I opened up the INDY and sadly the N64 Dev board wasn't there. I haven't been able to test it because I can't the video cable for it. Was any N64 development done on the INDIGO? I've only every seen the Indy being used.
WOW man!!! This is so cool. Unfortunatelly these kind of treasure doesn`t exist here in Brazil, and purchasing this from ebay and importing to Brazil is extremelly expensive, because of the customs here. I would love to get my hands on one of these SGI workstations and try to develop something for N64
The N64 dev board was specifically designed to plug into the GIO32 slots on the Indy, and wasn't compatible with anything else. That Indy has a decent configuration - it's got one of the CPUs that has the L2 Cache on it, true color graphics (XL24) and all the RAM slots are filled. Hopefully, the CPU is an R5000, in which case it's about the fastest configuration the Indy ever came in (the XL graphics didn't have hardware geometry acceleration, but with the R5K, the system was overall faster than the ones that did). The indigo seems to have the entry graphics (8 bit), but it's hard to tell which CPU it has from the rear panel because they look identical. There were two options - the original R3000 board was IP12 and the upgraded R4000 board was IP20 - the easiest way to tell them apart is to remove the CPU board from the card cage and see if the CPU is soldered directly to the main PCB (IP12) or is on a plug-in module (IP20). If it's got the IP12, then IMO it's basically a nice looking paperweight, especially with entry graphics. The basic problem is that the last supported version of IRIX on the R3K machines is 5.3, and that can't run the new API binaries that are supported on later versions of IRIX.
im incontact with someone who use to work with SGI Hardware and was involved with SILICON GRAPHICS, she can confirm most early n64 games where built using the INDIGO 2, mostly the first few games shown at the SHOSHINKAI SOFTWARE EXHIBITION '95 (Spaceworld 95). Later games ( 1996 and later) where created using UNIX Work stations iirc (may be incorrect on that last part, been a while since ive researched anything SGI related)
It says R5000 on the front but I guess the case could have been changed. It is in the picture but the picture is bad. haha I will check out the Indigio and report back. Thanks for the info! EDIT: I plan on selling it the future once I get everything checked out. I'll list it in the marketplace or maybe on ebay. I have the SGI monitor to go with it as well. Is it worth more with the monitor?
I think it probably is an R5K - but it's been so long since I used any SGI kit that it's hard to be sure. Some of the CPU modules had a little paper label on them that indicated the type (Something like "R5-180SC" - which is R5K, 180MHz, L2 cache fitted) . Getting the monitor working could be a bit of a pain - the simplest way is use a monitor that supports sync-on-green, since then any 13W3 cable will work (those connectors were used by SGI, Sun, IBM and probably others, but only the RGB signals were in the same place). The Indy is one of the machines that has H/V/Composite sync on the 13W3 (a lot of the older ones didn't), so if you can buy or build a cable that brings those out you can use in on a standard VGA monitor that doesn't support SoG. The Indy keyboard and mouse are standard PS/2, and the Ethernet has a built in PHY so you can just plug RJ45 cables in without having to use a transceiver plugged into the AUI port. For reference, the keyboard and mouse ports on the Indigo are NOT PS/2 compatible, although the plugs are the same. Also note that the Indigo ports have a -5V supply on them, and if you happen to have a PS2 mouse or keyboard that has pin 6 connected to anything it probably won't survive the experience of being plugged into an Indigo (guess how I know...).
If I rewire and flip power and ground on a PS/2 cable will it work? Or does it use a different protocol?
It's a different protocol, unfortunately. The SGI mouse uses the same protocol as the old PC Mouse Systems mouse and some early Sun mice (I.E. basically 4800 baud asynchronous serial using 5V signalling), but the old SGI keyboards are incompatible with anything else I've ever seen. One quick way to tell if you have the right kind is if it has sockets on both ends (like the old Apple ADB keyboards) since you normally daisy-chained the mouse from the keyboard and used a single cable going back to the computer. The old SGI POWER series keyboards and mice also work, but you need to make an adapter cable for them. And, to answer your very old question I've only just seen, yes, it's more valuable with the monitor - especially if it's one of the older SGI monitors that supports 13W3 inputs - there was an Indy monitor that was basically a rebadged VGA (Sony, I think) - it's a nice display, but not especially desirable because it only works with the newer machines with VGA ports.
I have a more "modern" SGI Indy keyboard and I use it regularly with my old PCs that use PS/2 connectors... it works flawlessly. I even use it with my PS2 TOOLs...
Yeah, it all depends which generation they are from. The really old machines used 'D' connectors on the systems and a custom signalling protocol. The original Indigo retained the custom signalling protocol but went to using PS2 style connectors (which was IMO a pretty dumb thing to do). Later machines like O2, Indy, Indigo2, Octane Etc. were also using PS2 connectors - but with PS2 signalling. The best thing to do is check the voltage on pin 6 of the keyboard socket - if it reads as -5V then it's definitely using the old SGI protocol - if it doesn't have -5V, then just try plugging the keyboard in - SGI put the +5V and ground in the same place as on a real PS2 socket, so if you have the wrong type of keyboard then it won't work, but it won't damage anything either. I just don't feel comfortable recommending people blindly plug things in because there is a chance that it will cause damage. And, in this specific case I can emphatically state that plugging a standard PS2 keyboard into a original Indigo won't work. The nasty edge case is when you have an old SGI machine that has the -5V on pin 6 and a keyboard that's wired for PS2 but has pin 6 connected for some reason, since with that you can end up blowing things up.
Very much indeed, I was only referring that some generations of keyboards are actually fine to use with PCs... I used to work for SGI and still remember people frying all kinds of devices by plugging them into Power Series, Indigos, etc.
The worst case of that I can remember was a guy I used to work with who managed to blow up all 4 of our Polhemus trackers by connecting them to the wrong port with the wrong cable one after the other. He then put the cable back in the junk box and went home - it caused a lot of confusion later because nobody could quite believe that all 4 of them had died at the same time.
Yeah - but luckily they were easily fixed once we figured out what had happened. The basic problem was a damaged line driver on the serial port and a blown out GND trace. After that, he learnt not to try and connect things using random cables that looked like they "might work".
I found this cable today. Uhh, so close! Edit: Found, like I found it laying around. Thought it was the correct one until i went to plug it in
Oh, you're just looking for a way to connect it to a monitor? There are plenty of 13W3 to VGA adapters on eBay, but it's hard to tell which ones will work correctly. Nekochan.net probably has more information about this. EDIT: Looks like Nekochan.net is dead, something about GDPR... well there's http://irix.cc/ now and they've got a forum. EDIT EDIT: I asked on their new discord about it and a nice fellow by the name of Raion-Fox linked me this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/6-ft-13W3-Male-to-SVGA-HD15-Male-Universal-Cable-w-12-Dip-Switches-W3-606/270832512031?_trkparms=aid=222007&algo=SIM.MBE&ao=2&asc=44040&meid=ead1267cd0494399967d4066deafec1a&pid=100005&rk=3&rkt=3&sd=280752640620&itm=270832512031&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851 He says it'll work.
I know exactly what cable I need. Thanks for the info tho! Also, the indigo is an IP20. I have VGA on that and booted it up. I am getting TOD clock error. Battery is dead. Should I replace it with the Tadiran 3.6 volt? Or would it be a better idea to socket it and buy a 3.6 volt coin cell. Soldering is a non-issue. EDIT: The goods.
Well, that's certainly a good thing - having the R4K CPU means it's at least somewhat usable. I would try and get the original battery since I seem to remember that the backup battery current on those things was pretty high and I don't think a coin cell would last that long. Did you manage to get a suitable keyboard yet?
I ordered the battery. I have not found a keyboard yet. Does this pinout look correct to you? http://old.pinouts.ru/Inputs/sgi_keyboard_pinout.shtml
Yeah, that looks right - the +8V was +5V on the later machines, and the -VE supply on pin 6 may or may not be connected depending on the CPU board. Note that the mouse data pin isn't connected to anything in the keyboard - it's just there so you can use a single cable for both the keyboard and mouse. The original SGI keyboards had mini-DIN sockets on both ends with all the pins commoned, so you could just connect the mouse to one side of the keyboard and the system cable to the other.
