Memory and disk info for 70GT needed

[Mark Bradley]

In article <8908090248.aa22031 at SMOKE.BRL.MIL>, XBR2D96D at DDATHD21.BITNET (Knobi der Rechnerschrat) writes:
> Hi,
> 
>   can somebody give me the following information:
> 
> a) what are the specs for the memory modules inside the 4D/70GT?
> b) what ESDI drives
>    - are actually known to the fx program
>    - can actually be formatted by fx
>    - are known to be reliable (I know only SGI drives are told to be
>      reliable, but we can't afford their prices)
> 
> We are currently running 3.1D and will update to 3.2 as soon as it made
> its way to Germany.
> 
> Please answer directly to me, I will summarize the information I get.
> 
> 
> Regards
> Martin Knoblauch
> 
> TH-Darmstadt
> Physical Chemistry 1
> Petersenstrasse 20
> D-6100 Darmstadt, FRG
> 
> BITNET: <XBR2D96D at DDATHD21>

I decided to post this rather than answer directly, as this is a question
often asked regarding disk support by SGI.

1)Only disks sold by SGI are supported by SGI.

2)At the requests of several vars and more sophisticated end users, fx has
  entries for several drives not sold by SGI.  The rationale has been as 
  follows:
	a)Some users are not overly concerned with performance.
	b)Some users are not horribly concerned with reliability on
 	  any but their root or system disk.
	c)Certain fx entries are extensible to other similar geometry
	  disk drives by way of changes to parameter tables.
	d)Although a given drive may not be 'good enough' for SGI to
	  OEM, others feel differently.

There has been much discussion as to whether or not having entries for
drives other than those actually sold by SGI is a good thing, in so far
as it may unintentionally set someone's expectations as to what drives
can be used that will perform to SGI's standards.  Based on customer 
demand, the result is that we have what may be construed as extraneous
entries for drives we don't really support in fx (or otherwise).

CAUTION:  If your disk dies, so does your system.  Be very careful.  The
	  money you save on drive price may be lost in decreased prod-
	  uctivity or down time or lost data or time to integrate or all
	  of the above. 

					markb
--
Mark Bradley				"Faster, faster, until the thrill of
IO Subsystems				 speed overcomes the fear of death."
Silicon Graphics Computer Systems
Mountain View, CA			     ---Hunter S. Thompson