[kaigan]

As I posted in a hardware support thread a while ago, I managed to acquire a prototype Chimera rackmount chassis on eBay fairly cheaply. However, the poor system had been gutted to very few original components. More or less all that was left was the 2U Interface board, the chassis, and some additional brackets, fans, etc. This started a months-long project to try to rebuild the system. Things have turned out a bit differently than originally anticipated, but at this point, it's up and running.

First of all, there is nothing other than the chassis and similar hardware left of the prototype at this point. The 2U Interface board is still really, truly, most sincerely dead. I hope to fix this yet, but it's more complicated than I had hoped. I may not have the skills and knowledge to fix it, even with the wonderful community assistance I've received. So, for now, it sits carefully stored for future repair.

As a part of bringing this thing online, I've purchased multiple partial, non-working Altix 350 systems (for chassis parts, fans, etc.), two nearly-complete Onyx4 bricks, and a host of risers, cables, and other miscellaneous stuff. Two of the three Altix 350s are now a fully-working NUMALinked setup, so at least they didn't go to waste. The last Altix only had a few miscellaneous components and the case was heavily damaged, so it was never going to be a full system again, anyway.

After some research into the parts that I had remaining, I determined with some help from the SGUG Discord that what I was looking at was an Onyx350 prototype unit. Given that everything in it (such as it was) was production spec, it was quite possibly an early demo unit sent to a specific client for certification or evaluation.

While I could have brought the machine back to spec as an Onyx350, in discussions with @sgiseller regarding specific parts he had on hand, I purchased a pair of Onyx4 bricks from him to create a full, quite powerful, Onyx4 configuration. One of the bricks was an Onyx4 expansion module, which is the same as an O350 one, but with the white front plate. I migrated the parts from this system into the prototype chassis and added all of the additional pieces to turn it into a full base compute module. I figured that this would be keeping in spirit with its purpose while allowing me to take a closer look into the world of the less-common Onyx4. I could always turn the module back into an Onyx350 by running it as a single node with a V10/V12 in it, anyway.

So, that's the history. All of that aside, it's time for some pictures and the hinv! All of the pictures I've taken so far are available on Silicon Image. If anyone would like to see any specific component in more detail, just let me know! http://siliconimage.irixnet.org/index.ph...igan/Onyx4

Code:

>> hinv -v -m
IP35 Node Board, Module 001c01
    ASIC BEDROCK Rev 2, 200 MHz, (nasid 0)
    Processor A: 1.0 GHz R16000 Rev 3.0
          Secondary Cache 16MB 333MHz Tap 0x15 , (cpu 0)
      R16010FPC Rev 3.0
    Processor B: 1.0 GHz R16000 Rev 3.0
          Secondary Cache 16MB 333MHz Tap 0x15 , (cpu 1)
      R16010FPC Rev 3.0
    Processor C: 1.0 GHz R16000 Rev 3.0
          Secondary Cache 16MB 333MHz Tap 0x15 , (cpu 2)
      R16010FPC Rev 3.0
    Processor D: 1.0 GHz R16000 Rev 3.0
          Secondary Cache 16MB 333MHz Tap 0x15 , (cpu 3)
      R16010FPC Rev 3.0
    Memory on board, 8192 MBytes (Standard)
      Bank 0, 1024 MBytes (Premium)  <-- (Software Bank 0)
      Bank 1, 1024 MBytes (Premium)
      Bank 2, 1024 MBytes (Premium)
      Bank 3, 1024 MBytes (Premium)
      Bank 4, 1024 MBytes (Premium)
      Bank 5, 1024 MBytes (Premium)
      Bank 6, 1024 MBytes (Premium)
      Bank 7, 1024 MBytes (Premium)
IP35 Node Board, Module 001c02
    ASIC BEDROCK Rev 2, 200 MHz, (nasid 1)
    Processor C: 800 MHz R16000 Rev 3.0
          Secondary Cache 8MB 400MHz Tap 0xa , (cpu 6)
      R16010FPC Rev 3.0
    Processor D: 800 MHz R16000 Rev 3.0
          Secondary Cache 8MB 400MHz Tap 0xa , (cpu 7)
      R16010FPC Rev 3.0
    Processor A: 800 MHz R16000 Rev 3.0
          Secondary Cache 8MB 400MHz Tap 0xa , (cpu 4)
      R16010FPC Rev 3.0
    Processor B: 800 MHz R16000 Rev 3.0
          Secondary Cache 8MB 400MHz Tap 0xa , (cpu 5)
      R16010FPC Rev 3.0
    Memory on board, 4096 MBytes (Standard)
      Bank 0, 512 MBytes (Premium)  <-- (Software Bank 0)
      Bank 1, 512 MBytes (Premium)
      Bank 2, 512 MBytes (Premium)
      Bank 3, 512 MBytes (Premium)
      Bank 4, 512 MBytes (Premium)
      Bank 5, 512 MBytes (Premium)
      Bank 6, 512 MBytes (Premium)
      Bank 7, 512 MBytes (Premium)
IXBRICK Bridge, Module 001c01
    ASIC BRIDGE Rev 3, (widget 15)
    adapter IOC4 Rev 53
          (pci id 1)
    adapter IOC4-ATA Rev 53
          (pci id 1)
    adapter USB (OHCI interface)
          (pci id 2 function 0)
    adapter USB (OHCI interface)
          (pci id 2 function 1)
    adapter PCI (SCSI interface) Rev 6
          (pci id 3)
        peripheral DISK, BUS 0, ID 1, COMPAQ BF3008B26C
        peripheral DISK, BUS 0, ID 2, COMPAQ BF3008B26C
    adapter GigE Rev 15
          (pci id 4)
IXBRICK Bridge, Module 001c01
    ASIC BRIDGE Rev 3, (widget 15)
CGBRICK Bridge, Module 001c02
    ASIC BRIDGE Rev 3, (widget 15)
    adapter PCI VGA Graphics
          (pci id 1 function 0)
PCI Graphics Processor
    adapter ID (Vendor 1002 Device 4e47 class 3 subclass 3)
          (pci id 1 function 1)
CGBRICK Bridge, Module 001c02
    ASIC BRIDGE Rev 3, (widget 15)
    adapter PCI VGA Graphics
          (pci id 1 function 0)
PCI Graphics Processor
    adapter ID (Vendor 1002 Device 4e47 class 3 subclass 3)
          (pci id 1 function 1)
ASIC XBOW Rev 3, on CBrick, Module 001c01
ASIC XBOW Rev 3, on CBrick, Module 001c02