[rescue] SGI Impact 10000

[Scott Quinn]

Aah- the Indigo2 IMPACT 10000.

There are only two major versions of IRIX that will run on this machine 
(R10000, Indigo2 R4k has more options) IRIX 6.2 with Indigo2 IMPACT 
10000 (different from the base IRIX 6.2) and IRIX 6.5(.x). It will run 
up to IRIX 6.5.22, which is the first version without the 
Maintenance/Feature stream distinction (it's all feature). .22 is a 
nice version, it's faster in the default install than the earlier 6.5 
releases I've tried.

Memory has been covered O.K.

Identifying the machine: look at the EISA/GIO slots- Solid IMPACT has 
one card with the DE-9 and the 13W3 on the same plane. High IMPACT has 
the DE9 one slot under the 13W3, Maximum IMPACT has a blank slot cover 
in between the 13W3 and the DE9. No way of telling how much TRAM is 
installed (base is 1MB on High/Max, TRAM expansion modules bump it up 
to 4MB. Indigo2 High/Max IMPACT always have at least 1MB of texture 
cache.). As Sridhar points out, for IMPACT-class Octanes it was either 
no TRAM/TE (texture engine) or 4MB TRAM. Solid IMPACT is SE/SI in 
Octane, High IMPACT is SE+texture or SI+texture, SSE/SSI has no Indigo2 
equivalent, and MXI/MXE is Max IMPACT. The model number (CMNB007AFxxx) 
will tell you how fast the processor was as originally shipped (AF175 
is 175MHz, AF195 is 195MHz). To round this out, R4k machines will have 
a CMNB007Yxx model number, where the X stands for the external clock 
(1/2 the processor frequency).

Most PS/2 keyboards will work, and most SCSI CD-ROMs will work. If 
you're having weird booting/install problems, try running 'resetenv' at 
the PROM monitor prompt before panicing.  You probably will want a 
3-button mouse, but it isn't as imperative as it is on some 
architectures.

I have used a Sun Ultra-era monitor on SGIs (definitely an Octane, 
can't recall on my I2), and I've used IBM RS/6000 (P200) monitors on 
Indigo2/Octane/Indy/Indigo. Have fun with the Indigo2, it's still very 
useful unless you try to do something silly like run OpenOffice