What can I do with my Onyx?

[arkyfedobolan]

More specifically: I have a donated Onyx (the large one, not the
deskside), realityengine 2, not sure what the rest of the specs are yet.
Our current visualization setup is linux on a generic PC, dual xeon,
quadroFX card, running CAVE and Performer apps. i'm curious about whether
the onyx will still offer other capabilities and performance improvements,
whether it'd be worth my time to try and get it running, and so on. I
like SGI hardware; give me a reason to use this thing before someone else
turns it into a minibar!

--arky fedobolan

[-ks]

Post by arkyfedobolan
More specifically: I have a donated Onyx (the large one, not the
deskside), realityengine 2, not sure what the rest of the specs are
yet. Our current visualization setup is linux on a generic PC, dual
xeon, quadroFX card, running CAVE and Performer apps. i'm curious
about whether the onyx will still offer other capabilities and
performance improvements, whether it'd be worth my time to try and get
it running, and so on. I like SGI hardware; give me a reason to use
this thing before someone else turns it into a minibar!
--arky fedobolan

Don't turn it into a minibar, donate it to me :)

-ks

[Sheldon T. Hall - DO NOT MAIL]

On Sun, 17 Sep 2006 23:20:25 GMT, arkyfedobolan

Post by arkyfedobolan
More specifically: I have a donated Onyx (the large one, not the
deskside), realityengine 2, not sure what the rest of the specs are yet.
Our current visualization setup is linux on a generic PC, dual xeon,
quadroFX card, running CAVE and Performer apps. i'm curious about whether
the onyx will still offer other capabilities and performance improvements,
whether it'd be worth my time to try and get it running, and so on. I
like SGI hardware; give me a reason to use this thing before someone else
turns it into a minibar!

Honestly, I doubt that even a well-outfitted rack Onyx is a match for
a hot Wintel machine, at least in the CPU department. My 6-processor
Challenge L, for example, produces about one-third the distributed.net
work units that my single-CPU 3 GHz Wintel machine does. 10 years of
Moore's Law, and all that.

However, I don't know much about the relative graphics speeds, nor
about the cost of specialized graphics software.

The Onyx would make a dandy file server, though. You can hang huge
amounts of disk space off a machine like that, and even with a modest
number of processors, it can keep up nicely. Ditto tape drives for
backup. Centralized data storage and backup can make disaster
recovery a _lot_ easier.

It would also make a dandy server for mail, news, DNS, time, etc.

My Challenge handles data storage and backup for a couple of
businesses, as well as handling their mail, etc. It also runs a
specialized DNS server that suppresses most advertisements on web
pages.

-Shel

[Douglas V. Mashek]

Post by Sheldon T. Hall - DO NOT MAIL
On Sun, 17 Sep 2006 23:20:25 GMT, arkyfedobolan

Post by arkyfedobolan
More specifically: I have a donated Onyx (the large one, not the
deskside), realityengine 2, not sure what the rest of the specs are yet.
Our current visualization setup is linux on a generic PC, dual xeon,
quadroFX card, running CAVE and Performer apps. i'm curious about whether
the onyx will still offer other capabilities and performance improvements,
whether it'd be worth my time to try and get it running, and so on. I
like SGI hardware; give me a reason to use this thing before someone else
turns it into a minibar!

Honestly, I doubt that even a well-outfitted rack Onyx is a match for
a hot Wintel machine, at least in the CPU department. My 6-processor
Challenge L, for example, produces about one-third the distributed.net
work units that my single-CPU 3 GHz Wintel machine does. 10 years of
Moore's Law, and all that.
However, I don't know much about the relative graphics speeds, nor
about the cost of specialized graphics software.
The Onyx would make a dandy file server, though. You can hang huge
amounts of disk space off a machine like that, and even with a modest
number of processors, it can keep up nicely. Ditto tape drives for
backup. Centralized data storage and backup can make disaster
recovery a _lot_ easier.

I would disagree with this. The Challenge/Onyx line have pretty
terable 100BaseT speeds even if it does have it. Standard is 10BaseT.
Nowadays, I doubt someone would want to put an 800lb fileserver on a
10BaseT.
Also the SCSI is 20MB/Second/buss max, FibreChannel is very rare.

An Octane (even 195MHz) beats it hands down
40MB/Second SCSI
SCA drives
100BaseT built in that will keep up the wire even at full duplex
11MB/Sec bydirectional.
Addon options like Gigabit and Fibre Channel.
The Octane just plain has more IO performance than the huge
Onyx/ChallengeL platform.

Post by Sheldon T. Hall - DO NOT MAIL
It would also make a dandy server for mail, news, DNS, time, etc.
My Challenge handles data storage and backup for a couple of
businesses, as well as handling their mail, etc. It also runs a
specialized DNS server that suppresses most advertisements on web
pages.
-Shel

The power consumption and noise of the beast is not very cost
effective either.


Thanks,
Doug

[Sheldon T. Hall - DO NOT MAIL]

On Thu, 28 Sep 2006 05:17:34 -0400, "Douglas V. Mashek"

Post by Douglas V. Mashek

Post by Sheldon T. Hall - DO NOT MAIL
On Sun, 17 Sep 2006 23:20:25 GMT, arkyfedobolan

Post by arkyfedobolan
More specifically: I have a donated Onyx (the large one, not the
deskside), realityengine 2, not sure what the rest of the specs are yet.
Our current visualization setup is linux on a generic PC, dual xeon,
quadroFX card, running CAVE and Performer apps. i'm curious about whether
the onyx will still offer other capabilities and performance improvements,
whether it'd be worth my time to try and get it running, and so on. I
like SGI hardware; give me a reason to use this thing before someone else
turns it into a minibar!

Honestly, I doubt that even a well-outfitted rack Onyx is a match for
a hot Wintel machine, at least in the CPU department. My 6-processor
Challenge L, for example, produces about one-third the distributed.net
work units that my single-CPU 3 GHz Wintel machine does. 10 years of
Moore's Law, and all that.
However, I don't know much about the relative graphics speeds, nor
about the cost of specialized graphics software.
The Onyx would make a dandy file server, though. You can hang huge
amounts of disk space off a machine like that, and even with a modest
number of processors, it can keep up nicely. Ditto tape drives for
backup. Centralized data storage and backup can make disaster
recovery a _lot_ easier.

I would disagree with this. The Challenge/Onyx line have pretty
terable 100BaseT speeds even if it does have it.

You are correct there.

Post by Douglas V. Mashek
Also the SCSI is 20MB/Second/buss max, FibreChannel is very rare.

Also true.

Post by Douglas V. Mashek
An Octane (even 195MHz) beats it hands down

Yes, but the OP already _has_ an Onyx. He's asking what he can use it
for.

Post by Douglas V. Mashek

Post by Sheldon T. Hall - DO NOT MAIL
It would also make a dandy server for mail, news, DNS, time, etc.
My Challenge handles data storage and backup for a couple of
businesses, as well as handling their mail, etc. It also runs a
specialized DNS server that suppresses most advertisements on web
pages.
-Shel

The power consumption and noise of the beast is not very cost
effective either.

I use mine to heat my house. When it comes to turning electricity
into heat, my Challenge is no less efficient than my electric furnace,
and it does useful work into the bargain.

-Shel

[arkyfedobolan]

anyone in the chicagoland area who can give this a good home, let me know
quick before it gets stripped for parts. or, let me know if you're
interested in any of the parts.

--arky

[WolfeWLU]

Can you post pics of it? Might be interested in having it shipped.

Best Regards,
Jason

Post by arkyfedobolan
anyone in the chicagoland area who can give this a good home, let me know
quick before it gets stripped for parts. or, let me know if you're
interested in any of the parts.
--arky

[arkyfedobolan]

hooray, it works! we turned it on for the first time yesterday. took it
down to the kinetic sculpture shop which has the only 3-phase outlet in
the building, and fired it up. boy that fan is something else.

booting it up was a bit of a chore; had to rewire the power plug because
the ground blades were oriented backwards from our outlet, but that wasn't
too bad. unfortunately, the folks who donated it to us neglected to give
us the key. luckily, we had it in the kinetics machine shop anyway, so
that didn't take too long to solve.

now i have a few more questions:

- it gets through the boot arbitration and then ends with Processor Status
: B +++++++ or some number of +'s . is that the number of processors?

- monitor: i can't get a monitor working with it. we have the monitor
that came with it (massive 21-incher), but not the special cable. i think
that monitor may be busted anyway. we have a cable that adapts to a
standard VGA plug; should that work with a VGA monitor?

- keyboard: is the keyboard the same as the one for an Indy or O2? I have
a bunch of those, but they don't seem to have the additional port for the
mouse...

- Sirius Video : it has the Sirius Video breakout box, apparently this was
a Flame workstation. the folks who donated also didn't give us the Flame
dongle, but is there anything else interesting that video artists could do
with that which you couldn't do in AfterEffects?

I mean without buying or cracking Flame.

- OS : another helpful thing the folks who donated this didn't pass on was
any of the accounts and passwords, so I'm not sure what I can do with it
other than setting it as a homework assignment for my Art of Hacking
seminar. i have some Irix install CD's, but they came with the O2's -
are those usable at all on an Onyx or do I need special install discs? do
i need tapes?

thanks for any suggestions. people here are itching to rip it up for
parts. i can post pix next week when i get back down there.

thanks,

--arky

[John-Paul Stewart]

Post by arkyfedobolan
- monitor: i can't get a monitor working with it. we have the monitor
that came with it (massive 21-incher), but not the special cable. i think
that monitor may be busted anyway. we have a cable that adapts to a
standard VGA plug; should that work with a VGA monitor?

The Onyx will put out a sync-on-green signal. The monitor must be
capable of accepting that. Good monitors will while cheap ones won't.
You can find lists of SOG-capable monitors with Google or you can lookup
manufacturer's specs if you have a specific model at hand.

Post by arkyfedobolan
- keyboard: is the keyboard the same as the one for an Indy or O2? I have
a bunch of those, but they don't seem to have the additional port for the
mouse...

The Onyx (and a few other vintage SGI machines) used an SGI-proprietary
keyboard. The Indy and O2 both used PS/2 keyboards. If you can't find
a vendor with the right keyboard, I think there are plans out there for
build-it-yourself adapters. Again, Google is your friend.

Do *not* plug a PS/2 keyboard from and Indy or O2 into the Onyx. You
risk frying both, according to some reports.

Post by arkyfedobolan
- Sirius Video : it has the Sirius Video breakout box, apparently this was
a Flame workstation. the folks who donated also didn't give us the Flame
dongle, but is there anything else interesting that video artists could do
with that which you couldn't do in AfterEffects?
I mean without buying or cracking Flame.

The Sirius video is some (ahem) serious, professional-grade video I/O
hardware. (Or at least it was back in its day.) Search for "sirius" at
techpubs.sgi.com and you'll find the IRIX man pages for some of the
graphics <-> video utilities provided with it. (They'll be mixed in
with the list of programming guides in the search results.) That should
give you a good idea of what the Sirius video option is all about.

Post by arkyfedobolan
- OS : another helpful thing the folks who donated this didn't pass on was
any of the accounts and passwords, so I'm not sure what I can do with it
other than setting it as a homework assignment for my Art of Hacking
seminar. i have some Irix install CD's, but they came with the O2's -
are those usable at all on an Onyx or do I need special install discs? do
i need tapes?

It depends on the disks that came with the O2. If they're 6.5.x you'll
most likely be OK. If the disks are for 6.3, you're out of luck since
6.3 was an 02-only release.

[Walter Roberson]

Post by arkyfedobolan
- it gets through the boot arbitration and then ends with Processor Status
: B +++++++ or some number of +'s . is that the number of processors?

Close. The B is the boot processor, and each + is another processor
found to be in working order. A - would indicate a non-functioning
processor. So it looks like you have 8 working processors.

[Atro Tossavainen]

Post by arkyfedobolan
- monitor: i can't get a monitor working with it. we have the monitor
that came with it (massive 21-incher), but not the special cable. i think
that monitor may be busted anyway. we have a cable that adapts to a
standard VGA plug; should that work with a VGA monitor?

Yes.

Post by arkyfedobolan
- keyboard: is the keyboard the same as the one for an Indy or O2? I have
a bunch of those, but they don't seem to have the additional port for the
mouse...

No, it's not a PS/2 keyboard.

Post by arkyfedobolan
- OS : another helpful thing the folks who donated this didn't pass on was
any of the accounts and passwords, so I'm not sure what I can do with it
other than setting it as a homework assignment for my Art of Hacking
seminar. i have some Irix install CD's, but they came with the O2's -
are those usable at all on an Onyx or do I need special install discs? do
i need tapes?

Starting with IRIX 6.5 it's no longer necessary to have platform-specific
install disks. If your O2 disks are 6.3, they're unusable on the Onyx,
however.

[Emmanuel Florac]

Post by arkyfedobolan
- it gets through the boot arbitration and then ends with Processor Status
: B +++++++ or some number of +'s . is that the number of processors?

Wowww, super-duper cool, an 8 CPU Onyx :)

Post by arkyfedobolan
- monitor: i can't get a monitor working with it. we have the monitor
that came with it (massive 21-incher), but not the special cable. i think
that monitor may be busted anyway. we have a cable that adapts to a
standard VGA plug; should that work with a VGA monitor?
- keyboard: is the keyboard the same as the one for an Indy or O2? I have
a bunch of those, but they don't seem to have the additional port for the
mouse...

You can't use a PS/2 kit, but you may use a serial console on port 1.
Unfortunately the proprietary PowerSeries/Indigo/Onyx keyboards and mice
are close to impossible to find, or frighteningly expensive. You'll have
to usually build the proper cable to connect to a 0 pin RS232 PC serial
port, but the cabling is fully documented in the "serial" manpage. An
RS232 (old style) macintosh modem adapter may work or not, too.

[Walter Roberson]

Post by Douglas V. Mashek

Post by Sheldon T. Hall - DO NOT MAIL
The Onyx would make a dandy file server, though.

I would disagree with this. The Challenge/Onyx line have pretty
terable 100BaseT speeds even if it does have it. Standard is 10BaseT.

There were two 100 Mb cards available for the Challenge/Onyx.

The more common one was the VFE, which was half-duplex only.
There were a fair number of problems with the card: it couldn't
handle high throughput, and it could leak information from kernel
buffers into packets, and various other problems too. The engineers
who were responsible for supporting it were so sick of the problems
that they favoured having SGI exchange the customer's Challenge/Onyx
into a O2000/Onyx2 as the solution ;-)

The less common one was, if I recall correctly, a SCSI ethernet
card. I don't think I ever met anyone who actually had one of them.

[arkyfedobolan]

file server's a neat idea, though i already have a few dell dual-xeon
rackmount raid servers ... the onyx does have this big "Sirius Video" box
with it, i forgot to mention that - anything nifty that can be done with
that?

--arky