Silicon Graphics: Resurrection

[Aaron]

I've always had a fascination with old workstations, particularly those that were bleeding edge in their day and cost as much a car! (And depreciated even faster than a car!)

In 1991, when I was 15 years old, I paid a visit to the University of Washington's annual Computer Fair in Seattle (now no longer held) where I was introduced to the Indigo, Silicon Graphics' latest desktop machine. It had stunning (for the day) 3D graphics. Naturally I wanted one, but the price tag of $18,000 US virtually ensured it would never happen. Until now.

Now, these things are quite literally junk, kicked to the back of store rooms and often chucked into dumpsters. Quite a long fall for such neat machines.

About five years ago, I picked up two from the basement of a local 3D artist for... FREE. The catch was that neither worked. So, they sat in my basement. And sat, and sat. This year, I made a New Year's resolution: Get at least one of them back in working order. The problems are many, but relatively minor: No disks, missing RAM, dead clock batteries, etc. If there are bigger problems, I've got two machines, so I can mix/match parts. Fingers crossed!

Both machines have the highest-end 3D graphics systems available at the time, featuring quad GPUs with genlock and output for proprietary 3D glasses. Not bad! Here's a photo of the graphics mainboard (memory daughterboards removed) which I just finished cleaning. It looks badass even now!



More as the project comes together. With luck, I hope to have one up and running by the end of April.