[35878] in Hotline Meeting
SGI's for private Athena cluster
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Greg Rutledge)
Tue Nov 19 16:48:16 1996
To: hotline@MIT.EDU
Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 16:47:50 EST
From: Greg Rutledge <rutledge@MIT.EDU>
I am preparing to upgrade several workstations in our department Athena
cluster, and wish to be sure that the configurations I get are fully Athena-
compatible. MCC has quoted me the following:
SGI Indy R5000PC 150Mhz
XGE 24, 32 MB, 1GB, 17" Monitor, Indycam
W24-150P-1G32
List $10,495 MIT $7,347
32 MB Upgrade
HU-M32A
List $1900 MIT $1,235
External 4x SCSI CD-ROM
P-CDR-4A
List $795 MIT $597
option:
XZ Graphics Upgrade
HU-INDYXZ
List $7995 MIT $5,597
I am inclined to get the first item (workstation with 32 MB) but not
the other three. Will I encounter trouble down the road without 64
MB memory, CD-ROM or XZ graphics upgrade, e.g. future operating system
upgrades or graphics compatibility with existing Athena applications?
Also, to your knowledge, are there any signs on the horizon of hardware
changes at SGI, e.g. introduction of a "R6000" CPU, which would alter the
recommended Athena configuration or otherwise limit the support lifetime
for an R5000 Indy purchased now?
Thanks in advance for your advice.
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Gregory C. Rutledge
Department of Chemical Engineering, Rm 66-542 Phone: (617) 253-0171
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Fax: (617) 258-8224
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA email: rutledge@mit.edu
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