Silicon Graphics Octane (I know but keep reading if you're in Vancouver, BC, Canada)

[TexasFlood]

Silicon Graphics Octane 195mhz R10K/256mb/36gb/6.5.15f
C $30.00, approximately US $31.44 BIN or make offer, sale ends in 6 hours.
Seller Info:
For sale a used but refurbished Octane.
System powers up and boots to a fresh install of Irix 6.5.15.
System is in fair condition with scuffs and dings to the plastics.
System is fitted with a single 195mhz R10000 CPU, 256mb of ram, two Solid Impact video cards with Texture memory and one 36gb SCSI hard disk.
Front panel bulb is burnt out.
No documentation or software is included. Scale not included either.
Pick up this computer locally and receive a Granite SGI keyboard and GDM-20D11 20" CRT monitor for FREE!

[litster]

Is the keyboard special?

[Ascaii]

if its the one hes thinking of its a rebranded dell at 101 w with rubber dampened cream alps, see the alps wiki.

[litster]

I go to Vancouver and Richmond, BC very often. I will have to go to check out the Hackery next time to see what they have.

[theferenc]

These were great systems back in the day. I had one of these, as well as an Indigo way back when, though they were already obselete when I got them. These, the AlphaStations, and the IBM RS/6000 line absolutely screamed when configured correctly. And absolutely blew the socks off the x86 based competition.

[TexasFlood]

Is the keyboard special?

if its the one hes thinking of its a rebranded dell at 101 w with rubber dampened cream alps, see the alps wiki.

Yup, that's the one and I always like them.

[TexasFlood]

Is the keyboard special?

if its the one hes thinking of its a rebranded dell at 101 w with rubber dampened cream alps, see the alps wiki.

Yup, that's the one and I always like them. So I thought if it's a decent keyboard with a computer and a monitor thrown it, better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick! :boink:

[Findecanor]

The SGI Octanes that I worked with back in '99 were delivered with rubber dome keyboards made by NMB but with the cases made from granite-looking plastic. Be careful that it is possible that the seller is referring to that kind and not to an older ALPS board. BTW the ALPS boards had ALPS Cream - the one that most feels like rubber dome.

When the Octane was released, PC/Windows-based graphics workstations had just started to appear, and soon they would kick the old MIPS-based systems butts. If I recall correctly, an Octane cost more than ten thousand dollars back then, without even being able to do texture mapping in hardware.

[ch_123]

if its the one hes thinking of its a rebranded dell at 101 w with rubber dampened cream alps, see the alps wiki.

 
*sighs*

The SGI AT 101 was made by Alps themselves. They're better built than the Dell AT101W, which was effectively a clone later made by Silitek. Also have some boss PBT dye-sub keycaps.

@OP: Wish I was in Canada, I'd love to have a more powerful SGI box than the R4000 Indy that serves as my monitor stand

These were great systems back in the day. I had one of these, as well as an Indigo way back when, though they were already obselete when I got them. These, the AlphaStations, and the IBM RS/6000 line absolutely screamed when configured correctly. And absolutely blew the socks off the x86 based competition.

I'd also love me an Alphastation, if only to have a dedicated VMS login box.

[TexasFlood]

7bit should put that info in the SGI Granite Wiki at Deskthority.net.

Although this one will be a cheap rubber dome.  Ask for model number to confirm.  If it starts with RT you've got a rubber dome.

You may be right, so probably safest to drop by like litster said, if you're local of course.

[Ascaii]

*sighs*

The SGI AT 101 was made by Alps themselves. They're better built than the Dell AT101W, which was effectively a clone later made by Silitek. Also have some boss PBT dye-sub keycaps.

@OP: Wish I was in Canada, I'd love to have a more powerful SGI box than the R4000 Indy that serves as my monitor stand



I'd also love me an Alphastation, if only to have a dedicated VMS login box.

I learn more every day, thanks!

[TexasFlood]

I'm almost certain I'm right.  Otherwise my sig would be a sham.

To be fair to the Ebay seller it looks Granitey.

Where's that picture from? I don't see the keyboard in the listing.

But look at this, an Indigo 2, one of my all time favorites! Too bad just the case but still brings back fond memories.  Those had the good dampened alps granite keyboards.

[TexasFlood]

Ohh, there's a functional one for sale.  Too much for me though, $249.99BIN, says he'll take offers, hmm...  It's in Wichita, hmmm....  But my home routers have faster MIPS CPUs now than it does, hah!

[TexasFlood]

Ohh, there's a functional one for sale.  Too much for me though, $249.99BIN, says he'll take offers, hmm...  It's in Wichita, hmmm....  But my home routers have faster MIPS CPUs now than it does, hah! Guess you can't go home, :sad:

[TexasFlood]

Looks like the functional one isn't much faster than the nonfunctional one.

Hah have to agree.  They did have excellent floating point processors though.  Here's one with a bit more muscle.  I did say a bit, this was what, like 1997 or 1998 ish? :wink:

[mike]

Although this one will be a cheap rubber dome.  Ask for model number to confirm.  If it starts with RT you've got a rubber dome.

Probably a rubber dome. Certain my favourite SGI keyboard came with an Indigo2; the other Indigo2 and the Octane came with rubber domes. However in the network of SGIs at work I used to look after, the better keyboards tended to migrate to the Octanes.

[mike]

Well they did. The bigger more expensive machines were still using at least semi-proprietary keyboard connectors. The Indigo2 and Indy were the first to use the PS/2 connector. The older keyboards _may_ have been ALPS too - it's been a long time, but I remember being fond of my PowerSeries keyboard (which had a set of graphics cards which would have originally cost around $300,000).

[TexasFlood]

Probably a rubber dome. Certain my favourite SGI keyboard came with an Indigo2; the other Indigo2 and the Octane came with rubber domes. However in the network of SGIs at work I used to look after, the better keyboards tended to migrate to the Octanes.

 

The Deskthority.net wiki is a bit vague about what systems came with ALPS Granite.

 

Well they did. The bigger more expensive machines were still using at least semi-proprietary keyboard connectors. The Indigo2 and Indy were the first to use the PS/2 connector. The older keyboards _may_ have been ALPS too - it's been a long time, but I remember being fond of my PowerSeries keyboard (which had a set of graphics cards which would have originally cost around $300,000).

Agreed, I supported quite a few SGIs as well and the Indigo 2s had the good keyboards.
 

Moores Law won.  Intel is still around.  SGI isn't.

But SGIs were sexier.  Although where I worked we took the guts out of them and transplanted to thick gray metal ruggedized boxes.  Moores law somewhat but also the laws of economics, loss of demand, lack of sales volume.  Eventually the loss of government contracts, competition for movie studios and the market crash took them out.  I had, what 8 O2000s at one point and with their outstanding floating point processors we racked up some outstanding SETI@home scores, :wink:

[The Solutor]

(which had a set of graphics cards which would have originally cost around $300,000).

My sparcstation 1 (I paid it something like 25€ in 2001) was originally sold for 43000$, I havent checked the original cost of my sparcstation2, but I had it for free, with a huge trinitron monitor, which is still a pleasure to look at.

Too bad SUN workstation were equipped with crap keyboards.

[The Solutor]

Moores Law won.

Distorted capitalism, more than moore's law

[EverythingIBM]

Hah have to agree.  They did have excellent floating point processors though.  Here's one with a bit more muscle.  I did say a bit, this was what, like 1997 or 1998 ish? :wink:

Show Image

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That octane sure has a low amount of memory for 1997/98.

[TexasFlood]

That octane sure has a low amount of memory for 1997/98.

A lot of these vendors that was at least double dipp, if not more, by pulling out various components, including memory, and selling it separately.

[EverythingIBM]

A lot of these vendors that was at least double dipp, if not more, by pulling out various components, including memory, and selling it separately.

Even so if it goes up to 512MB, the Triton II chipset does the exact same thing...
That thing is as powerful as a PC for '97.
Granted, Triton II was the higher-end chipset offered by intel at the time; maybe most PCs didn't use it? I don't know. Someone teleport me back to 1997.

[TexasFlood]

Even so if it goes up to 512MB, the Triton II chipset does the exact same thing...
That thing is as powerful as a PC for '97.
Granted, Triton II was the higher-end chipset offered by intel at the time; maybe most PCs didn't use it? I don't know. Someone teleport me back to 1997.

It would go up to 8GB of smokin memory.

"The Octane system is based on SGI's Xtalk architecture. This means it does not use a system bus; instead it has a Crossbow ASIC, always referred to as Xbow, a dynamic crossbar switch that connects the XIO ports to the hub. One of the ports is used for the processor and memory subsystem, one is available for PCI-X expansion and four are XIO slots (packet-based high-bandwidth bus, somewhat similar to HyperTransport). This makes it very similar to a single node of the Origin 200 system.  The memory subsystem has vast reserves of bandwidth that can be directly served by the Xbow router to any XIO card."