[rescue] Advice on Octanes

[Rob Fielding]

Kevin wrote:
> GCC may be a culprit for some of these speed
> differences.  Most of my software is GNU/GPL stuff and
> while i do attempt to compile some of it with MIPS Pro
> (v7.2) it doesn't work out most of the time and i do
> not yet have the requisite knowledge to fix it.

I think you're right.

> Anyone know what SGI uses to compile their freeware
> stuff?

AFAIK MIPSPro
>
> For my larger file operations, the HD subsystem is
> going to give the linux box some advantage, SCSI160
> adapter and drives.  I've got U2W drives in the Octane
> but i'm betting the controller is only UW.

It's UW. If you fancy ringing out a stone for all it's worth, you could 
investigate the fx settings,

http://reality.dsvr.net/irix/depot/fx_speed-2.txt

and of course, XVM stripe two or more of your drives together for *extra speed* :)

http://reality.dsvr.net/irix/depot/xvm_diskperf.txt

but that's only been useful to me to grab uncompressed data from the Personal 
Video Option at full PAL without frame drops. One wanky thing about IRIX - the 
bundled dmedia tools seriously need work, or opensourcing.


-- 

Rob Fielding	
rob at dsvr.net	Development	www.dsvr.co.uk