Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!pacbell!pacbell.com!ucsd!swrinde!mips!decwrl!sgi!shinobu!odin!anchor!olson
From: olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: Imaginary PIs [ clarification; desired i/o features ]
Message-ID: <1990Sep10.023340.19858@odin.corp.sgi.com>
Date: 10 Sep 90 02:33:40 GMT
References: <1411@contex.UUCP> <3330@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Sender: news@odin.corp.sgi.com (Net News)
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.  Mountain View, CA
Lines: 42

In <3330@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> buck@drax.gsfc.nasa.gov (Loren (Buck) Buchanan) writes:

| In article <1411@contex.UUCP> frank@contex.UUCP (Frank Perdicaro) writes:
| >A Modest Proposal
| 
...

| >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.
| 

I apparently missed this when originally posted.  The top slot in
the current PI can be used for either 2 half/high devices, or
one full high, so no sheet metal (or other mods) are necessary.

Of course, this doesn't do anything for the proposed 2 cpu's in a 
single chassis!

On a related note, there has been some discussion of possibly providing
an optional second SCSI bus on some future ESD (low-end) machine,
similar to what was recently added on the IO3 board for the high end
machines.  Is this something that some of you might find
useful/desirable?  What other i/o features are folks looking for?
(Don't bother complaining about pricing, I'm only interested in
engineering related features!)

Please reply via E-mail to olson@sgi.com, unless you think it is of
general interest.

I'm only soliciting opinions, not making any promises.  I speak only
for myself, etc., etc.


--

	Dave Olson

Life would be so much easier if we could just look at the source code.