[rescue] RE: Advice on Octanes

[Gavin Hubbard]

> > Seams like Joshua has a different opineon. I found a PDF from SGI that
> > described dual head setups, but only with SI/SSI/MXI. No word about
> > SE/SSE/MXE.
> > I think I will just try when I get the machine on friday.
>
>   In my notes I have that SI + SI, SSI + SI, MXI + SI and SE + SE,
>   SSE + SE, MXE + SE work (and are considered "safe"). No info about
>   mixing I-/E-style boards, so I'm also quite curious. :)
>
>
> Gerhard


Mixing I-/E- boards is quite safe. The real problems occur when you put two
full-height (i.e. MX* or SS*) boards, or three half height (i.e. S*) boards,
onto the XIO carrier.

Speaking of thermal instability - I heard a great Octane story the other
day. Apparently a university in NZ had an Octane that used to get really
unstable for a couple of days each year. A technician noticed that the
instability seemed to occur around the same dates, so he decided to
investigate further. It turned out that approximately every six months, the
sun was shining across a computer lab and directly into the bottom vents of
the system. Some simple experimentation showed that the extra heating from
the sun's rays was enough to make the Octane completely unstable.

Regards,

Gavin