The Indigo 2

Version 1.1, by Steven Bell
Thanks to Ian Mapleson for most of the pictures used on this page.

This document is an attempt to broadly cover the various differences between the Indigo^2 model computers from SGI. As an owner of an Indigo^2, I had to navigate through alot of material when researching my initial purchase. Unfortunately, my research was not as complete as it should have been, because there were a number of false starts, impatience, and head beating against the wall. There are a number of ways to get confused about the various models and their capabilities, such as graphic options, CPU options, power supplies etc..

My first recommendation is to purchase an Indigo^2 complete (meaning that there are already motherboard, cpu, graphics card in the case when you purchase it.) This will cut down on a lot of confusion about which part can work with which other part. That was my problem. I put an Indigo^2 together from parts. The big mistake was not paying attention to the part numbers. Did you know that a R10k motherboard will accept a R4400 processor, and not fry on power up? Of course it won't do anything else though. Eventually, late in the game, I found a site with a table of part numbers, that was Jodeman's site, listed at the end of the page.

SGI Indigo2 Impact Promo Photo
Figuring out the various differences can get tedious, and complex, there are three sites that are must reads to understand the variations in the Indigo^2 line. The first, is Jodeman's site as stated above. Next, there is Silicon Bunny, who has a model summary page, which is clear, and concise. Lastly there is Never Beige, these three sites should have plenty of reference material to cover the advanced information. The links to these sites are listed at the bottom of the page.

Ok, lets run down the basic options available for Indigo^2. Starting with the most obvious differences...

1. Color.

There are two case colors. Each color signifies a specific type of Indigo^2.
Teal: This was the first run of Indigo^2s. They ran R4400 processors.
Purple/Indigo: This was the second slew of machines. They are known as Indigo^2 Impact systems. Because of their graphics. They ran a series of processors including: R4600, R8000 and, R10000.

2. Amount of Ram.

The R4400's (Teal) can hold 12 SIMMs, giving 3 banks of 4 slots. They can take 4mb, 8mb, 16mb or 32mb 72pin parity SIMMs, giving a total of 384mb. The R10k's (Indigo^2) can hold 12 SIMMs, with 3 banks of 4 slots. They can take all the above SIMM sizes (again, 72pin parity) but can also take 64mb SIMMs, giving a total of 768mb RAM.

3. Operating System!

There is a difference in the OS's. Irix 6.2 has several flavors. Some work on R10k's and others don't. I have a copy of 6.2 for Indy/Indigo/Indigo^2 and a copy of it for the Indigo^2 R10k. I will get the part number into this document for the next revision.

4. Processors.

They are:

Processor	CPU Speed	Secondary Cache	Type (Teal/Impact)

R4400SC	150	1 MB	T
R4400SC	200	1 MB	T
R4400SC	250	2 MB	T
R4600	133	Unknown	I
R10000	175	1 MB	I
R10000	195	1 MB	I

5. Graphic Options:

This is the tricky one :-) The Indigo^2 has a wealth of different graphics options, and two different expansion backplanes that support different options.

Teal Indigo^2's:

24bit XL - no hardware acceleration, basically a 2D card. To view : Click Here

24bit XZ - 2 geometry engines, hardware Z buffers. To view : Click Here

24bit XZ (GR-3) - 4 geometry engines, hardware Z buffers. To view : Click Here

24bit EX (Extreme Graphics) - 8 geometry engines, hardware Z buffers. To view : Click Here

Thanks to Chris Slider for the picture of the GR-3 XZ Graphics Card.

Later Teal Indigo^2s had an upgraded XZ card with 4 GEs, although I've never seen one.

Purple Indigo^2's:

The later, purple cased Indigo^2 has the following options:

Solid Impact - 1 GE(1), 1 RE(2), no hardware texture mapping.

High Impact - 1 GE, 1 RE, hardware texture mapping, 1MB or 4MB TRAM(3). To view : Click Here

High Impact (High-AA)(4) - 2 GEs, 1 RE, hardware texture mapping, 1MB or 4MB TRAM.

Max Impact - 2 GEs, 2 REs, hardware texture mapping, 1MB or 4MB TRAM. To view : Click Here

Legend:

(1) GE - Geometry Engine

(2) RE - Raster Engine

(3) TRAM - Texture RAM

(4) The High-AA board is a bit rare, and I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere in SGI literature, but it's basically a High Impact that carries out some operations at Max Impact speeds (most notably Anti-Aliasing, hence the AA)

Note that it's possible to mix and match graphics boards to create a dual-head workstation. A Max-Impact/Solid Impact R10k is a truly splendid workstation :-)
If you want to upgrade a teal Indigo 2 to IMPACT graphics, you not only need to get the required board sets, but you will also need to replace the expansion backplane, and probably the power supply as well.

Similarities:

Ports:

External fast SCSI (2nd channel)
2 Mac-compatible serial ports (RS422)
PS/2 keyboard and mouse
10-BaseT or AUI ethernet
Audio I/O (microphone, headphone, line-in, etc.)
Bi-directional parallel port
3 EISA slots, and 2 GIO-64 slots

To view the ports on the back of a Non-Impact Indigo^2 : Click Here

To view the ports on the back of an Impact Indigo^2 : Click Here

Drives:

The Indigo^2 has a decent amount of space inside for various drive configurations. There is space for 2 - 3.5″ drives, one non-externally accessable for the system disk and one externally accessable for either a second hard drive, Floptical drive, or a DAT drive, and a externally accessible 5.25″ slot for a CD drive. The internal devices are connected to one SCSI channel, and the external devices are connected to another, so you can spread devices across 2 seperate channels to improve I/O performance if needed.

The trials and tribulations of not being careful when putting a system together are detailed in my journal: http://hobox.dnsalias.com/EnB/SGI (now dead) Under the indigo^2 link. All in all, the system I current have is a R10000 195mhz, with Solid Impact graphics. I am using an interfaces by kramer keyboard/touchpad instead of a normal keyboard/mouse. As far as power, well it only has 64 megs of ram, but it boots faster than my 433 celeron w/392megs ram and Win2k. I am waiting on a copy of Irix 6.5, so there isn't a lot installed on the box as of yet. It runs very well, stays up. However, I have run into dumps, due to lack of memory. Which I intend on correctinig with newer os, and more ram. Sources for this document are:

Jodeman's Part Numbers Page
Silicon Bunny

Without these sites, and others like them, I would not have a running Indigo^2 at home. Other Good information sources:

http://www.futuretech.blinkenlights.nl/sgi.html

All pictures provided by Ian Mapleson, visit his site at:
SGI Advice and Technical Data

Goodies:

There are a few add on cards and devices tha will enhance your Indigo2 experiance. One of the more popular is the Phobos G160 Network Card. Here is a picture of the Phobos G160 card. Here is a shot of the box that the card would come in. The G160 allows the Indigo2 to function with 100base-T ethernet. This greatly increases the speed of downloads or server capabilities. If you need the drivers for a G160, you can get them here ftp://ftp.sonicwall.com/pub/software/NICs/.

All pictures of the G160 Card were provided by Jody Wong at B & B Solutions.

For a full listing of Indigo2 part numbers look here: SGI Parts List.

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