SGI Indy

The Indy was a graphics workstation of Silicon Graphics Inc. ( SGI) and arrived in the U.S. in September 1993 on the market. The device was then touted as an affordable entry into the world of 2D and 3D graphics workstations. The Indy was outwardly quite striking because of their very flat, bright blue desktop housing from recycled plastic, the shape of which resulted from two slightly twisted shells. The intense blue or violet colored casing color they had with the other representatives of the then, MIPS - based workstation series from SGI (eg SGI Challenge, SGI Indigo, Indigo2 Impact, SGI Onyx, SGI O2), in common.

The Indy used as all former SGI workstations, the operating system IRIX, a UNIX variant with a work based on the X Window System GUI. These workstations were designed for particularly high 2D and 3D graphics performance and therefore predestined for visualization and image synthesis applications in research, development and in the entertainment industry. The Indy offered a graphic performance that exceeded the capabilities of the then-available PC hardware far; However, only a few years later established himself high-performance 2D and 3D accelerator hardware for ordinary desktop computer ( first Intel -based PCs, shortly afterwards, Apple Macintosh), so that they were soon able to the performance of the SGI special hardware to reach and eventually overtake. In terms of 3D performance of today's graphics cards, the 3D graphics performance of Indy is more likely to be described as rudimentary, which even then relatively powerful 2D graphics acceleration was used. When Indy was introduced in the U.S., complete systems were available including monitor from about 5000 U.S. $.

Hardware

SGI used in their former workstations, a module concept; so both CPU and graphics hardware were housed on removable modules even at the Indy. The available CPU modules were equipped with MIPS processors of type R4000, R4600, R4400 and R5000, the R4000 representing the lowest performing end of the series. R4000 and R4600 were each available in a SC and PC version, so that the cache equipment was distinguished; stood by SC for secondary cache ( L2 cache ) and PC for primary cache ( L1 cache ). The SC- type contained an L2 and L1 cache and was thus more powerful than the PC guy who had only an L1 cache. CPUs working with clock frequencies of 100 MHz to 200 MHz; so there was for example a R4600 board with 133 MHz. Computers with newer processors, such as the R5000, were much faster than devices with older processors at the same clock frequency.

It was inexpensive graphics modules that could only represent 8 -bit color, to high -end modules with 24 -bit color capability (true color ) and simple 3D hardware acceleration. The graphics modules could in turn be equipped with subsidiary modules for additional graphics capabilities, such as for video output or advanced 3D graphics acceleration (XZ Graphics with up to 4 geometry engines, but without texture memory ).

The Indy used 72 -pin single row RAM modules (SIMM ) with up to 32 MB capacity and could accommodate 2 to 4 banks per SIMM so that the Indy could be expanded to 256 MB of RAM.

The housing two 3.5 " drive bays for SCSI mass storage, which were connected via 50-pin ribbon cable were in the lower bay there was the hard drive,. At the top usually a so-called Floptical drive, hybrid drive, both standard 3, could describe and read 5 "floppy disks as well as special floptical disks with 21 MB capacity. Neither the Floptical technique was able to establish, the drive to normal disks still worked particularly reliable.

Connectivity

The Indy not stingy with connections, especially for Video-/Audioein- and spending, and also offered some options for connecting special hardware for 3D visualization purposes. Depending on the equipment can find the following at a Indy connections be (on the rear panel from left to right):

  • 3D Specs Connector for connecting an LCD shutter glasses to view stereoscopic images can monitor
  • Monitor Video Output ( 13w3 )
  • Audio input and output (mini- jack): headphone, microphone, line-in, line-out
  • Video Inputs: Composite and S-Video. With the video hardware, the Indy could record video signals and generate QuickTime and MPEG video files.
  • IndyCam. The Indy was standard with a simple video camera, very similar to today's webcams. Even the less powerful Indy could record the signal of this camera with the Capture program in real time and use it to create single images or video files. In conjunction with the network connectivity, the Indy could be so even then used for video conferencing.
  • IndyPresenter: Optional was a about 12 inches ( about 30 cm) Large transparent liquid crystal screen available in two variants, the distinction only in the resolution (1024x768 or 1280x1024 pixels). With the help of an overhead projector, the display for video projection or with the ( removable ) backlight could be used as a monitor. To connect the display, a special expansion card was necessary, which was plugged into the graphics card. The display could therefore only be operated in conjunction with the Indy. For the movie Twister a mock SGI laptop was built from a IndyPresenter.
  • Network and Telecommunications: AUI Ethernet, 10BASE -T Ethernet, ISDN (S / T Interface )
  • Mouse and keyboard port. Here was standard PC hardware may be used; however, required the most programs, especially 3D graphics applications, a 3- button mouse.
  • Two serial interfaces
  • Parallel Port
  • SCSI connector (50 -pin), which should be equipped with a terminator, if here is no device is connected.
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