Introduction
The purple Indigo² is the newer version which normally has
a R10000 processor and impact graphics. The first generation Indigo²s
had a teal case and used a completely different graphics architecture
and older processors. See my other Indigo²
for further information.
Graphics Options
The first Indigo²s graphic options still based on the "Express
Graphic" architecture from the original Indigos. But the
Indigo² has a faster bus system plus you can have more geometry
engines, so the Indigo² graphic options are faster than the
Indigo options.
| Option |
GEs |
REs |
| XL |
0 |
1 |
| XZ |
2 |
1 |
| XZ Elan |
4 |
1 |
| Extreme |
8 |
2 |
RE:
Raster Engine GE: Geometry Engines |
- Command Processor: HQ2
- Geometry Engine: GE7
- Raster Engine: RE3
|
With the introduction of the purple Indigo²s a new graphic
architecture was introduced: The Solid Impact architecture. It
was the first desktop graphic system from SGI that could offer
texture mapping acceleration (but you need at least the HighImpact
option).
| Option |
GEs |
REs |
Texture |
| SolidImpact |
1 |
1 |
none |
| HighImpact |
1 |
1 |
1 |
| HighImpact AA |
2 |
1 |
1 |
| MaximumImpact |
2 |
2 |
2 |
RE:
Raster Engine GE: Geometry Engines
Texture: Texture Modules
|
- Command Processor: HQ3
- Geometry Engine: GE11
- Raster Engine: RE4
|
The graphic options are connected to the system via the backplane
which has standard EISA slots plus proprietary GIO64 slots which
are designed for the graphic options. Note that you cannot easily
upgrade every teal Indigo² to SolidImpact graphic, because
the backplane changed a bit. You can easily tell, which backplane
you have: The original old backplane for the Express options have
4 EISA slots and 3 GIO64 slots, whereas the Impact have 3 EISA
slots and 4 GIO64 slots.
Processor Options
| Processor |
Speed |
Cache |
Board |
| R4000SC |
100 Mhz |
L1: 8kB+8kB L2: 1MB |
IP22 |
| R4400SC |
150 Mhz
200 Mhz |
L1: 16kB+16kB L2: 1MB |
IP22 |
| R4400SC |
175 Mhz
200 Mhz
250 Mhz |
L1: 16kB+16kB L2: 2MB |
IP22 |
| R4600SC |
133 Mhz |
L1: 16kB+16kB L2: 512kB |
IP22 |
| R8000SC |
75 Mhz |
L2: 2MB |
IP26 |
| R10000SC |
175 Mhz
195 Mhz |
L1: 32kB+32kB L2: 1MB |
IP28 |
As you can see, different processor familiys (R4x00, R8000 and
R10000) require different mainboards, thus an upgrade is cheap
only in rare cases, when you stay within the same CPU family.
It is also possible to tune an Indigo²
to use a 200MHz R10000.
Memory
 As
the Indigo R4000 and the
Indy, the Indy uses standard
72pin PS/2 FPM memory with 36Bit and parity, so it should not
be a big deal to find some upgrades in the second hand market.
You can use SIMMs up to 32MB per module for IP22 and IP26 boards
and modules up to 64MB per module for the newer IP28 boards (Some
people also confirm that you can even use modules up to 128MB
to get 1GB of RAM, but this is not officially supported by SGI
- on the other hand Indigo²s aren't supported any more at
all). In contrast to many PCs, you have to insert modules in groups
of four and the Indigo² has 12 slots in total.
The Systembus
 The
Indigo² has a bus called GIO64 which uses much larger boards
than the GIO32 boards used in Indys and Indigos. As can be noted
from the name, it is 64 bits wide instead of 32 bits wide. The
GIO64 bus has a theoratical maximum bandwidth of 266Mb/s.
Boards for this bus are roughly the same size as EISA boards
since both GIO64 boards and EISA boards live in the same backplane.
The I/O panel space for a GIO64 board is identical to that for
an EISA board. The outline of the board does differ from a standard
EISA board however.
The EISA bus used in the Indigo² is the same bus used by
PC compatibles. EISA bus boards share four physical slots with
GIO64 boards in the Indigo2. Since the EISA bus is a superset
of the ISA bus, ISA boards will also fit into the Indigo2.
Note that there are two different versions of the backplane and
you need the newer version with only three EISA slots for all
Impact graphics family cards.
Powersupply
There are several (five to be exact) different power-supplies
available for the Indigo²:
| Part Number |
Description |
| 9430814 |
Suitable for Extreme, XZ and XL graphics on R4400 and R8000
machines. |
| 060-8001-xxx |
Suitable for single-head (Solid, High or Max) IMPACT graphics
and
dual-head Solid/Solid IMPACT graphics on R4400 machines. Can
also
be used in place of 9430814. |
| 060-0021-xxx |
Suitable for dual-head (Max/Solid, High/High or High/Solid)
IMPACT
graphics on R4400 machines. Can also be used in place of 9430814
or 060-8001-xxx. |
| 060-8002-xxx |
Suitable for single-head IMPACT graphics on R10000 machines. |
| 060-0027-xxx |
Suitable for dual-head IMPACT graphics on R10000 machines.
Can
also be used in place of 060-8002-xxx. |
Peripherals
An Indigo² just needs a standard PS/2 keyboard and mouse
(of course there are special gray keyboards and mice from SGI
available) and has standard sound input/output connectors plus
a 10MBit ethernet connector. The only item you have to care about
is the monitor: Indigo²s do have - as most SGI systems -
a 13W3 monitor connector and use "sync-on-green"
- although most modern PC Monitors support this method, you should
assure that it really does by reading the manual before plugging
it to an Indigo².
Video Options
- Video Creator
VideoCreator is available as an optional external or
internal board for video output in either compressed or uncompressed
format (SCSI or VME).
- Indigo²2 Video
A low-end video option which still includes video input and output
(only for XL, XZ and Extreme).
- Cosmo Compress
Adds hardware compression/decompression functionality to systems
and can be added to Indigo² Video systems using an external
connection.
- Galileo Video
High-end video option for systems with Express graphics on the
Indigo² .
- Indigo² Video for Impact
A low-end video option which still includes video input and output
(same as above, but for Impact graphics).
- Indigo² Impact Video
Broadcast quality video option with (only!) digital input and
output (for Impact systems only).
- Indigo² Color Space Conversion
Optional card vor Indigo² Impact Video that does conversion
between YUVA and RGB. It allows to use video as textures.
- Indigo² Impact Compress
Motion JPEG option card for standalone or use with Indigo²
Impact Video. Composite and S-Video in-/output.
Other Options
- Phobos G160 GIO network interface (10/100mbit)
- Phobos E100 EISA network interface (10/100mbit)
- FDDI single/dual attach GIO cards
- Fibrechannel GIO adapter
- HIPPI GIO network interface
- bit3 VME expansion card
- Presenter adapter
My Indigo²s
I own two Indigo²s: A purple one
and a teal one.
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