[j5reward]

I used to work at MCE, and sold all sorts of SGI gear.  Ian was a member of the reseller community.  Good guy.  

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/artic...ters-alive

[Irinikus]

Very cool!

[Jacques]

Ian was a member of the reseller community.  Good guy.  

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/artic...ters-alive

As far as I'm aware / concerned he still > is < a member and good guy.

[Raion]

I was also in the article y'know.

[Trippynet]

And a very good article as well, was a good read, and great to hear from you, Dodoid and Ian. Must admit my hobbyist interests in SGIs is a bit more low-key, but I do like the co-processor idea muted in the article. My most recent SGI development has been to send one of my 2 flaky Indigo2 PSUs away to a firm (that supposedly specialises in PSU repairs) to get it fixed & re-capped. I'll report on how that goes...

[Raion]

Text in bold is not correct. Give me an example ...

You would need to take that up with the person who wrote that.

[mapesdhs]

Text in bold is not correct. Give me an example ...

You would need to take that up with the person who wrote that.

I can't mention the name of the company, all I can say is they use Fuel systems for UV scanning of PCBs as they come off the production line. They've bought several systems from me for this purpose, and from other sellers too. Perhaps niwe thought I meant the direct control of the robots that stamp the SMCs, etc.? I didn't include that degree of detail in my emails, it was already a fairly hefty tech splurge for the author to wade through.

Re the article, I was surprised to be mentioned so much, I thought the guy was going to focus more on Dodoid and other newer members (I would have). That aside, it was a well balanced piece. Personallly I would have included a bit more in the way of tips for how people can get into SGIs in the first place, potential sources, etc., but I guess one can only include so much.

Ian.

[jan-jaap]

they use Fuel systems for UV scanning of PCBs as they come off the production line. They've bought several systems from me for this purpos

What is written in the article sounded like EDA, and with EDA we mean the software to design of a PCB. Which IRIX software has ever existed for this?

No, this has to do with quality control in production.

You assemble to components on the PCB with a pick & place machine, then it's (wave) soldered. Before handing the finished product to the customer, the assembly company will check the finished product. The can be done with X-ray but also using a camera and OCR (make sure components are placed correctly). Some things cannot be automated and have to be done manually. It also depends on the value of the card and the size of the production run.

I've visited such production facilities several times and have seen this myself, though I never recognized an IRIX system in action.

[mapesdhs]

What is written in the article sounded like EDA, and with EDA we mean the software to design of a PCB. Which IRIX software has ever existed for this?

The article was not intended to be at that level of detail about a specific use of SGIs, I therefore didn't explain it to that degree to the author as it wasn't specifically what he was asking me about. I generalised. Read my sentence in the article, it doesn't refer to EDA or the manner in which SGIs are used for PCB manufacturing. I'm afraid you're inferring more than is warranted from the text.

I think it ok to mention that the Fuel systems used are fitted with a DM6 card, Firewire, 2-port GigE and have storage connected to a 2-port LSI U320 card. They always have V12 with DCD and are never less than 700MHz. Most of them are in Israel.

Ian.

[mapesdhs]

Ah, ok. Understood. 
Why do they use SGI for this?

I was told the systems process image data from an SD resolution camera, though how they came to choose SGI for this task in the first place I don't know. Ditto why an abbatoir chose an O2 for a similar purpose, scanning pig carcasses to more precisely control cutting machines based on fat/muscle position data (and thus more accurate payments to farmers). Maybe in each case they were able to adapt some piece of existing sw from another industry, or maybe the decided the integrated dev/hw environment of SGIs was more suitable and reliable for writing their own custom sw. In the case of textile factories producing very large patterned carpets, reliability was definitely a factor, as the datasets were quite large (2GB or more, vs. just a few K for the typical Stoll/SIRIX users I work with), thus Octane was the system of choice, with O2 for lesser work. I heard similar comments from Chevron in Nigeria, the ability of SGIs back then to reliably process large datasets, but also do it fast, mere seconds for a 750MB GIS volume set according to the Chevron guy (they had a POWER Onyx for larger datasets).

The strange thing is just how broad these uses have been and still are, yet in the past many of them were never part of SGI's PR materials. Sometimes something might get a mention in Performance magazine or something, but rarely anything in significant detail, not like the Application Product Briefs SGI use to print. Anyway, I mentioned these things to the article author because today it's these continuing industrial uses of SGIs that sustain the often high value for various parts which are all too frequently the same items sought by hobbyists. However, these things come and go, eventually the demand will fade, perhaps something else come to the fore.

Ian.