Looks a bit like my coffee machine...😜

I try bidding for an SGI Indigo once in a while but I never win. If I ever do, it'll go next to the Sun Sparcstation I never use. LoL.

Heh it would be pretty sweet to own one of those SGI boxes.

I wouldn't mind getting something like a PowerPC 604 Mac too. The thing is I always think of how it would just end up being a gigantic boat anchor and never get used 🤣.

With Macs though you can get Basilisk and emulate whatever Mac OS you want and that really satisfies most of my retro desires heh.

Tetrium wrote:

Looks a bit like my coffee machine...😜

Sounds like a beast of a coffee maker 🤣

swaaye wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

Looks a bit like my coffee machine...😜

Sounds like a beast of a coffee maker 🤣

Yeah, it's the first thing I cuddle after waking up 😜

Yep. I own both a Octane 2 and an Indigo 2. For my final year project for my CS degree I wrote a cross platform, multi-threaded voice over IP program for both SGI IRIX and Linux - that was eleven years ago.

All of the machines are extremely well made - the build quality makes even the best PC look like it was assembled by a child in comparison. And of course, the graphics hardware, compared to contemporary equivalents, is very advanced.

At the time IRIX was a very good version of Unix; extremely stable and scaled from a single processor workstation right up to the giant Onyx and Origin systems with dozens and dozens of processors. It still has some features not in modern versions of Linux or OS X, but the interface is now looking quite dated in comparison (for the last 10-15 years of its life the desktop interface didn't really change at all) and it can be a pain to get recent free software to compile (eg a better browser than the built-in Netscape Navigator 4!).

The O2 is a quiet workstation (most SGI systems are noisy!) - though has only a single graphics hardware option in comparison to other systems which usually have several - and has analogue AV input and output built in.

The Indigo2, Octane and Fuel workstations are better general purpose machines than the O2, IMO. Though none of the SGI systems are as flexible as a PC - they're usually targetted at a specific market and don't have as many add-ons or options available (eg no USB in anything other than the very last models - and then only keyboard/mouse support).

Tetrium wrote:

swaaye wrote:

Tetrium wrote:

Looks a bit like my coffee machine...😜

Sounds like a beast of a coffee maker 🤣

Yeah, it's the first thing I cuddle after waking up 😜

I'm sure the missus will be glad to hear that. You'll let us know when you get of hospital, won't you? 😁

megatron-uk wrote:

Yep. I own both a Octane 2 and an Indigo 2. For my final year project for my CS degree I wrote a cross platform, multi-threaded voice over IP program for both SGI IRIX and Linux - that was eleven years ago.

It's cool to hear first hand experiences with those machines. They were so niche that few have even seen one. I kind of assumed they'd be loud after seeing how many boards they jammed into those chassis and how many various processors there can be.

I only posted the O2 pic because it was one of the slicker looking boxes. I don't have any special interest in it otherwise though.

My interest in SGI stuff comes primarily from how they were heavily used for video game development in the mid '90s. I also found it fascinating that the N64 was designed by them and the early development machine was an Indigo with a special graphics board AFAIK.

Weren' they used for film special effects too? Also seem to recall the 3d file browser in jurassic park [film] was some prototype program on an sgi:

http://www.siliconbunny.com/fsn-the-irix-3d-f … -jurassic-park/

swaaye wrote:

megatron-uk wrote:

Yep. I own both a Octane 2 and an Indigo 2. For my final year project for my CS degree I wrote a cross platform, multi-threaded voice over IP program for both SGI IRIX and Linux - that was eleven years ago.

It's cool to hear first hand experiences with those machines. They were so niche that few have even seen one. I kind of assumed they'd be loud after seeing how many boards they jammed into those chassis and how many various processors there can be.

They're very nice pieces of kit - if you have any interest in Unix then they're worth looking at to see just what the ultimate graphics workstations of the 1990's were like.

I only posted the O2 pic because it was one of the slicker looking boxes. I don't have any special interest in it otherwise though.

They're diddy little machines - but still high quality pieces of kit. If you think of getting one just beware that a *lot* were sold in very basic specification for computer labs and as use as general workstations; they tend to have the slow R5000 processor (either 180 or 200MHz) rather than the much better R10000 or R12000.

My interest in SGI stuff comes primarily from how they were heavily used for video game development in the mid '90s. I also found it fascinating that the N64 was designed by them and the early development machine was an Indigo with a special graphics board AFAIK.

The N64 development board for the Indy actually comes up now and then. The last one was a year or so ago on Nekochan.net, which is about the busiest SGI forum still around. It even has breakout ports for N64 controllers!