Silicon Graphics Iris 3130 Reliability

[Mark Callow]

The following views are my own.  I am not an official voice of SGI.


In article <9914 at sri-spam.istc.sri.com>, brunner at sri-spam.istc.sri.com (Thomas Eric Brunner) writes:
> When I worked at SGI the 3030 model (68020 w/ large disks) in my office
> failed _very_ frequently, like twice a day - here failure is defined as a
> _very_ reliable hardware _freak_ event, thought to be due to design errors
> in the power subsystem, no, bogus disk controllers, no,... there was no
> known answer before I left the company.

> Please note that this was the view of a neo-dozen production machines of the
> 3030 model, all with a similar date of production, summer 1986, and all kept

I have a production 3030 delivered to me in November '86 shortly after I
started working here.  I have had 2 hardware problems: a bad memory board
a week after delivery and a problem with the cartridge tape drive.  I have
had no hardware related crashes except those caused by parity errors in the
bad memory board prior to its replacement.
 
Here is the uptime(1) output for my Iris.
  2:51pm  up 11 days,  4:09,  7 users,  load average: 0.19, 0.24, 0.20

The last rebooted was for a new kernel.

> Due to the SGI-only XNS dependency, and the TCP-on-a card of the 1986 IRIS,
> it is a very hard machine to use in a distributed workstation environment,
> 
> I think that is what is important in my site's long term, and in just about
> any hetrogeneous, open site, so I don't think about the IRIS seriously.
> I'm making that point to the Navy - who wish to use it for a _very_ snazy
> mailer system - they saw the SGI demos, not the network nor the "useability".
> -- 

My 3030 (Ramoth) has 4.3bsd's tcp code in its kernel and all of the 4.3
network utilities available.  I have no knowledge of the above
mentioned tcp on a card.  Ramoth is connected to a large network of
Irises, Suns and Vaxes.  and is also running nfs.  I'm using it to read
news right now.  I see no problem with interoperability.  Our famous
network dogfight program has even been converted to use tcp.  Enough
said?

The bottom line is find out the facts before making decisions.  Do not
rely on rumors and out of date memories and hearsay.
--
>From the TARDIS of Mark Callow
msc at sgi.sgi.com,  sgi!msc at decwrl.dec.com ...{decwrl,sun}!sgi!msc
"There is much virtue in a window.  It is to a human being as a frame is to
a painting, as a proscenium to a play.  It strongly defines its contents.