Silicon Graphics Indy 1993-1996
 General
Base Models Through the Years
Timeline
Part Numbers
Indy CPUs
Indy Video Options
Indy Presenter
SGI Internal Documentation of the Indy
Pictures  
Historical Articles and Reviews
 Documentation
Indy Presenter Owner's Manual
R4400 200Mhz CPU Upgrade Installation Guide
Indy Owner's Guide
 PROM
ip24prom.070-9101-007 R4400 PROM image 
ip24prom.070-9101-001 R5000 PROM image 
 History

The Silicon Graphics Indy is a small form factor, entry level
workstation. It was introduced in 1993 with its weakest CPU, a 100Mhz
R4000 and when it was replaced by the O2 in 1996 its best CPU option
was a 180Mhz R5000.

 The Indy's Performance in Context

                                          SPEC
MODEL                  CPU        CLOCK  int95 fp95
SGI INDY               R5000PC    150MHz 3.0   3.6
                       R5000SC    150MHz 3.7   4.2
                       R5000SC    180MHz 4.1   4.4
SGI Challenge          R10000     195MHz 8.75  12.4
IBM PowerPC Machine    PPC 604    100MHz 3.59  3.34
                       PPC 604    133MHz 4.51  3.70
PC / AT Compatible     Pentium    75MHz  2.39  2.06
                       Pentium    90MHz  2.88  2.48
                       Pentium    100MHz 3.16  2.75
                       Pentium    120MHz 3.53  2.92
                       Pentium    133MHz 3.90  3.28
                       Pentium    166MHz 4.52  3.68
                       Pentium    200MHz 5.00  3.92
                       PentiumPro 150MHz 6.25  5.02
                       PentiumPro 180MHz 7.28  5.59
                       PentiumPro 200MHz 8.20  6.21
Digital Alpha          DEC 21064A 266MHz 4.34  6.03
                       DEC 21164  300MHz 8.48  9.84
                       DEC 21164  400MHz 12.1  17.2
Hewlett Packard        PA 7100LC  100MHz 2.89  3.47
                       PA 7150    125MHz 4.04  4.55
                       PA 8000    160MHz 10.04 16.3
Sun SPARCstaion20      HyperSPARC 150MHz 4.02  4.71
Sun ULTRA1             UltraSPARC 143MHz 4.66  7.90
Sun ULTRA2             UltraSPARC 167MHz 5.56 
The Indy's Performance in Context
It took a max of 256MB of memory and included a GIO32bis bus that had
a usuable speed of approx 267MB/s. It also included VINO on board
which allowed NTSC video to be input. It includes 10Mb ethernet, and
10MB fast SCSI. There were three graphics options offered, 8-bit XL,
24-bit XL and 24-bit XZ. The XL had no 3D acceleration, while the XZ
was the same XZ available in Indigo and Indigo2 machines and offered
good non-textured 3D performance

A so-called Mac killer the Indy was intended to be an affordable
but powerful Unix workstation. Introduced at less than $5000 it
was comparable to machines from Apple and SGI worked with Adobe
to port several pieces of software: Photoshop, Illustrator, 
Framemaker, that would allow it to compete in the graphic design
market.

However, it was initially underpowered, the original base model
didn't even include a hard drive! Irix 5.0, which was released
in 1993 was extremely bloated see
Report on Software Usuability
In this same period, Silicon Graphics was experiencing massive
growth. They attempted several joint ventures of which the Indy
served as a central component. With Nintendo they produced 
the Nintendo 64, with the Indy serving as a development platform.
With Time Warner cable they attempted to build a set top 
interactive TV system

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