Challenge

[Brad van Mourik]

Greetings O Masters of SGI Hardware,

I recently purchased a machine that was represented to me as being a
Challenge L. Imagine my surprise when I took delivery and found out it
was actually a Challenge DM. About the only thing I know regarding the
DM series is that SGI only shipped them with R4k series processors. My
question is the following, Is it possible to stick an R8k or R10k
processor board in a DM? Let me know how big of a pig in a poke I am
now the proud possessor of.

[Simon Pigot]

Brad van Mourik wrote:

Looks to me like the DM was just a marketing option for what really is a
Challenge L underneath. It has 5 Ebus slots + VCAM plus 5 VME just like a
Challenge L - the marketing docco seems to promote it as a network
resource server with ebus slots: MC3, IP19, optional IO4, optional IO4,
IO4+VCAM. I'd reckon that you could pull the IP19 and put in at least one
IP21/IP25 without problems.

If you do this and then get complaints about invalid CPU configuration on
boot then I'd guess they will come from the system controller PROM on the
back of the backplane (this is what happens when you try to swap in a
multiprocessor IP19/IP21/IP25 on an Onyx RealityStation according to info
I have from Jorg Gerigk in Germany). In that case you will need to replace
the system controller or its PROM with one from an Onyx deskside or
Challenge L (these seem to work interchangeably for me).

I doubt there will be any problem though - in other words: whack in the
IP21(s) that you got on ebay and give it a whirl :-)

Cheers,
Simon

--
Simon Pigot si...@dpiwe.tas.gov.au
GIS Unit, Parks and Wildlife Service,
Level 6, 134 Macquarie St, Ph: +61 3 62 338357
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, 7001 Fax: +61 3 62 332744

[Ben Cannon]

Might nees a new sysctlr PROM. (multi vs single proc) but
since the DM supported 2 processors, you probally won't.

As far as I know, it was just a silkscreening-only option, and the
core hardware is the same... ?

Could be jumpers need to be set to enable addtl CPU boards on the
EBus slots, but I doubt it.

Buy me an IP25-195 and I will test it however! :)

Best!
Ben.

Brad van Mourik wrote:
>
> Greetings O Masters of SGI Hardware,
>
> I recently purchased a machine that was represented to me as being a
> Challenge L. Imagine my surprise when I took delivery and found out it
> was actually a Challenge DM. About the only thing I know regarding the
> DM series is that SGI only shipped them with R4k series processors. My
> question is the following, Is it possible to stick an R8k or R10k
> processor board in a DM? Let me know how big of a pig in a poke I am
> now the proud possessor of.

--
Every Man Dies, not every man really Lives
-Mel Gibson, "Braveheart"

Ben Cannon
Cartsys -- http://www.cartsys.com/ben/
--

[Ing. Michael Streit]

The Cahllenge DM is the same like the Challenge L with the limitation of
only ONE CPU Board. It can be R4K/R8K/R10K.

Mich'l

ex-sgi csd

Brad van Mourik wrote:
>
> Greetings O Masters of SGI Hardware,
>
> I recently purchased a machine that was represented to me as being a
> Challenge L. Imagine my surprise when I took delivery and found out it
> was actually a Challenge DM. About the only thing I know regarding the
> DM series is that SGI only shipped them with R4k series processors. My
> question is the following, Is it possible to stick an R8k or R10k
> processor board in a DM? Let me know how big of a pig in a poke I am
> now the proud possessor of.

--
__________________________________________________________________________
Ing. Michael Streit
WWW: http://www.rotheneder.at
E-Mail: mailto:m.st...@rotheneder.at
SMS: mailto:michl...@rotheneder.at