[CB_HK]

I've been going through all my spare parts and re-organizing things, only to discover a board that I am completely unfamiliar with. If I recall correctly, the board came with a bunch of other items when I acquired my Crimson. Looking it over I can't quite tell what system it's designed for and searching the usual sites for part number correlation hasn't turned up anything matching.

My guess: this is a PowerSeries processor board.

You'll notice it has ports on the front, what appears to be RAM as well, two oscillators, an R3000 processor, etc.

If anyone can help me figure out this mystery I'd very much appreciate it!

[jan-jaap]

Looks like an IP9 board, the CPU board from a PowerSeries 4D/210. The IP9 combines one CPU and memory on a single PCB, it's a cost-reduced PowerSeries.

I should have one of these too somewhere, I think.

[CB_HK]

Awesome! Thanks for clearing that up, jan-jaap!

I had looked at a bunch of different 4D cpu boards but couldn't find a visual match. I appreciate knowing what it is!

[jan-jaap]

On second thought I changed my mind. It is not an IP9 board. This is an IP9:



Obviously the layout is very different.

Now, back to your board. A few things stand out:

• Memory is 9 chip, 30 pins. SGI only used that in the Professional IRIS and the early Personal IRIS (4D/2x). PowerSeries used proprietary RAM.
  
• There's an integrated SCSI controller. PowerSeries always used an IO2 or IO3.
  
• It's not an IP4 board (Professiona IRIS) though. Those ran at 8 or 12MHz, this runs at 25MHz. This is an IP4 board:
  

It's similar, though. I don't think is an IP4.5 (4D/80 "OmniIRIS") board either, those ran at 16MHz.

Finally, it could be a variant on the Personal IRIS. The HPC1 chip hints at that. However, no Personal IRIS ever ran at 25MHz either, and the VME versions of the Personal IRIS (V20 ... V35) were all 6U VME boards.

Intriguing. Want to sell it? I'll put it in a 9U VME enclosure, see what happens. If it is a Personal IRIS variant this could be tricky: those map the GIO32 bus to the VME P2 connector, so whatever else is in the chassis better not cause any shorts with that ...

[CB_HK]

PM sent!

[Happy]

It appears to be the complete IP6 hardware on a VME board. The 25MHz oscillator would be for a 12.5 MHz cycle speed. Also the part number suggests it is related to the desktop type models. Personal IRIS, Indigo, Indigo 2, etc. usually have part numbers 030-8xxx-xxx, while the server/workstation, Power Series, Crimson, Onyx, etc. have part numbers 030-0xxx-xxx.

[jan-jaap]

So I bought this board to see what it is. It took some time but it's finally here.

I noticed one thing I didn't realize before: there's a WD33C93 SCSI controller on the board between the RAM and the VME connector, but there's no SCSI header on the board. That means SCSI is connected through the backplane.

The only IRIS I'm aware of with a VME CPU board and SCSI through the backplane is the Professional IRIS. I'm not saying this is an IP4 evolution -- I don't think it is. But if the VME pinning of the SCSI bus is compatible with the IP4, I would be able to run it in the chassis of the Professional IRIS. It will take a good amount of investigation before I dare try this and risk the board (and the Professional IRIS).

I think I'll start by dumping the PROM chips to confirm that it's an IP6-like. I'd also like to find out which graphics it's supposed to work with.

[robespierre]

Only the R3010A FPU is marked as a 25 MHz part; the R3000A is marked for 16 MHz.
This sounds like 4D/80's IP4.5, except:

The memory complement. A.J. Corda's This Old SGI page says about the IP4.5:

Integrated CPU memory on board (8 - 16 Mb), Standard 30-pin 9-chip SIMMS. Memory was expandable beyond 16 Mb by use of a companion VME card in the next slot which connected to the IP4.5 via an external bus jumper plug.

the IP4.5 has a large bus-type connector on the front of the card which is not found on an IP4.

and the audio section:

The output from the audio section is provided by two 1/8" audio jacks on the IP4. The IP4.5, on the other hand, uses a 4-pin connector. Both are located on the upper back-edge of the board (as seen from the back of the cardcage.)

This mystery card has three audio jacks, and no bus-connector on the front. It also has a DB25 (?) port, possibly for a parallel printer interface: if my sources are correct, only the VME embedded processors (V30/V35) included these on the card. But this card has no metal I/O panel and uses traditional SGI-style ejector levers, unlike the embedded boards.

[jan-jaap]

I pulled the ROM chips and dumped them with my TL866 programmer.

The PROM confirms that the board is definitely (software) IP6:

Code:

Version 3.3 PROM IP6 OPT Sun Nov 12 20:46:48 PST 1989 SGI

That's a newer version than what I've see from an actual 4D/20 (hardware IP6), which was:

Code:

Version 4D1-3.1 Rev C, Tue Jan 10 15:11:42 PST 1989 SGI

and also newer than my 4D/25 (hardware IP10, software IP6):

Code:

Version 3.2 PROM IP6 OPT Fri Jul 14 14:11:09 PDT 1989 SGI

References to GR1.1/1.2 can be found in the PROM code, so it probably won't talk to the GT graphics of the 4D/70.

Hardware wise, there's an IOC1 and INT1 ASIC. These are found in Personal IRIS and Indigo, but not in the Professional / Power Series. There appear to be qty16 1MB SIMMs installed. They are standard partity SIMMs, as used by the 4D/2x series, the 4D/3x and Indigo used proprietary SIMMs. At the front there are indeed 3 audio jacks (like the 4D/2x), a DB15 (likely AUI ethernet considering the AMD "Lance" chip nearby, but need to double check: the Professional/Power series use the same DB15 for keyboard + mouse). The DB25 is likely a printer port, and then there are qty3 DB9 ports, likely two serial and one keyboard/mouse port.

I have seen some photos and a manual of the V30/35 (VME form factor of the Personal IRIS 4D/30, 4D/35). They are 6U VME cards, this is obviously a 9U VME card. I guess that might make this a V20?

Then there's THIS:

Multihead Personal Iris

The 4D1-3.3 release notes mention this system among the newly supported hardware:

      3.1.4.9  Multihead_Personal_Iris  For applications that
      demand multiple screens, the Multihead Personal Iris is now
      available.  This workstation incorporates up to four
      multiple Personal Iris graphics cards, each with their own
      monitor.  The system is based on the Irisette VME card set
      and is packaged in a Professional Iris chassis.

      In this release, only two screens are supported, the second
      of which is without window management.

That looks  a lot like what I'm seeing: a Personal IRIS CPU board in 9U VME form factor, with SCSI through the backplane (like IP4) and newer rev 3.3 firmware. Looks like I'm the owner of a multihead Personal IRIS with zero graphics heads.

[jpstewart]

That's some fascinating detective work, and really rare hardware by the looks of it.  Thanks for the write up!