R3000 Indigo is very simplistic: it has no
daughtercards at all, and no heat sinks. The only things you can attach to
it are the RAM sticks.
So don't get the idea that R3000 Indigos suck. They're just older than
their R4k counterparts, and with this fact comes a few caveats.
First, blow out all the dust. The Indigo is like a vaccum cleaner, and if
you leave it too close to the floor, it'll clean your carpets really well.
All this dust gets inside the computer, and it can cause some pretty wacky
problems, from slightly erratic behavior to apparent death. But if you have
a strong pair of lungs (or a nearby shop-vac), you should be able to clean
it out pretty well. If any of my Indigos ever got twitchy, this usually does
the trick.
Next, re-seat all the boards, drives, and RAM modules. That is, pull them
out and stick them back again, securely. (Make sure you're grounded,
obviously.) The Indigo's ease-of-disassembly does have its drawbacks, and
sometimes these components can come loose, especially after shipment.
And if none of these strategies work, then I'm afraid you're on your own.
At that point it's anyone's guess.
The first sign of the apocalypse was when Silicon Graphics started
producing -- ptui! -- Windows NT workstations. And the havoc didn't
stop there: in a grim-yet-wacky attempt to improve their public image,
Silicon Graphics officially renamed the company to "SGI", destroying a
prominent brand that had existed for well over a decade. Even their funky
"cube" logo was put to bed. It's all very silly, and even Scott Adams
couldn't have dreamed up a nuttier scheme of untrammeled corporate
haplessness.
So ... what does this mean? Well, not much for now. If you have an old
"Silicon Graphics" computer, I guess it's now an anachronism. But in the
near future, this will probably be the case for all SGI UNIX boxes, and the
long-range hopes for IRIX aren't great. Especially since SGI seems to be
clinging to Linux like a life preserver. Time will tell.
Other Sources of Useful Information
With the info presented above, I've only scratched at the surface of what
you can find about SGI systems and IRIX. If you're thirsty for more, the
depths await.
Where can I get one of these?
This list is by no means complete. I figure that if you're looking here for
information about buying an SGI, then you're not really interested in paying
five figures for a brand-new computer from a value-added reseller. Given a
little work, you can typically find a system for a realistic price at any of
the following links, but of course I can't guarantee anything.
and lastly ...
IRIX Software and You
If you're trying to piece together a used SGI system on a shoestring
budget, forget about trying to purchase software. Like most commercial UNIXes,
software for IRIX can cost a mint -- even exceeding the cost of the computer
when purchased from a reseller.
So get used to the idea of downloading your software from the UNIX
community. Binaries are available everywhere, for all kinds of applications.
I'm only showing you a few places to start. If possible, become
well-acquainted with your compiler and master the zen of porting UNIX
software. If you can do that, then you're set for life.
And lastly ...
Specific IRIX Applications and
Tools
There are some specific software distributions for IRIX that I think you
should know about. These are all free (sorta) for the taking.
Is there anything bad I can say about this game? Nope, not
at all. Download bzflag right now and join the fun. bzflag is free for IRIX
(and Linux), but a Windows version is available commercially.
Prophet is a very nice spreadsheet tool -- geared toward the scientific
community but usable by anyone. Calculate your home finances or analyze the
frequency of polypeptides in protein sequences. Prophet has a nice Motif GUI
and lots of nifty tools, and it was originally created through funding by
the National Institutes of Health. It ran freely on UNIX and VMS, and if you
wanted it for Windows badly enough, you could pay for it.
So, upon hearing this, you'd normally think, "Hey, our tax dollars are
working in our favor for once. Cool!" In its heyday, Prophet was a dream
come true, but times change. What started as a great freeware utility with
actual support eventually became the casualty of rampant commercial
technocracy and greed, and has since wilted into an expensive commercial
software package, which only runs on Windows.
So, with the above link, I'm offering you a tarred copy of Prophet 4.3,
the last version to exist freely for UNIX before evil descended from the
skies in the form of Abtech. It's big (29+ megabytes), but well worth the
download, and it compiles smoother than plain yogurt. Help yourself, your
tax dollars paid for it.
SGI Junk Drawer
There's lots of SGI esoterica out there, and some of it is less simple to
classify. So I bundle it down here, in the junk drawer. Lots of links with no
common context. Sometimes useless, sometimes wonderful, but always fun to look
through.
The Silicon Graphics IRIS Indigo is a
UNIX workstation, used prinicply for 3D graphics, manufactured between 1991
and 1994. For its time, it had unparalleled graphics performance for a
desktop workstation. Today, its practical uses are being eclipsed by
higher-end graphics and faster processors, but it is a great machine for
computer hobbyists, even for everyday use.
The Indigo is a cool computer for a
number of reasons. The more sophisticated graphics configurations feature
24-bit color at 1280x1024, and can animate 3D wireframe and solid-texture
models, with fog, lighting and transparency effects, at up to 30 fps (even
at full screen!). It has built-in CD-quality stereo sound (with a
bi-directional digital audio port that supports AES and S/PDIF encoding).
The hardware is easily accessable; the motherboard and graphics subsystems
just pop right out, and the internal drives are sled-mounted, which
make them a breeze to install or remove. It runs a variant of UNIX, so it's
nice and stable, and you can get a lot of work done at once, even with a
(relatively) slow processor.
It's old. The computer that helped
pioneer the computer graphics industry with films like "Terminator 2" and
"Jurassic Park" is now experiencing very limited use in the field. The
processor is relatively pokey compared to today's Power PCs, Athlons,
UltraSparcs and Alphas. The 3D graphics hardware doesn't have texture
memory, which puts it light years behind a consumer-level Voodoo-graphics
card once you involve textures. The serial ports have a maximum throughput
of 38400 bps, which makes ISDN and other high-speed communication (at least,
that doesn't involve the AUI port) impossible. The hardware runs pretty hot
and lets off an odious (but not uncomfortable) amount of heat.
The SGI Indigo typically
has a MIPS R3000 processor at 33MHz or a MIPS R4000 processor at 100MHz (the
latter machine being classified as an "R4k Indigo"). However, you can
upgrade the R4k Indigo to a 150MHz R4400 processor. This is a very simple
upgrade, and will increase your computer's performance by about 30%.
As the R3000 and R4000 machines have
fundamentally different architectures, this is reflected in the types of RAM
they will take. The R3000 can have up to 96MB of RAM (with bizarro SGI
proprietary SIMMs (64 pin w/ASIC, parity), which are near-impossible to find
at a reasonable price); the R4k Indigo can have a maximum of 384MB, and they
conveniently use the much-easier-to-find 72-pin SIMMs, with page-mode
parity.
The Indigo runs a variant of
UNIX, developed at SGI, called IRIX. The R3000 Indigo can only run IRIX 5.3
and earlier. The R4k Indigo, however, is typically found running IRIX 6.2,
and can accomodate IRIX 6.5 (the most recent version as I write this). Linux
is currently under development for SGI machines, which will hopefully extend
the life of R3000 Indigos.
It's pretty complicated, but
I'll try to hash it out the best that I can.
The Indigo has the
following graphics subsystem configurations available:
Indigos that can run two displays simultaneously (instead of
the traditional one) are rumored to exist. They essentially have two Entry
Graphics cards running inside. But if they do exist, they are quite rare. I
personally haven't even heard of anyone having one of these.
It has one narrow SCSI bus, and
there is a 50-pin Centronics port for external SCSI devices. There are three
internal drive slots, (3.5", full-height), which typically hold hard disks,
floppy drives, or 4mm DAT drives. The drives need to be mounted on a "sled",
which facilitates easy installation and removal. Unfortunately, these sleds
can be difficult to find and are usually more expensive than an external
drive case.
Only through
add-on technogizmos, from third parties or SGI themselves. Chyron sells the "Centaur",
which is a third-party GIO boardset that will turn your Indigo into a video
workstation. If any other third-party video hardware products exist, I don't
know about them.
It depends on the reseller and the
configuration. The used market of today is much more forgiving than the
retail market of yesteryear. (At least, from the point of view of us
hobbyists.) On Dec. 1, 1992, the R4k Indigo Elan retailed from SGI for
$32,000. As I write this, the street value for that same model is probably
in the neighborhood of $600.
Darn-tootin'! While it
might not be ideal for all the world's end users, the Indigo is a way-cool
computer for the enthusiast who yearns to leave all Microsoft products
behind and isn't afraid to hand-edit a configuration file with "vi". The
fact that it runs UNIX gives it a tremendous advantage: while the Indigo
might not be terribly fast, UNIX gives it a lot of torque!
I
actually get this question a lot, from people who acquire Indigos
secondhand. If you don't know much about the Indigo, it's understandable
that you might not know that the dichotomy exists. Fortunately, it's easy to
tell the difference between the two.
No, not at
all! The major fault of the Indigo is its age, and unfortunately, the
technology behind the R3000 is older than that of the R4000. For everything
a technohobbyist needs out of a cool, nine-year-old computer, the R3000
delivers it in spades. I'm even of the opinion that it's more reliable than
the R4k Indigo, and in equipping my Home Network with web, FTP and news
servers, I'm opting for the pragmatic economy of R3000 Indigos over anything
else. (This web site, along with many others, is hosted on an R3000 Indigo
out of my home office. Is that cool, or what?)
This is another
common question I receive via email. If you have an Indigo that won't power
up, there are two initial things to try. (Make sure your computer is powered
down when attempting these.)
It's a sad
story, actually. For over a decade, Silicon Graphics was a cool, inventive
company that made groundbreaking computers. But in the last couple of years,
instead of resorting to the technical innovation that made them big in the
first place, they've suffered from the murderous hands of overpaid marketing
consultants.
It's old and fussy, but it's also the best place to start.
The
corporate hype zone for Silicon Graphics on the web.
Another information page that's All Indigo, All The Time.
More esoterica informatika about the SGI Indigo. (Also
has pages for many other SGI machines, which you might find interesting.)
A cornucopia of info about older SGI
systems; mostly applies to pre-Indigo machines, but interesting nonetheless.
Very useful, especially when your computer isn't responding
and you need to look up something obscure.
The next best thing to the above. Even better, I
suppose, because you can save lots of space on your hard disk.
A bit outdated, but
it gives lots of good facts across a spectrum of different SGI systems.
A good list of online
SGI resources.
A very excellent resource of all things SGI.
A collection of screen shots, serving as a tribute to
the SGI of yesteryear. Very cool.
Home of Greg Douglas, the coolest SGI reseller in the world.
Another SGI reseller and repair facility, with a huge inventory
of parts, parts, parts!
Yet another SGI reseller. They specialize in the Indy and above -- where
the money is -- but it never hurts to ask.
Even yet another SGI (among other things) reseller. Based
in Canada. They carry R4k Indigos as their low-end item.
This pretty much speaks for itself. You can find
everything from the older Personal Irises to Onyxes, with prices ranging
from dirt-cheap to the unthinkably psycho. Be careful out there!
A huge (and frequently updated)
list of IRIX software available around the world, downloadable through
anonymous FTP.
Lots of great SGI
software is available here, mostly for IRIX 6.2.
A
very large archive of downloadable IRIX software; they even include access
to the SGI "Freeware" CDs.
Twice
a year, SGI creates a "freeware" CD, with the newest and the best stuff you
can find for IRIX, in easy-to install "dist" files. Instead of trying to get
the CD, download it all from here. Horray!
SGI's "privileged access program", which lets you download IRIX
software and demos. It's actually worth registering to get at some of the
stuff that's available.
This is the part of SGI's corporate web site with lots of
downloads: games, graphics, web stuff ... the works. It doesn't have the
best selection of software out there, but it's not worthless.
In a move of
remarkable beneficence, SGI has made this software available to the public.
The download is formidable (239+ megabytes), but eventually you will be able
to order the software on CD. I cannot emphasize the importance of this; for
people like myself, this is great news. SGI is actively fortifying their
older computers in the world of hobbyists.
This is an independent page that has, filed in a very
neat matrix, all the video drivers you'll need if you own an SGI. Quite
excellent.
Some free downloadable utilities by those wacky
high-energy physicists at Fermilab. Of particular note is Nedit, a
sweet GUI text editor.
An enormous directory of
UNIX scientific visualization and analysis software. It's not IRIX-specific,
but you can usually find binaries anyway.
I'd hate to admit it, but you can find lots of SGI
software on eBay. OS media, IDO, Fortran compilers ... the whole enchilada.
This probably won't faze you, but keep in mind that buying IRIX software on
eBay is a violation of SGI's software licensing agreement. And equally
importantly, if you're not smart about nodelocking issues, you'll end up
paying hundreds of dollars for a SoftImage coaster.
Get the most recent versions of Perl here, for
IRIX 5.2 and beyond.
A great
(and free!!) 3D graphics program from NeoGeo. Get it while it lasts!
If you were hoping that the world's coolest 3D computer would
have a port of id
software's Quake available, then you're in luck. But don't hold your
breath, because unless you have texture memory (which the Indigo is
lacking), you're better off playing it on a Mac or a PC with a Voodoo card.
This game is very simplistic, but its brilliant
gameplay makes it enormously entertaining and insidiously addictive. It's
similar (but unrelated) to a demo game called "bz", which is a remake of the
old Atari arcade game "Battlezone" but featured network play. "bzflag"
features "capture the flag" scenarios, power-up (and "bad") flags, and team
play. It is similar to the old (circa 1992) Macintosh game "Spectre", but
much more glorious. You can even find bzflag servers on the Internet, for
carnage and mayhem on a global scale. It's graphics are completely scalable,
making it playable on anything from Entry Graphics to a Reality Engine.
Yes, it's another game. The graphics are dopey and
the gameplay is simplistic, but damn, once I get going, I just can't stop.
The premise is easy: try to bounce your enemies into the walls without
hitting the walls yourself. It's especially fun when networked.
Okay,
this is probably going to get me in trouble, but what the hell.
It
only works for the Indy as of now, but there's always hope. (Imagine making
a Beowulf cluster out of a wall of 32 R3000 Indigos ... whoa!)
A great series
of help files for getting PPP configured on IRIX 5.3.
A series of help files for getting PPP
configured on IRIX 5.3.
Are you itching to hook up some
stereo glasses to your "3D" port, but you don't have hundreds of dollars to
shell out for a pair of Crystal Eyes? Check out this ingenious hack from Michiel
Roos.
This pretty much speaks for itself.
On online reference to the 3D
animation package, Lightwave, for SGI. By freelance animator Gregg Lukomski.
The documentation to the scriptable
(and way-nifty) 3D art and animation program, Megahedron. Check it out,
Megahedron is really neat. It's multi-platform, net-rendering, and only $20.
A possible way around nodelocked software. I
haven't tried it myself, and it's unsupported. Don't say I didn't warn you.
A list of SGI-released software for
IRIX 5.3.
Same as above but for IRIX 6.2.
End of The Indigo Page
Last Modified: 05/14/2000
