[geeks] SGI announces new offerings ...

[Joshua D. Boyd]

On Mon, Jul 14, 2003 at 05:27:39PM +0100, Rob Fielding wrote:
> >>Also, I see a lot of options that they should have added long ago.  I
> >>just wish that they supported Octanes and Octane2s with more of those
> >>options (firewire video, lots of audio stuff, etc).
> 
> Indeed. Cross platform XIO cards would be nice but I'll bet they're
> PCI X boards... 

They could be PCI-X.  I was hoping for regular PCI.  If they used PCI-X
instead, that would explain the lack of compatibility with older
machines. 

> > I assume Octane2 is going to be retired soon, even the fuel since the
> > Tezro supports 1 proc configs.
> 
> 2nd prices on Octanes are dropping thru the floor - plus it's based on
> now obsolete SGI technology. 
> Still a respun motherboard with SCSI 360 + faster FSB for the R16/18
> cpus would be nice to keep that Octane going... 

It's not that obsolete. XIO still rocks.  Vpro rocks.  The motherboard
probably needs upgraded for R16ks, but that's one piece out of the whole
system.  I don't know about the practicality of making a PCI-X cage, but
since there are PCI-X->XIO carriers, one would think it would be easy
enough to make them work in Octanes.

The prices certainly are through the floor.