Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!agate!eos!ames!dftsrv!drax!buck From: buck@drax.gsfc.nasa.gov (Loren (Buck) Buchanan) Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi Subject: Re: Imaginary PIs Message-ID: <3330@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> Date: 4 Sep 90 18:55:06 GMT References: <1411@contex.UUCP> Sender: news@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov Reply-To: buck@drax.gsfc.nasa.gov (Loren (Buck) Buchanan) Organization: Computer Sciences Corporation @ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Lines: 48 In article <1411@contex.UUCP> frank@contex.UUCP (Frank Perdicaro) writes: >A Modest Proposal In some respects similar to the "Personal Power IRIS" I have been asking about for more than a year. The answer I got at SIGGRAPH, is that it would be nice, but our engineering dollars are going else where. The most convincing argument they gave me (and the one that has finally convinced me to give up) is for a Personal Power IRIS to really work reasonably well is for it to get a private memory bus a la the Power Series. By the time you add up engineering and manufacturing costs it just doesn't make sense. Besides, I can hardly wait for what they are spending R&D dollars on (supposedly a machine that is getting into the price range I would consider for a home machine, about 7-8K for what I would guess would be a diskless 8 bit system). > > The 4D 25S is a fine machine; it could be made into a better machine. >Imagine this. As the place where the GR1 board goes is vacant in the server, >it should be possible to place a second IP10 in there. What you are proposing sounds reasonable to me, but there may be a problem of the two boards having a conflict on the bus (easy to fix, just cut the bus in two). > >Proposed Configuration 3. > Very minor sheet metal modification make it possible to run a full height >drive in the top slot of a 4D 25. Make these modifications and place a drive >there. Cut the existing SCSI cable in half, and have the top-slot drive >serve the secondary cpu. This still provides for SCSI expansion in one cpu, >but provides two independent cpu in one box. Or leave the metal alone, and just give the second CPU the largest half-height drive available for local swap space. This still gives room left over for a tape drive, CD ROM, floppy drive, etc. Of course all of the things you wanted in terms of faster CPUs, more memory, and related stuff to improve performance would of course be welcome for us ordinary users of PIs. B Cing U Buck Loren Buchanan | buck@drax.gsfc.nasa.gov | #include CSC, 1100 West St. | ...!ames!dftsrv!drax!buck | typedef int by Laurel, MD 20707 | (301) 497-2531 | void where_prohibited(by law){} CD International lists over 40,000 pop music CDs, collect the whole set.