[rescue] SGI Origin 200 firewire upgrade - A little OT

[Mike Meredith]

On Monday 02 July 2001 19:48, you wrote:
> Just to keep it slightly on topic....  What sun machine would be
> comparable with the SGI Origin 200?  I have no idea what models would
> be comparable in speed and I/O performance.  Also expandability. 
> Just curious.

An E250 ? Although that's hardly a fair match.

The O200 has a maximum of 2 CPU's and in the base configuration is 
PCI-based, but can be expanded with a GIGAchannel to give XIO slots 
which are a great deal faster than even 64-bit PCI. Also two O200's can 
be joined together to give a 4-processor system with auto failover 
capability.

> Is it possible to upgrade the Origin 200 with a firewire expansion
> card?  If so what is the best expansion path available?

I don't know off the top of my head, but I wouldn't be suprised if 
there's an option out there somewhere --- SGI is/used to be big in the 
AV market.

> I'm also wondering what kind of HD's this can take (SCSI).  We
> already have 10 drives hanging off the external SCSI + one internal
> OS disk. Does the sgi need special HD's?

Standard SCSI. I think they'll be SCA types, but the difficulty you'll 
have is finding the right drive sleds. You've got 6 hot-swap disk bays 
in the tower itself.

> Looking for a way to get more storage space out of this thing.  It
> kicks a** in the speed department but the drives are getting a little
> cramped.

I'd think about replacing your external drives with a RAID box.

The Origin 200 is still a current product, so there's plenty of details 
on www.sgi.com