Is the backplane 32 bit VMEbus with an additional central connector? [Edit: 32 bit, not 64 bit]
SGI's $250,000 Graphics Supercomputer from 1993 – Onyx RealityEngine² [video]
51–60 of 146 posts
Re: SGI's $250,000 Graphics Supercomputer from 1993 – Onyx RealityEngine² [video]
#52Could be converted to a cool mini-fridge
SGI famously converted one of their Crimsons (which was a commercial failure) into a fridge and beer tap...
Re: SGI's $250,000 Graphics Supercomputer from 1993 – Onyx RealityEngine² [video]
#53It is about $425,000 in inflation adjusted dollars. If we adjust it to the real estate prices then even more.
This price is no wonder considering the amount of the silicon it contains.
What I do wonder is what would be the performance of the same amount of the silicon today.
Re: SGI's $250,000 Graphics Supercomputer from 1993 – Onyx RealityEngine² [video]
#54I have a slightly newer Infinite Reality R10000 sitting beside my desk here in Phnom Penh. A professor in Berkeley gave it to us and somehow we managed to get it to this side of the world. It uses enough power to run an apartment block and yes it is noisy. I will eventually gut it and install a six node linux cluster inside.
I used these boxes in Hong Kong in the early 90's, then later in Japan in the late 90's for a number of projects and I was still using an Indy as my main desktop until 2001.
SGI created hardware that almost took your breath away, you knew you were seeing a future that not many people had the privilege to see back then in person. To me, having the box sitting next to me every day, with "infinite reality" label on the top reminds me of those days when anything seemed possible and all of it was magical. I miss that sense of wonder and infinite possibilities...
Re: SGI's $250,000 Graphics Supercomputer from 1993 – Onyx RealityEngine² [video]
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember reading an old copy of a VRML book from the library, marveling at the syntax (computer couldn't run it). There's some modern VRML-esque things now, A-Frame and ReactVR come to mind.
I also have fond memories of marveling at VRML scenes on TV when my computer and dialup internet connection weren't really ready to experience it. Thanks for the link to A-Frame though! This looks great - I am loving the declarative nature of it, and the scene-inspector seems like a really useful tool.
Virtual Reality is so weird. It's a future that never really got here. Even now that the tech has caught up, it still just doesn't get a lot of enthusiasm from the market.
Re: SGI's $250,000 Graphics Supercomputer from 1993 – Onyx RealityEngine² [video]
#56It is about $425,000 in inflation adjusted dollars. If we adjust it to the real estate prices then even more. This price is no wonder considering the amount of the silicon it contains. What I do wonder is what would be the performance of the same amount of the silicon today.
>What I do wonder is what would be the performance of the same amount of the silicon today.
Well, aren't there several comparable models from IBM and co?
Re: SGI's $250,000 Graphics Supercomputer from 1993 – Onyx RealityEngine² [video]
#57Years ago, Weird Stuff Warehouse (R.I.P.) had a shell of the larger closet-sized Onyx system sitting in the back, and I always thought it would be fun to do something with it, but couldn't think of anything. With a shell of a Cray, you could at least make a couch out of it...
Unfortunately, the power consumption alone makes these computers not worth using for anything practical no matter how cheap they are.
Re: SGI's $250,000 Graphics Supercomputer from 1993 – Onyx RealityEngine² [video]
#58We started using SGI Personal IRIS systems which were I think were using 33MHz MIPS R3000 processors in the late 80s. I think they might been able to address a heady 32Meg of RAM. We were developing a graphical operation control system at the steelworks where I worked as an engineer. I remember them costing something like $25-30K each. So to enable enough developers we had to add serial terminals and X terminals. It was actually this aspect that got me involved in finding open source X windows solutions that allowed us too repurpose standard Intel PCs as terminals. Fun times. But the sgi's were ahead of everything else out there. While we didn't have a real work need for their 3D capability it did let you see what the future could hold.
Re: SGI's $250,000 Graphics Supercomputer from 1993 – Onyx RealityEngine² [video]
#59I used two of these in the 1990s: one for Nintendo video game development (thanks Nintendo!) and one for a Virtual Reality system for Disney (thanks Disney!). Awesome tools, but the functionality is now more or less commodity gaming PCs.
Re: SGI's $250,000 Graphics Supercomputer from 1993 – Onyx RealityEngine² [video]
#60I wonder how usable this would be with a modern browser.