Octane Model Summary

Silicon Graphics FAQs
Silicon Graphics SGI Octane Octane2

The Octane was SGIs top-end workstation. It uses a similar architecture to the larger machines like Origin 2000 and Onyx 2 – multi-processor with a large bandwidth crossbar.

The Octane comes with a range of processor options, and is capable to taking 1 or 2 processors. The processors are held on daughter boards which attach to the Octanes motherboard. As such, you can’t buy a second CPU and plug it in – you need to ditch your existing CPU and replace it with a dual-CPU board. This accounts for the relative high price of dual CPU boards as opposed to single CPU boards on the second hand market.

There are two series of Octanes. Early machines used IMPACT graphics and are limited in the level of processor upgrades. Later models have VPRO graphics and their processor options are still being added to by SGI.

Even thought IMPACT graphics can be considered old in computing terms, you can’t make straight comparisons between (say) an R10k-195 Solid IMPACT Indigo 2 and an R10k-195 Octane SI. The enormous amount of I/O bandwidth available across Octanes crossbar, plus some neat tweaks in the implementation of IMPACT, mean that the Octane has significantly faster graphics. See Ian Mapleson’s performance stats for more in-depth comparison – in particular, his comparison of Indigo2 and Octane.

The IMPACT-based graphics options for Octane are as follows:

  • SI –

  • SE –

  • SSI –

  • SSE –

  • MXI –

All the ‘S’ cards (with no hardware texture support) can have TRAM boards added for instant hardware texture support. SI and SE can take one TRAM, SSI and SSE can take two. SSI and SSE with 2 TRAMS are equivalent to MXI.

 

Physically, the Octane is pretty large – almost square. Looking from the back, we have the motherboard on the left (mounted sideways – CPUs and DIMMs facing in towards the middle of the chassis.
In the middle-bottom of the chassis is the power supply – above that, the PCI card cage. Above that, at the middle-top of the chassis, are the drive bays – 3 3.5″ bays. Sorry, no internal CD-ROMs in Octane :-( But room for a couple of high speed SCA drives and a DAT drive.
The right hand side of the chassis is taken up by the 4 XIO slots. Throwing in multiple graphics cards will give you a dual-head machine. As long as you can get the cooling right, it should be possible to make a triple or quad head machine.

Storage

Octanes have 3 internal 3.5" drive bays. These provide SCA connectors and are a 40mb/s SCSI-2 bus. Drives need to be mounted on custom SGI sleds – these are the same as used in Origin 200s and 2000s.

Due to the depth of the sled and the space for the drive, you are unlikely to fit a hard drive + SCSI converter. Because of this you’ll only really be able to fit SCA drives internally in on Octane. However, as SCSI is backwards compatible, you can fit the latest 15k RPM LVD drives.

Owner’s Guide, Datasheets and Whitepapers

The Octane Owner’s Guide can be found on Techpubs.

There are also local copies of:

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Origin 200 Model Summary

Silicon Graphics FAQs

Silicon Graphic SGI O200 Origin 200

I love the Origin 200. For the form factor, it just can’t be beaten – lots of storage capacity with decent processing power and immense I/O. More than that, the underlying technology is deeply impressive. Silicon Graphics at it’s finest.

At today’s prices, and given the modular nature of the O200, it is unbeatable in terms of price/performance.

All Origin 200 units (Origin 200, Origin GIGAChannel, Origin Vault) are available as either a tower or a 19" rack mount chassis. The tower skins can be easily removed to make a chassis rack mountable – conversely you can add tower skins to a rackmount box to make it a free standing tower.

They’re very flexible machines – this modularity of design has been carried on in the Origin 300/350 and Altix 350.

CPUs

Each O200 can have 1 or 2 CPUs. Like the Octane, these are either single or dual modules. As the O200 and the Octane are based on the same Origin 2000 technology, the CPU choices are very similar.

 

RAM

Each O200 can have from 32MB to 2GB RAM fitted. There are 8 DIMM slots, arranged in 4 banks. DIMMs must be fitted in pairs in each bank.

Silicon Graphics SGI O200 Origin 200 memory layout

Bank 0 must be fully populated for the machine to boot.

Storage

Each Origin 200 has 2 5.25" bays, with 50pin 20mb/s SCSI connections. They also have 6 3.5" hot plug bays, which use SCA connectors, and plug into a 40mb/s SCSI bus.

The 5.25" bays don’t require any special mounting kits – the assembly is removed and the drives can be screwed in on either side.

The 3.5" bays require drive sleds – these are the same as on the Octane. There are no limits on drive capacity. Due the depth limits on the sleds you will not be able to fit non-SCA drives with adapters – you must use 80pin SCA drives. However, due to the backwards compatible nature of SCSI, the latest LVD high speed SCA drives will still work in an O200.

Origin Vault

Getting more use out of the Origin 200 chassis, there is the Origin Vault. This provides 6 3.5" SCA drive bays on a differential SCSI bus, and 2 5.25" drive bays on a SE SCSI bus.

To use both busses, you will need to have 2 connections to your host chassis:

  • one to a differential SCSI card (either XIO from a GIGAChannel, or a PCI card in either GIGAChannel or an O200)
  • one to an SE SCSI card (XIO, PCI, or on-board SCSI)

Craylink

Craylink on the Origin 200 is the same as NUMAlink on the Origin 2000. The only difference is that it is limited to 2 nodes on the O200. It provides a 1.15GB/s connection between two O200s, giving you a 2 or 4 way NUMA machine. To expand to another chassis, all you need to do is open the case on the 2nd machine, change the DIP switches above the drive bays so that it is a slave node, then connected the two chassis together with a Craylink cable, and power them on.

During the POST the master chassis will probe the Craylink interface, and configure the machine up with the resources of both chassis. Although you had two physically seperate O200s, when Craylinked together, they become one single system image machine, with the resources of both chassis fully available to IRIX.

GIGAChannel

The GIGAChannel expansion box is basically an O200 chassis with the normal drive bays at the front. However, inside it has 5 XIO slots and 4 64bit PCI slots.

GIGAChannel plugs into an XIO adapter daughter board – these fit just above the Craylink connectors on the main motherboard.

Each O200 can have 1 GIGAChannel connected to it – this means the max configuration is 2 O200 towers, each with their own GIGAChannels.

Maximum Configuration

One of the best strengths is the scalability of the Origin 200. In the maximum configuration possible, you would have 4 chassis:

  • 1 master CPU unit
  • 1 slave CPU unit
  • GIGAChannel connected to the master
  • GIGAChannel connected to the slave
  • And as many Origin Vaults as you feel you need …….

This would obviously give you an impressive amount of I/O, processing power etc.

Graphics

Graphics cards weren’t an option from SGI , and Origin 200s were never sold as visualisation systems.

However, GIGAChannel neatly adds a load of single-width XIO slots to an O200. This means that single-width XIO graphics boards can be fitted. This does limit you to SI or SE cards from an Octane – however, in theory, you can have a multi-head 4 way machine. Think Octane on serious steroids :-)

Greg Douglas of Reputable did some testing – his post can be found here.

PSITech makes an IRIX supported PCI graphics card – the RAD4C-KM. Speed will be, frankly, laughable compared to the XIO boardsets, but it’s still an option that could be explored.

Owner’s Guide, Datasheets and Whitepapers

The O200 Owner’s Guide can be found on Techpubs.

There are also local copies of:

2 Comments

Model Summaries Overview

Silicon Graphics FAQs

This table lists an overview of all the machines from SGI up to the O2. Please get in touch if there are any ommisions, errors, etc.

PM1 – based on a design licensed from Andy Bechtolsheim, Stanford (before SUN).

IP = “Inhouse Processor”

Proc Model Name CPU Speed Comment
PM1 IRIS 1000 68000/68010 8 Mhz Terminal, 10 slot chassis
PM1 IRIS 1200 68000/68010 8 Mhz Terminal, 10 slot chassis
PM1 IRIS 1400 68000/68010 8 Mhz Workstation, (disk & O/S)
IP1 IRIS 2000 68010 10 Mhz Terminal, 10 slot chassis
IP1 IRIS 2200 68010 10 Mhz Terminal, 20 slot chassis
IP1 IRIS 2400 68010 10 Mhz Workstation, (disk & O/S)
IP1 IRIS 2500 68010 10 Mhz Rack Workstation, (disk & O/S)
IP2 IRIS 3020 68020 16 Mhz 10 GEs, 8 bits, 4/16 MB RAM
IP2 IRIS 3030 68020 16 Mhz 10 GEs, 32 bits, 8/16 MB RAM
IP2 IRIS 3115 68020 16 Mhz 12 GEs, 8 bits, 4/8 MB RAM
IP2 IRIS 3120 68020 16 Mhz 12 GEs, 8 bits, 4/16 MB RAM, 72 MB disk
IP2 IRIS 3120B 68020 16 Mhz 12 GEs, 8 bits, 4/16 MB RAM, 170 MB disk
IP2 IRIS 3130 68020 16 Mhz 12 GEs, 32 bits, 8/16 MB RAM, FPU
R2300 4D/60 R2300 8 Mhz
IP4 4D/70 R2000 12.5 Mhz VME bus
IP4 4D/50 R2000 8 Mhz Marketing variant of 4D/70, VME bus
IP4.5 4D/80,85 (IP4) R2000 16.67 Mhz VME bus
IP5 4D/1×0 2x R2000 16.67 Mhz MP bus, 1-2 cpu boards
IP6 4D/20 R2000 12.5 Mhz Personal Iris
IP7 4D/2×0 2x R3000 25 Mhz MP bus, 1-4 cpu boards
IP9 4D/210 (IP7) R3000 25 Mhz put memory onto cpu board to reduce cost
IP10 4D/25 (IP6) R2000 20 Mhz
IP12 Indigo R3000 33 Mhz
IP14 4D/30 (IP12) R3000 30 Mhz redesign to fit the PI chassis
IP14 4D/35 (IP12) R3000 36 Mhz redesign to fit the PI chassis
IP13 4D/3×0 (IP7) 1,2x R3000 33 Mhz MP bus, 1-4 cpu boards
IP15 4D/4×0 (IP7) 2x R3000 40 Mhz MP bus, 1-4 cpu boards
IP17 Crimson R4000 100 Mhz
IP17 Crimson R4400 150 Mhz
IP19 Onyx L/XL 1,2,4x R4400 100,150,200,250 Mhz 1-6 cpu boards
IP19 Challenge L/XL 1,2,4x R4400 100,150,200,250 Mhz 1-9 cpu boards
IP20 Indigo R4000 100 Mhz
IP20 Indigo R4400 150 Mhz
IP21 Power Onyx 1,2x R8000 75,90 Mhz 1-6 cpu boards
IP21 Power Challenge 1,2x R8000 75,90 Mhz 1-9 cpu boards
IP22 Indigo2 R4600SC 133,175 Mhz
IP22 Indigo2 R4400 100,150,200,250 Mhz
IP24 Indy (IP22) R4000PC 100 Mhz
IP24 Indy (IP22) R4000SC 100 Mhz
IP24 Indy (IP22) R4600PC 100,133 Mhz
IP24 Indy (IP22) R4600SC 133 Mhz 512K Secondary Cache
IP24 Indy (IP22) R4400SC 150,175 Mhz 1MB Secondary Cache
IP25 Onyx, Challenge R10000 190 Mhz
IP26 Power Indigo2 R8000 75 Mhz
IP27 Origin 200/2000 R10000 180/195 Mhz
IP28 Indigo2 R10000 190 Mhz
IP30 Indy (IP22) R5000PC 150 Mhz
IP30 Indy (IP22) R5000SC 150,180 Mhz
IP32 O2 R5000 180 Mhz
IP32 O2 R10000 180 Mhz
1 Comment

Silicon Graphics Model Summaries

Silicon Graphics FAQs

This section of the site contains an overview of various machines produced by SGI. There are also links to other sites that have more detailed information about each machine.

For a complete overview of the entire Silicon Graphics product line, up to early O2s, you want to look at the Model Overview page.

At the moment there are summaries/tech info for:

You should also look at Ian Mapleson’s SGI Tech pages for lots more information – especially for performance comparisons between different models.

Ian not only has an excellent Indy buyer’s guide, but also one for the Indigo2 – required reading if you’re looking at one of those machines. Word is some of Ian’s CFT is taken up with an Octane buyer’s guide too ….

SGI’s legacy product page for earlier MIPs machines can be found at http://www.sgi.com/products/legacy/mips.html

If you have any extra information about the machines listed here, would like to see a summary for particular SGI machine, or have spotted any errors, please get in touch.

You might also want to look at the Periodic Tables for an idea of how various machines fit to SGI’s product lineup.

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Power Challenge Periodic Table

Silicon Graphics FAQs

SGI Logo


POWER CHALLENGE Periodic Table


June 18, 1996










































POWER CHALLENGE XL R10000

Processor/Speed

Peak GFLOPS

Product Code


POWER CHALLENGE XL

2xR10000

> 0.76 Pk GFLOPS

R-95802-S2-PWR

POWER CHALLENGE XL

4xR10000

> 1.52 Pk GFLOPS

R-95804-S2-PWR

POWER CHALLENGE XL

6xR10000

> 2.28 Pk GFLOPS

POWER CHALLENGE XL

8xR10000

> 3.04 Pk GFLOPS

R-95808-S2-PWR

POWER CHALLENGE XL

12xR10000

> 4.56 Pk GFLOPS

POWER CHALLENGE XL

16xR10000

> 6.08 Pk GFLOPS

R-95816-S2-PWR

POWER CHALLENGE XL

18xR10000

> 6.84 Pk GFLOPS

POWER CHALLENGE XL

24xR10000

> 9.12 Pk GFLOPS

R-95802-S2-PWR

POWER CHALLENGE XL

36xR10000

> 13.68 Pk GFLOPS

R-95836-S2-PWR

POWER CHALLENGE XL R8000

Processor/Speed

Peak GFLOPS

Product Code

DP Linpack A/B1

SPEC rate A/B2

POWER CHALLENGE XL

2xR8000/90

0.72 Pk GFLOPS

R-79802-S2-1

/569

6613/18682

POWER CHALLENGE XL

4xR8000/90

1.44 Pk GFLOPS

/1124

13702/37224

POWER CHALLENGE XL

6xR8000/90

2.16 Pk GFLOPS

POWER CHALLENGE XL

8xR8000/90

2.88 Pk GFLOPS

/2045

25476/74037

POWER CHALLENGE XL

12xR8000/90

4.32 Pk GFLOPS

POWER CHALLENGE XL

16xR8000/90

5.76 Pk GFLOPS

/3240

47131/148900

POWER CHALLENGE XL

18xR8000/90

6.48 Pk GFLOPS

R-79818-S2-1



POWER CHALLENGE GR R10000

Processor/Speed

Peak GFLOPS

Product Code

DP Linpack A/B1

SPEC rate A/B2

POWER CHALLENGE GR

2xR10000

> 0.76 Pk GFLOPS

R-95802-GR-B

POWER CHALLENGE GR

4xR10000

> 1.52 Pk GFLOPS

R-95804-S2-GR-B

POWER CHALLENGE GR

6xR10000

> 2.28 Pk GFLOPS

POWER CHALLENGE GR

8xR10000

> 3.04 Pk GFLOPS

R-95808-S2-GR-B

POWER CHALLENGE GR

12xR10000

> 4.56 Pk GFLOPS

POWER CHALLENGE GR

16xR10000

> 6.08 Pk GFLOPS

R-95816-S2-GR-B

POWER CHALLENGE GR

18xR10000

> 6.48 Pk GFLOPS

POWER CHALLENGE GR

24xR10000

> 9.12 Pk GFLOPS

R-95824-S2-GR-B


POWER CHALLENGE GR R8000

Processor/Speed

Peak GFLOPS

Product Code

DP Linpack A/B1

SPEC rate A/B2

POWER CHALLENGE GR

2xR8000/90

0.72 Pk GFLOPS

/569

6613/18682*

POWER CHALLENGE GR

4xR8000/90

1.44 Pk GFLOPS

/1124

13072/37224*

POWER CHALLENGE GR

6xR8000/90

2.16 Pk GFLOPS

POWER CHALLENGE GR

8xR8000/90

2.88 Pk GFLOPS

/2045

25476/74037*

POWER CHALLENGE GR

12xR8000/90

4.32 Pk GFLOPS





POWER CHALLENGE L R10000

Processor/Speed

Peak GFLOPS

Product Code

DP Linpack A/B1

SPEC rate A/B2

POWER CHALLENGE L

2×10000/Speed

> 0.76 Pk GFLOPS

D-95602-S2-PWR

POWER CHALLENGE L

4×10000/Speed

> 1.52 Pk GFLOPS

D-95604-S2-PWR

POWER CHALLENGE L

6×10000/Speed

> 2.28 Pk GFLOPS

POWER CHALLENGE L

8×10000/Speed

> 3.04 Pk GFLOPS

D-95608-S2-PWR

POWER CHALLENGE L

12×10000/Speed

> 4.56 Pk GFLOPS




POWER CHALLENGE L R8000

Processor/Speed

Peak GFLOPS

Product Code

DP Linpack A/B1

SPEC rate A/B2

SPEC int92/fp923
POWER CHALLENGE L

1xR8000/90

0.36 Pk GFLOPS

D-79601-S2-1

125.6/308

3314/9373

132.2/396.1
POWER CHALLENGE L

2xR8000/90

0.72 Pk GFLOPS

D-79602-S2-1

/569

6613/18682
POWER CHALLENGE L

4xR8000/90

1.44 Pk GFLOPS

/1124

13072/37224
POWER CHALLENGE L

6xR8000/90

2.16 Pk GFLOPS







1 CPU 2 CPUs 4 CPUs 6 CPUs 8 CPUs 12 CPUs 16 CPUs 18 CPUs 24 CPUs 36 CPUs














































POWER CHALLENGE Processor Upgrade Options

System Processor Type
HU-275 L, XL 2 – R8000/75MHz
HU-275G GR 2 – R8000/75MHz
HU-290 L, XL 2 – R8000/90MHz
HU-290G GR 2 – R8000/90MHz
HU-295-PWR L, GR, XL 2 – R10000
HU-495-PWR L, GR, XL 4 – R10000











































































POWER CHALLENGE Memory Options

Additional Memory Leaves
FTO-64UP256-D1** 64 MB 1
FTO-64UP512-D2** 512 MB 2
FTO-64UP1GB-D2** 1 GB 2
FTO-64UP2GB-D2** 2 GB 2
FTO-64UP2GB-D4** 2 GB 4
FTO-64UP2GB-D8** 2 GB 8
FTO-64UP4GB-D8** 4 GB 8
FTO-64UP512-4** 512 MB 4
FTO-64UP1GB-4** 1 GB 4
FTO-64UP2GB-8** 2 GB 8
FTO-64UP256-2** 256 MB 2
FTO-64UPNC** 64 MB 1
FTO-64UP512-2** 512 MB 2




























POWER CHALLENGE Configurations

Standard
Base Memory Base Disk
POWER CHALLENGE L 64 MB 2 GB
POWER CHALLENGE GR 64 MB 2 GB
POWER CHALLENGE XL 64 MB 2 GB























POWER CHALLENGE GR GRAPHICS OPTIONS
OPTION CONFIGURATION
Extreme Graphics EX-VCONS
Reality Engine2 HU-RE2PIPE

HU-RE2PIPE-RMS
Infinite Reality HU-IRPIPE-16-2

HU-IRPIPE-16-8

HU-IRPIPE-64-2

HU-IRPIPE-64-8









POWER CHALLENGE Viz Console
Extreme Graphics EX_VCONS



















Performance
1: DP Linpack A/B = Double Precision Linpack 100×100

(1 or N) / Double Precision Linpack 1000×1000 (1 on N)

– R8000/75MHz: DP Linpack 100×100 = 105.9; 1000×1000 = 260

– R8000/75MHz: DP Linpack 100×100 = 125.6; 1000×1000 = 308

2: SPEC rate A/B = SPECrate_int92/ SPECrate_fp92

– R8000/75MHz:SPECrate_int92=2760, SPECrate_fp92=6658

– R8000/90MHz:SPECrate_int92=3314, SPECrate_fp92=9373

3: SPECint92/ SPECfp92

– R8000/75MHz: SPECint92 = 111.5, SPECfp92 = 310.8

– R8000/90MHz: SPECint92 = 132.2, SPECfp92 = 396.1

* Rack based systems

** Only one FTO Option for each system ordered



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