The Indigo
The Indigo was first introduced in 1991. It has proven to be one of the most popular machines in
the Silicon Graphics family, if not the most popular. The Indigo was designed to fit under or on
top of the desk, or even on a bookshelf. The small compact size belied its powerful graphic
capability. In its day, the Indigo was one of the most powerful 3D machines available.
|
 |
The R3000 Indigo
When the Indigo was first introduced it came available with the R3000 processor.
The R3000 Indigo has a single layer processor board, by this I mean
that there are no riser or daughter boards. This early machine also used propretary memory as
well as propretary keyboard and mouse. As far as I know the latest version of Irix that this
machine will run is 5.3. As late as 1993 the R3000 machines were only available with Entry, XS,
and XS-24 graphic options. The XZ and Elan options did not become available in the R3000 machines
until later. They were available in the R4000 machine first, during the time that both machines
were in production and available from SGI.
The R4000 Indigo
The R4000 Indigo was introduced in early 1992. This machine was
the best in the field at the time of its release. It was much faster than the R3000 and will
run the more up to date release of Irix - 6.2. The R4400
was a later upgrade that improved the performance to the level of the the now older Indigo 2's.
This model is able to run the most modern versions of Irix. (I am currently running IRIX 6.5.11
on my Indigo R4400 150 MHz machine.)
Either of these boards are connected to the graphics board and power supply via the backplane board. The backplanes
for the R3000 and R4000/R4400 are different. If you upgrade a R3000 to a R4x00, the backplane has to be changed as well. The
backplane of the Indigo is where the EEPROM is located.
Thanks to Dave at the SGI Addict for taking the pictures of the Processor Boards.
Graphics
Entry
The lowest level of graphics available for the Indigo are
'Entry' level graphics. Entry level graphics were 8 bit and were considered the lowest
level of graphics power for an SGI Indigo. These cards can be recognized by the two video ports
on the back. One is the standard SGI 13W3 and the other is a PC standard HD15. This graphics
card has no geometry engines (GE). Entry Level cards will not work with some monitor due to
the fact that they are locked in at 1024x768 resolution.
There are two types of Entry level boards for the Indigo. The standard LG1 which is shown above
and the LG2. The LG2 board is the 'Song and Dance Machine'
board. As you can see there is the 'Song and Dance Machine' logo printed on the board. The LG1
has no printing on it.
Entry level machines are marked in different ways depending on if it is a R3000 or R4x00. The
R3000 machines are marked on the drive doors. The Entry level R3000 will be marked by its
door which in this case has no markings. While the R4x00 would be marked by a
badge.
The badge is clearly marked R4000 and the level of graphics, in this case Entry.
Server
The Server variation of the Indigo would also come with the Entry level board, if any at all.
Indigo's sold as servers would also have been identified using the same concept as the Entry
boards. The R3000 would have a door, while the R4x00 machines are
marked with the badge.
XS, XS-24, and XZ
Express graphics are a step up from Entry Level graphics. These cards was considered the medium
graphics configuration of the time. The standard
'XS'
card was equipped with 1 GE. The next upgrade in graphics came with an available option of a Z-buffer and 24-bit color, known as the
'XS-24'
graphics card.
When the market wanted more graphics power without the cost of the high-end Elan cards, Silicon Graphics developed the XZ
card. The
'XZ'
graphics card came with 2 GE's and a standard Z-buffer.
These cards, as well as the Elan card, have a resolution of 1280x1024 at 60 and 75 Hz. Many of
the older 19" monitors with 3 BNC connectors were locked in at 1280x1024 and would not work
with the Entry Level cards.
These machines were also marked according to which processor they were equipped with. The R3000
XS machines were marked on the door, the same as the other R3000
machines. The R4x00 machines were marked by the XS 4000 badge.
The R3000 XS-24 machines were marked on the door, the same as the
other R3000 machines. The R4x00 machines were marked by the XS-24 4000 badge.
The R3000 XZ machines were marked on the door, the same as the
other R3000 machines. The R4x00 machines were marked by the XZ 4000
badge.
Elan
The Elan graphics card was by far the best 3D desktop graphics generator of it's day. The
'Elan' card came equipped with 4 GE's and 24 bit color as
standard. This card, as well as the XS family of cards, has a resolution of 1280x1024 at 60
and 75 Hz.
As with all the other Indigo's, the Elan machines are marked with either a door, for the R3000, or a badge for the R4x00.
Thanks to Jody Wong at B & B Solutions for sending the pictures of the XS-24 Graphics Card, XS Door, and the XZ Badge.
and
Thanks to Eric Dynowski at Iris Indigo for sending the pictures of the LG1 Entry Graphics Card and the XZ Graphics Card.
and
Thanks to Richard Zawaski for sending the picture of the XS-24 Badge.
and
Thanks to Mika Kongas for sending the picture of the XS Board.
Option Drives
Floppy Drive:
The floppy drive for the Indigo makes it possible to move data via a standard 1.44 MB floppy
disk. This could come in handy if moving files from one box to another box without a network
connection,or for transporting files between two locations. It is possible to format disk for
either DOS or MAC machines, both being readable by the Indigo. A
front view
of the floppy shows that there is no eject button, this is done from the desktop icon. In a
back view
you can see the connector on the sled as well as all the cables. There is a better view of the
sled from the sides here is a view of the
right side.
Here is a view of the
left side
just to finish the all around picture.
DAT Drive:
The Indigo also had a DAT Tape drive available. I have had a difficult time finding information on these drives but here is
what I did find. Here is a front view
of the DAT on a sled. Here is a picture from the top
and one from the bottom.
For more info here is aPDF with all the information I found - 4320NT PDF.
Thanks to Dave at the SGI Addict for taking the pictures of the Floppy Drive.
Other Goodies
There are a few add on cards and devices tha will enhance your Indigo experiance. One of the more popular is the
Phobos G130 Network Card. Here is a picture of the
Phobos G130 card.
Here is a shot of the box
that the card would come in.
The G130 allows the Indigo to function with 100base-T ethernet. This greatly increases the speed of downloads or server capabilities.
If you need the drivers for a G130, you can get them here ftp://ftp.sonicwall.com/pub/software/NICs/.
The picture of the G130 Box were provided by Jody Wong at B & B Solutions.
The picture of the card was supplied by Stefan Eilemann.
Specialty Machines
Cyclone Indigo
The Cyclone Indigo
was produced by Silicon Graphics for the Colorbus Corp.
The Colorbus Cyclone was a RIP (raster image processor), that used an
SGI (Indigo, Indy, and later an O2) for the actual rasterization. They
had a RIP interface to a color copier/printer. The actual SGI hardware
they used was stock. The only thing they added was the RIP interface
board, GIO for Indigo/Indy, and then PCI for the O2.
(Click here
for a close-up of the logo.)
Here is a shot of the back
of the Colorbus Indigo. Notice the RIP port as well as two Gen-Lock ports(this is a rare but stock feature).
Here is a better shot of the top
of the RIP card. Here is a shot of the main board and the graphics card together.
For a full listing of Indigo part numbers look here:
SGI Parts List.
C O P Y R I G H T 2001 - 2006 the S G I Z O N E
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}
;){kind=link}